Worms! Worms! Worms!

This morning I planted our garden - tomatoes, courgettes, and cucumber. We already have some bell peppers going strong - they are supposed to be annual plants but these are heading into their third summer and I just picked bell peppers off them a week ago, so I'm leaving them where they are to do what they do!

I am pretty excited about this year's garden, because this year I have compost! And not just any compost, but vermicompost!

Last summer at the fair Jeff bought me possibly one of my best presents ever - the best present ever was the Kindle, but this was a close second.

Although this may look like a nifty little outside sidetable, it is not. It is a worm bin! I throw in all of our food scraps - ends of carrots, tops of peppers - and the worms turn it into beautiful compost. There are approximately 1,000 red wigglers in that bin, and they are supposed to be able to eat though half a pound of kitchen waste a day... though I have to say I don't think mine eat that much. Anyway, they do produce compost and worm tea, and so I have high hopes for this year's garden! I will spare you a photo of the compost - you would have to really love worms to appreciate that.


Last year I picked 55lbs of tomatoes and canned most of them into pasta sauce, pizza sauce and salsa. And we are still eating it. We will start to run out at about the time the new tomatoes start to produce. I am amazed that we still have jars in the pantry. I had no idea when I canned it how long it would last, but I  haven't bought any pasta sauce in six months (and we eat pasta just about every week). And so although last year I was sometimes known to grumble when faced with another six hour stint in the kitchen to get a batch of canning done, this year I am excited for it all to start again. This year I will properly appreciate the value of what I am doing!

So here's to my lovely compost, may it make my tomatoes grow and grow!