For starters, it got me to read some books like Teaming With Microbes that really made me re-evaluate my garden. Now I don't freak out when I see some leaves have been nibbled at; it's all part of the process and slugs need some food too...

Really what made me think of this is that I just got inside from being out in the garden with a flashlight staring for 10 minutes at a pair of mating worms. I probably wouldn't have even noticed them before I started my worm bin (and certainly not before I started gardening), but there I was, squatting in the garden with a flashlight, marvelling at these little copulating annelids at midnight on a Thursday.

And don't get me started on how it's changed the way I look at garbage.

Anyway, just a thought. Feel free to contribute your own stories of changed perspectives/attitudes; I'm sure there are plenty.

be sure to spread they word to friends and family ... and encourage your kids to play in the "dirt" :)

Bill

I always feel happy when I lift the lid of my bin and see worms there. I lost a large portion of my worm colony last year when I was sick and I wasn't sure the few that were left would be able to recover and repopulate, but apparently I was wrong about that. They seem to be repopulating just fine and dandy with just the barest minimum of encouragement. Cheryl

And once a week I sit in front of the tube and shred my newsprint and cardstock. I STEAL the puffy cardboard stuff at work!! Everyone is getting new computers & monitors and I know THAT STUFF breaks down fast and is YUM YUM for my worms.

Yes, STEAL. If folks are saving all that stuff they should not leave it in the open for me to happen upon and make off with!!!! hahhahaaa

Worm Nelly

As for "work" - I think there are small children around that no one ever really sees! Leaving stuff all over, taking the last paper towel, overflowing the trash cans!

My tomato plants are getting SOME worm tea. I have green onions growing too. I think I need to put up more stakes, the branches are starting to hang.

Worm Nelly

redhen
User

A Protected Species Earthworm
Posts: 652
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You can learn a lot from a worm - 2005/11/18 10:21 After 5 years of working with worms in bins, I realize what an incredible journey I have been, and am still on. What a great science lesson I've had. Looking in with kids and adults, at the bins we have made, discussing what is going on, how necessary all the creatures are, working on their own specialty. How they all have to be there, and that no one creature can do it all. There is a new understanding of diversity and community. Talking about how things work in nature, it becomes very clear that we humans are the fly in the ointment. We like our conveniences and we like our food and yards to look perfect and pretty, (to a fault). We spray herbicides and pesticides, helter skelter, so we have an easier time growing our vegetables, fruits and yards. In doing so we destroy the soil with chemicals and then eat, breathe and walk around in all those residues. We spend way too much time and energy trying to exclude ourselves from the not so pretty side of a natural process or cycle. We should, I think, be spending much more time trying to learn how we humans fit in.
I believe, also, that things happen for a reason. I have been asked many times how/why I got started doing this vermicomposting business. I am beginning to think that there is something greater that I am going to learn and be part of as I read articles on reasearch being done. My family , as I am sure many families are, dealing with cancers of many types. My family, in particular, has 3 members with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. Immune diseases give me great pause. I am of the opinion that we humans are obsessed with cleanliness. Antibacterial soap is one point. We do not like to think about bacteria being on or in our bodies. We are "above" that stuff. Fact is we are swimming in bacteria and it must be there for our health. They are altering our foods, to make them disease resistant, so production will be greater. If these foods we eat are modifyied to rid plants of disease, and make them look pretty, I am wondering what price we pay, when what we are eating no longer has the nutrients and living enzymes it was supposed to have. I just read the article in "Latest News" about enzymes and worms. Very interesting! (This is actually really "old news", if you look at the dates of some of the research.) I am starting to think, I was meant to start this little project at my daughter's elementary, working with worms, dirt and kids. I might have never met some of the folks doing such interesting work/research, read any of these articles or even been making this very long post, hoping to start another interesting conversation. Susan Quinby-Honer
redhen@nc.rr.com
Starve the Landfill...Feed the Earth."

The journey is still on, just as, if not more intense and fun.