Making a Worm Composting Bin
A worm composting bin is a great way to take care of your kitchen waste and to give you an ongoing supply of rich in nutrients compost for your tomato plants and other vegatables.
They are really simple to make and the video below is a light hearted look at exactly what you need to do to make your own cheap composting bin. Incidentally you don’t have to go and get worms from a worm farm, you can actually dig them up in the garden and add them to the composter when you have it ready.
There are a number of benefits associated with having a ready supply of well processed compost available, especially the kind that is full of nutrients and in particular nitrogen. Tomatoes love nitrogen, although you can overdose them so be careful with supplementary feeding if you have used compost that is already rich in nitrogen. Creating a mix of good quality top soil, well rotted manure and a rich compost will give your tomato plants exactly what they need to flourish and produce loads of fruit. Keep an eye on the pH levels though, a perefect range is between 6.5 to 7.0 and you can check the pH level with a simple pH test kit. You can use this link for more information on preparing soil for tomatoes.
Hi Brian, I like your book. I have not purchased yet, but I did read the excerpt while on amazon.com.. Was that your father who was a master Gardener?
We have grown tomatoes since 1968, but my favorite part of growing them is eating them!
What are your favorite tomatoes to grow and eat? I personally like the Heirloom varieties. What is the hardest problem you have had growing tomatoes, and how did you overcome it.
I wrote a blog about my first experience, but I am always looking to find others that have the same passion as me. Some growers like roses, but give me a beautiful bouquet of heirloom tomatoes any day!
Chris Downs´s last [type] ..GROWING GREEN ONIONS?
Hi Chris, yes that was my father when he was in the Royal Corp of Signals stationed in the far east. Sounds like you don’t need my book if you have been growing them since 1968, but I am very flattered that you have looked at it.
I think the hardest part of growing tomatoes is keeping up the watering program, sometimes when you are busy doing other things you can forget to water them regularly and consistently. Problem with that is if they get dried out, then you are asking for trouble. You might get away with now and then but if you keep messing up the watering plan you can get all sorts of problems. My old man swore by regular watering, but not only that, he used to leave the water to stand so that it got to an ambient temperature and was not too cold, as it can be straight from a tap. Couldn’t argue with the results he got to be honest, he knew what he was doing. That side of things is a bit easier now we have moved to France and manage our own time, but a bit of an issue when you have a full time and demanding job.
Heirloom are certainly the tastiest and very nice but since moving to France we like to buy plants from the local farmers food markets and try something different each year. You pretty much know you are going to be OK because they are locally produced and they are usually pretty tasty as well, but it is a bit lazy because growing from seed is so easy. Nice to support the local farmers though.