See how the worms have been nibbling on the edge? click on the picture to see larger image.

I flew home today from Grand Junction, Colorado to a warm spring day……..but the calendar was way off….. January 20th is not a spring date! I thought I would dive into the garden and get my hands dirty but the day had other plans for me. Oh I did visit my garden as well as seeing how John’s was coming along. I am becoming a bit envious of the garden I have established in his back yard. The sun favors his beds significantly more so than the location I have been allowed to partition off from the main yard. Thank you dear! His young lettuces are well ahead of mine, the sugar snap peas are jumping out of the ground and the onion and garlic bulbs have found the beds to their liking. I planted some bunching onions from seed in his garden as well as mine…..one the same day. Well, in his plot the seeds are up and looking good and in my bed, well I am still waiting for their emergence.

So Bishop tells us about the worm discovery…..OK I will. I was tidying up the kitchen today and discovered some old and wilted lettuce that was begging to be fed to the worms. Let me set the stage for the discovery. A week ago my son Joe brought home from school an uneaten PB&J sandwhich….peanut butter & jelly just in case PB&J is a foreign term. My wife suggested that I share it with the worms. I thought about it for a couple of days – really I forgot about the suggestion until reminded by my wife. I wasn’t sure if it was proper fare for the worms but decided to see what would happen. Before I left on my recent  trip I noticed what seemed to be a cluster of worms congregating near the PB&J. When I looked today I noticed a similar cluster and what appears to be evidence of”worm bites” along the edge of the sandwich.  (see photo above)

So, how can I makes use of this discovery? Whenever I add a new bin filled with bedding and kitchen scraps trying to entice worms from the nearly finished bin up into the new one, it seems to take forever for them to migrate up into the new bin. I think I have discovered a way to accelerate the process. At the next bin swap I will make up a couple of PB&J’s and place them in the new bin. I could do some experimenting with either smooth or chunky peanut butter and try a different jam….this sandwich was smooth peanut butter and blackberry jam – seems to be working pretty well. Could be a long experiment… there are so many combinations to try….it could be years to discover the perfect combination………but maybe it is like horseshoes and hand grenades – getting close may be good enough!

Off tomorrow to see my son Ben swim against Texas A&M over in Baton Rouge. It should be a lot of fun and I always love to see him swim. It will be a quick trip and I promise to get my hands dirty upon my return Sunday.

TTFN

Bishop