We've got worms.... literally

A few weeks back a woman at church gave a presentation about vermiculture. While I was semi-interested in what this woman was sharing, Lucy quickly became OBSESSED and was asking about worms eating our banana peels frequently. She even asked the woman for some worms. She gave us some.

Originally we were going to use regular plastic totes for our worms, but we found a tower on amazon for a great deal and opted for that method instead, so now we have a worm tower in our kitchen near the dog dish.

Every morning and every evening Lucy literally has to check the worms, she goes over and tells them good morning and she tells them good night before bed. She loves to check and see if the food scraps she has left for them has been eaten and where the worms are located. {We have learned to try to remember where we put the food so that we can find the worms easily for the 2 year old's sake}

Lucy loves to watch the worms move around in and through the piles of food scraps, she is fascinated to see the tiny worms and the BIG HUGE WORMS as she says. She watches them and we discuss how the worms are eating our scraps and how they create compost that will help feed our garden and plants.

NEVER in my wildest imagination would Lucy love these worms as much as she does. She named all of the worms "dumbo" after her favorite ride at Disney world. Here is a glimpse into our evening worm routine.

Adventures in Composting

We have begun our adventures in composting. I am thrilled and couldn't be more excited, seriously. We have been talking about it and reading lots and lots of stuff about composting. We finally gave in and got a composting bin from our local arboretum for super cheap. I know you can make your own but I didn't have a garbage can sitting around and the price on this was about the same as buying a can that I would have to drill holes into. We had some leaves left over from last year that fell after we did our big raking job and so we put about four inches of dried leaves in the bottom of the can. We then added some stale bread and my banana peel from dinner. Our composting journey has begun. I am pretty excited to see how it works and am excited about the potential of having nutrient rich soil in a few months. This is something I have been interested in for several years and just haven't had the guts to start.

My theory now is that I may as well try and fail rather than fail by surely not trying, at least I have a chance at succeeding by trying. We also have bought some seeds and are going to attempt a small garden this year, nothing fancy and we know that we have to at least attempt to try it. So here is to taking my hand at gardening with two very nongreen thumbs! 

Luther and Dakota playing in the yard while we set up the compost and the
start of a garden