The Homestead Hobbyist

Last night, after discovering stupid spider mites all up on my favourite crop, I washed my hands thoroughly and checked in on my pets. I've been feeding them clippings, plant thinnings, peels, lettuce-gone-bad-in-the-fridge, bits and pieces of things here and there. (Putting half a cup of glutinous rice flour you left out open and thought was too risky to eat because of all the bugs in your apartment? Well, it's really, really dry, and yup, it had bugs in it.)

The wormies seem to be doing ridiculously fine--there are babies, adults, and the food I started with less than two months ago is totally gone, as is a lot of the stuff I've added since then. I've had to shred several newspapers, as well, to keep the bedding full. I don't know how many worms I have; they are adept at hiding and have been living underneath the cardboard protective layer I put down. By the way, I don't know why the video I watched put cardboard on the bottom of the bin, because all it does is get extremely wet and start getting eaten by worms. But if they like it, I won't complain.

A surprise, however, was some nasturtium trying to grow from amid the shredded newspaper. Apparently, ripping them out of the planter and sticking them in compost is just what they like--if only the little guy had some light, he wouldn't be so pale! But since I want these plants to be compost and not use all the compost up, I broke 'em up into smaller pieces and buried them again. I also noticed some sunflower seeds that were in leftover salad gone bad had started germinating. Seems like a great environment for growth down there!