Well, people say that you can use UCG's straight to their final resting place, no composting necessary. I'm sure that if you had a pile of 70% UCG and paper filters, then you would soon have a pile of 69% UCG, and 1% decomposed UCG/filters. Over more time you'd have just decomposed UCGs. Is that compost...I'm sure you could argue it's a _type_ of compost, maybe not the most balanced, but still useful! If I had that much, I'd spread the UCGs over my lawn, then put the remainder (and filters) and put in in my pile. But as jeannie7 said: "each to his or her own" HOW you use it aside, unless you're talkin' truckloads of UCGs, I don't think you can go "too much." There's so much in one's landscape that you can use it for before you need to start worrying about chemistry.

I didn't have any worms at all until I added the compost and Mel's mix to my garden... it's the oddest thing as now I have attracted worms along with other critters... YUCK! I was thinking about doing vermicomposting and spent quite a bit of time reading up on the forums here... I would buy redworms... A matter of fact, I almost did! LOL Blessings, Angela

Thanks for all the advice. Just to clear myself up, I don't mean that I always put in too much food till I see maggots--I meant that the two times I have seen maggots, I removed them and the food immediately.I was trying to make a point that I never leave in too much food, and that maggots tell me it is too much. It happened when I put in a watermelon rind that was way too big. It is a relief to know that they do eat their bedding over and over. That explains a lot. I did add more bedding last month. I will add even more now, and get more worms too. My company is small, and no one looks at the worms unless I check on the worms myself(then they will come over to watch). I know this for a fact cuz the bin is located behind my desk and I sit there all day. So they do get privacy. I am looking forward to vamping up my bin's population now that I know what the problem is. Thanks again!

Equinox, just curious as to why you would towards not on the silica powder? As far as the comfrey patch location, well that looked just like everywhere else out here when they were planted. The whole area there got a few inches of manure and few more of fresh wood chips not too long ago. Comfrey loves nitrogen and will take straight fresh chicken manure which is a feat for most plants. It will grow in poor soils though too and that makes it attractive here. When we plant them I dig a hole 2 feet deep and put a cubic foot of steer in the hole to give it a good start sending down its deep roots. This plant will root from 8 to 12 feet deep I am told. Once established they accumulate minerals and nutrients from deep down and bring it up to the surface. A couple other amazing things about comfrey is that they fix nitrogen through mycorhizal relationships and among all the nutrients they produce is B12 which I understand is quite uncommon for terrestrial plants. A drawback is though this variety does not reproduce through seed it will from small root fragments and once established it seems is quite difficult to remove, like crabgrass tilling just spreads it and I would be hesitant to garden much around it as working the ground would likely encourage its spread. I do plan however to try a wide bed with a row of comfrey down the middle. This will be a strict no till, start from seed and remove at the surface to keep from disturbing that roots and try and keep it behaving. I love the idea of having it so handy for chop and drop mulching. Francoise, yes we are looking at many different trees and shrubs. Some beneficial others more ornamental, our plan there is try everything and keep what works :D We have dozens of different types of seeds that are going in the fridge soon for their stratification period so spring is going to be quite interesting this year. You are also absolutely correct on the many strategies note. Much like a compost pile, the more variety the better. I am of the mind of the forest garden and intend to really push companion planting and interplanting throughout the garden and property rather than traditional row crop gardening though that will surely see its place too. Yes Pete, a pony or mule might be nice. We do have quite a few horse folks around though so I am going to make a point of seeing what might be available there and cut out the whole nother mouth to feed at least until we have better ground to do something like that on. Have to say I think of all I have read on rearing worms I relate to your style closest. Benign neglect is my kind of style for sure. The way i see it te more of what I do that is simple and somewhat self sustaining the more I can do and keep going. Otis, see above for probably more than you want to know about comfrey. There are other things like its fantastic ability to produce green material that breaks down quite quickly. A bucket stuffed full and capped for a few weeks will end up a black sludge that can be diluted and used in the garden. Lawrence Hill developed these Bocking sterile varieties and yields of 100+ tons an acre have been written about. With favorable conditions the entire plant can be cut to the ground giving up 5 to 8lbs of leave only to be regrown in weeks allowing for 5 to 8 cuttings a year. Thats 25 to 64lbs of nutrient rich leaves per plant per year. If we use an average of 40lbs every 50 plants will produce a ton of material that can be used in the compost pile, fed to the animals (worms included), made into liquid fertilizer or directly placed in the garden as mulch or compost. The last growth should be allowed to overwinter as they are a great shelter for many beneficial insects and spiders. I have read as many as 250 spiders might winter over under a single plant. That last foliage also helps support and shelter the plants own roots. Understand all of the above is from what I have gleaned as this is our first year with these plants. I will say though that from what I have seen so far I have little doubt in the validity of the information out there regarding comfreys use in the garden. About water, we have a very good well. Our water is about 100' and when it was drilled was measured at 100+ GPM. Our pump is 25GPM used to fill a 10K gallon tank. It cost about $0.35 1K gallons to get it into the tank and about the same to put it under pressure 40 to 60PSI. The tank is close to 500' away and maybe 15 feet of head so i am thinking about putting in a second line as a gravity line for irrigation cutting the cost of already cheap water in half. The one issue we do have with our water is that is is hard. i need to get a test done (we did years ago but honestly I dont remember the results as we mainly were testing to make sure it was safe) to see if there is anything we can do for it. Soaker hoses clog in a few months and many types of drippers suffer the same fate. Other than that drawback though water should not be any issue especially if we can get the material into the soil to hold the water where it needs to be for plants to flourish.