The Beginning

Hi   there.
I  have  been in  my  house  for  4  months  now.  It  is  the  first time  I  could  call something  my  own in over a  decade. ( but that  is  an entirely  different  story).
 I was an enthusiastic  gardener and  Koi breeder in South  Africa,  but  being  in Europe is a  different  experience, climate  wise  and  plant wise.
 Also  space...The  3  bedroom house that  I  have......4  if  you  include the  loft  conversion,  is  less in area  than my  main bedroom from my  last  pad  in  RSA.
It  has  a  small  footprint  and  small gardens  to  front and  rear.  The  rear  one  being  larger.  Both front  and  back  are covered in ornamental  stone......i.e.   no  grass,  but  some  established  plants  ca. 3 yrs  old,  in the  back, front  and around  the  side.  (the  heathers  on the  side are  particularly  attractive)
I will post  photographs  soon.
The onset  of  some  kind  of  spring  in February,  after a  particularly harsh winter,  made  me  want  to  get  some  colour  into  the  place. I bought 2  planters and  bulbs, used  some  other  containers I had and  set  them  on their  way.  I  had to  buy soil.... potting compost,  because  the  stuff  in the  garden was quite frankly  unusable...heavy  clay,  devoid  of  life, and  difficult  to  dig.

75L of compost  cost  5.00 euro,  cheap  I thought and  manageable  within my budget.

Then  I  got  the  bill for the bins..........110.00 euro  to  take  the  stuff away.(That  is  fixed  cost).  green bin free, brown bin free,  black  bin...12.00 euro  a  shot.

Bit of  a  shock,  after the  turbulence  of  moving  in,  because I had a skip and everything  got  dumped into  that and  taken away.

So  I  looked into  the  bins....I am very  good at recycling.
Green bin..paper  plastic  etc
Brown bin.... carrots,  cabbage, tomatoes, celery, oranges  etc.  etc
Black  bin.. honey  jars,  a  wine  bottle, metal toilet  roll holders, nuts  screws and  odd  bits  of  metal .
some  carpet....wrong  bin!!!
12  bucks  to  have that taken away.
That  would feed Charlie  for nearly 2  weeks!

....Charlie  is a  bearded  dragon whom I  inherited from my mad  Kiwi  friend who is  now  in Dubai, earning  mega  bucks as a  nurse,  and  quite  probably  finding  an outlet for them just as  quickly.
Way to  go  Kath
Love you to  bits!!   Hope the farm in NZ comes right.  If  I  don't see you, best of  luck  honey.

I'm rambling aren't I?

The  bulbs were a  bit  of  an experiment,  and they are  thriving so  far. If  that  works,  they  need  to  go  into  the  ground, maybe at the  end  of the  year,  to  come  up  next year. But...not  in my  soil!
That  obviously led to  the  organic stuff  in the  brown bin, a compost  heap  was  out  of  the  question. Could  I try  and  bury  it?  Will it  produce  soil? ................RESEARCH.....www.Internet.geek  (or  stupid  questions  to  google  in my  case)

You obviously  know where  I ended  up.............WORMS
It  kind  of  satisfied  the  whole  green ethos that I  have and  also  looked  like a  source  of  inexpensive  food  for  Charlie  and  my  desire  for  bait (for  fishing).

What  follows  will be  my  kind  of  scientific approach  to  the  project. As  best  as  I  can  do, with  what  I  have.

It  was  George  Pilkington's book that  finally  convinced  me. Without that,  I would  have  been quite  frankly  disillusioned from all the sniping  on the  net. ( from people  wanting  you  to  buy their  stuff,  most  certainly  not the  Forums.)

I could  have  easily  built  one,  but  a windfall allowed me  to  purchase  one (see later). This was also  a  desirable  option because if  it  didn't  work I  would  have  blamed  my  design or  something.

How  I  set  it  up  is in the  next  post.

THE  FIRST  DAYS


  An attempted  mass  exodus  on night  1,  was quelled, (mass exodus  is  an  understatement it  was a river of all the  worms,  they were  like sheep I assume,  one wanted  to  try and  get  out and the  rest  piggy-backed  in a  kind  of  rope,  moving  in the  darkness,  with  some  destination other  than my  carefully  constructed  environment.)

That  was  quickly  sorted  with a  flick  of  the  light  switch.

Only  on day three did  I  actually  put  wet  newspaper on the  top and  some  of  their  food.
12  hours  later....lots  of  worms and  lots  of  munching. Good  sign  I  think.
Only  one  attempted  escape.

And  only  one  who  did  not  escape  the  light....... He  stayed  on the  surface, pulsating, struggling.  Bulging  in the  upper  part of  his  body, obviously  in distress. He  had  the  constriction in the  middle  that  some  bloggers  have  referred  to  as  being  "cut  in 2". I  watched  him for  a  while...like  15  Min's. I did  not  know  what  to  do,  should  have  taken a  photograph, well maybe  not, I felt  sorry for him!  Taking a  photo  would  have  been more  scientific.
I covered him up  with the  newspaper, put  everyone  to  bed.

He was  dead  in the  morning.
My  first...visible loss.
He  will be  recycled.
He  was an unnamed  soldier  in the  circle  of  life.
And  his  death  was  not  trivial.






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