Gardening Season Approaches

I am excited.  Classes are nearly finished, and gardening season is fast approaching.  The only thing that would make it better would be having a job lined up for when I graduate.

Anyway, there are some events coming up for those into gardening, both of which I will  be writing about here as they happen.

• All About Seeds
  Friday February 25, 2011
  19:00 @ the Unitarian Church of Calgary
• Seedy Saturday
  Saturday March 19, 2011
  10:00-15:00 @ Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Centre
• Garden Show
  Saturday April 9, 2011 – Sunday April 10, 2011
  Spruce Meadows

So why am I excited about gardening season?  Well, for one thing, gardening is fun and interesting.  But I am also very excited  because, for the first time ever, I am planning  to try growing some grain crops.  Between the All About Seeds evening and Seedy Saturday, as well as the resources available on the intertubes, I feel confident that I will be able to learn enough of the basics to be able to grow and collect enough grain to plant next year, and hopefully also make a small amount of flour.  I’m planning at the very least to plant some wheat, but would also like to plant some quinoa and perhaps barley.  Couple all that with growing smaller items such as carrots, garlic, onions, and asparagus, as well as starting a rain barrel and continuing with worm composting, and it should be a fun and exciting season!  I do plan keep you all posted on here as things progress and as I learn more, so stay tuned.

The Worms Have Arrived!

Finally!  The worms have arrived!

I know there are a few out there who have seen my Vermicompost page.  Well, I’ve finally got the worms to get the system going.  I went today to pick up a half-pound of worms for $35 from Worms @ Work here in Calgary.  Right now I’m just letting them get acquainted in their new home.

I have to admit that there is a certain ick factor associated with the worms, but I know they’re not really that bad.  It will just take some time and handling to get used to them.

For this initial go-round I’ve used hand-shredded newspaper and some hand-shredded corrugated cardboard for bedding.  The instructions that came with the worms suggest feeding only two cups of food waste at a time, so I’ll start with that.  I have a bunch of food scraps frozen from before, so want to use that up before doing too much more.  Of course, we will now be freezing our scraps again.  Can’t starve the worms, and I really want to have some great top-dressing and fertilizer for planting in May-June.

Stay tuned as I provide more updates.  Pictures are forthcoming (unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of the worms after placing them in the bin, but I will make sure to take pictures in the future).