This has very little to do with location ..unless anyone wants to drop into Victoria, Australia, for a cuppa! Back to the wooden Box ...We are having a hard rubbish collection in my suburb soon ... O how I love this recycling time. My next project is to make a worm bin out of wood. A few people on this forum have refered to Kelly,s basic wooden bin. Now as a guide line, can anyone point me in the right direction, '"Would't mind checking out Kelly's bin" Now onto my 4th bin .. my worms are moving in the right direction...... no one told me worms could be so addictive. Cath.

DesertWormMan, Sounds like you are doing everything right. However, If those two worms have been on top of your mix for 2 months, I say, No their not mating, and No their not alive. I doesn't take that long for worms to mate. Be patient, most likely you'll soon have plenty of worms all over the place! And with 5 bins going, you should be able to sell to your local pet store or bait shop. Just be shure to remove the larger sexually mature worms and put them back into your bin. They are your "bread and butter" you know?

Hi We have a big old apple tree in our garden that has always been healthy and given us big cooking apples but it has what looks like a serious problem. We noticed two years ago that some of the bark was coming away and underneath were tiny, rice-like grains (look like bugs of some sort). There are some wood-worm looking holes in some areas too. Last year a few tiny apples grew and fell quickly. This year the tree blossomed a bit but we have no apples and the few leaves that came out are shrivelling and turning yellow and brown. The bark on the lower half has been a rusty colour for a while too, not sure if that's anything to do with it. I have searched some apple tree problems but can't find anything that matches ours, hopefully someone will recognise it?

Utilizing the native herd is progress, my friend ;) My composter is copied from the book "let an earthworm be your garbage man" . essentially it is a four sided cinder block box which is one layer below grade and as many above as is needed. I chose to layer the bottom with oyster shells, then the process is dirt, composting material, dirt, etc. I top with hay and burlap, sometimes cardboard. It is satisfying to fill a setup like this and watch it subside into good earth. Watering speeds the process, of course, and coffee grounds are, according to the results of an experiment a relative of my friend did, the best top feed for size and reproductive capacity of earthworms. Like myself, worms know a good thing. I have no pictures, but the idea is very simple and easy to build. As in Field of Dreams, if you build it they will come. Simple wet cardboard is enough to draw them. Junkmail. They are practically catfish. I draw them to favored plants with mulch and stones. If i can get my truck right i know that a load of composted horse manure can easily spawn a megaherd. But for me the end is nothing more than soil-building. I saw an elegant wooden worm bin on youtube once. It was partially below grade aside an outbuilding. This assures a cooler temp in summer, warmer in winter.