Worms!

I have asked for red wrigglers for composting for two years now from Luis (we are not very good at giving each other presents) and now I finally have them! Not in the quantity that I wanted, but it's a start.

The whole thing has three buckets all together. Two 5-gallons (in the foreground, stacked on top of each other) and a shorter three-gallon (covered with a red veil/sash).

The 3-gallon is the top one composed of delicious worm casting, perfect for vegetables.

It sits on top of this next one which contains the bedding of shredded newspaper, leaves, and stems. Mixed in their is their first feeding of molded blackberries, wilted flowers, pear parings, and butternut squash. (It just occurred to me that my dog would probably eat all of that as well...disturbing.) Now I'm going to leave it alone for about a week before I open it up again and check on it. I can't wait! It's like controlling myself to not open Christmas presents.

And the last bucket to catch the yummy worm tea. Yes. That's what it's called. It's very good for plants. The worms naturally produce this.

Isn't it awesome? I'm super excited. I hope the worms don't die.

Some other ideas for the planters:
Potting mix: I told Luis that one of these days we will go to go to the little known Miramar Greenery to pick up some free compost and mix that in with free dirt that I can find on CL.

DIY tomato cage: find some free bamboo stakes on CL and wrap that together with garden twine/galvanized wire that I bought at Home Depot.

In other news, I'm trying to teach Butters to kiss on command, turn which he mostly got, and to go and stay on his sleeping mat. Here's the cutie being a sentry: