Spring Has Finally Sprung

Although most of the deciduous trees still look dormant all across the state, lawns are turning green, dandelions are popping up everywhere and the sun pops out long enough to warm things up a bit. It looks as though the worst of the weather might FINALLY be past us allowing Spring to show itself.

Because of that, I started making my worm composter. I needed worms for the composter and not wanting to deal with a company online, I contacted Nick's Garden Center in Aurora to see if they had any available. Thankfully they did, giving me an excuse to go there to spend the afternoon browsing everything they had available.

I've always enjoys the garden centers at Lowe's and Home Depot but Nick's is so much better. It looks small from the road, but that place just keeps going and going and going! It's HUGE! And chances are, they have what you're looking for.

Trees, shrubs, fruits and veggies...

All kinds of flowers...

Fountains and statuary...

I love this peacock!

 Need a pot in a particular color? Search for it here. Each section of shelves holds a different color in all kinds of designs. You can even mix and match with bases if you want.

This is one of the many greenhouses on site - and, according to a happy employee, filled with overstock of what was up front in the main parts of the store. (You can still shop from this area - it's a lot calmer in the greenhouses than in the main part of the store)

There are several ponds on site. You can even sign up for a pond building workshop or a pond-less waterfall building workshop.

Select the koi you want for your pond...

Get tadpoles and snails, too...

How about mulch? Choose from all kinds!

Of course, we managed to remember our worms...along with a few other goodies. It only took us 2 hours at Nick's to finally get to the cash register to buy them...

I didn't get to see everything Nick's had to offer.... Guess I have to go back next weekend :)

Note: Nick's Garden Center did not pay me to write this. I doubt they know this blog exists. I just really, really, really like it there...can you tell? And FYI, Nick's is a locally owned small business. Just one more reason to shop there.

Making Our Worm Farm

I have wanted to try vermicomposting for awhile. Vermicomposting uses worms to break down and compost your organic food scraps turning them into worm castings (worm poop) that can be harvested and mixed into your soil.

Since we rent our house and can’t have a regular compost pin (or two or three) outside, I thought a worm bin might be the way to go, but ready made materials for vermicomposting were EXPENSIVE!  I began looking into DIY ways to get my worm farm going.

While searching the Colorado State University Extension website one day, I came across an article on vermicomposting. It led me to another site with a DIY worm bin made from two 10-Gallon Rubbermaid storage containers. Knowing we were on a tight budget, and knowing the worms themselves were going to cost quite a bit ($28 = for a pound of WORMS??? Ribeyes would be cheaper!), I kept my eye out for some cheap bins at the thrift store. It took a few visits, but as luck would have it, on back to back weeks, I was able to get my 10-gallon Rubbermaid bins. One for 99 cents and one for $1.50 (no, they’re not very consistent with their pricing).

Following the instructions for the DIY worm bin, I drilled ventilation holes all along the top and drainage holes in the base of one bin. Then I drilled ventilation/overflow holes in the sides of the 2^nd bin which would be on the bottom, the leachate bin..

The first bin went into the second bin.  I shredded newspaper, soaked it and squeezed it out then added it to the bottom of the bin, then topped it with dirt and some weeds - not many, though because I didn't was them to start to heat up the bin while they decomposed (food scraps would be added later). Then in went more dirt, more damp newspaper shreds, and finally a piece of cardboard to cover the top. Of course, the lid went on top of all this. You can see there is still PLENTY of room left in the bin.

All that was needed now were the worms…

Worms could be ordered online from a lot of different places, but I wound up contacting my local garden store, Nick’s Garden Center, to see if they offered worms. At the time of this writing, Nick's sells boxes of approximately 300 worms for $14.99.  Since they weren't measured by pound as they are on other sites, I couldn't really compare the price. Some places say one pound of worms is 500 worms and others say it is 1000 worms. Maybe it all depends on the size of the worms, how much dirt is packed with them, the packaging, etc. 

I really like Nick’s Garden Center and they are locally owned so I decided I would buy my worms from them. Besides, it gave me an excuse to go there and see everything else they have available.

The Saturday after I put together my worm bin, I headed over to Nicks, taking the rest of the family with me. It wasn't the crazy madhouse Mother’s Day weekend we've encountered before, but as it turns out, it was their Spring open house. There was more than enough of a crowd to deal with.

We asked an associate to point us toward the worms. Once there, we ran into a "Master Composter" who answered some questions for me about composting with worms vs. a regular compost pile. Apparently, while worm compost is good, it is rather limited in the number of carbon and nitrogen types vs. what you might find in a well mixed compost pile.  He also explained that while newspaper makes a good bedding material for the worms. they  really like corrugated cardboard. You could also use torn up empty toilet paper tubes, but corrugated cardboard is better.

Worm Bin: $2.49 and about 30 minutes

Worms: 2 boxes @ $14.99/box (approximately 600 worms total) = $29.98 (FYI, The 2 boxes of worms came to about 1.6 lbs of worms, dirt and packaging)

Total Worm Composter Cost: $32.47

My kitchen scraps will no longer going to waste. My kids will enjoy harvesting the castings and my plants will thrive.

Field Trip Back in Time

Tia's 4th grade class took a walking field trip to the Plains Conservation Center to learn how people lived around 1887 when Colorado was still pretty empty and untamed.  I'd never heard of a walking field trip but I loved the Plains Conservation Center and decided to volunteer to be a chaperone.

As it turns out, instead of taking a bus, we would be walking 3 miles to the conservation center and 3 miles back. We were told to bring good shoes/boots, a backpack, lunch, a couple snacks, water, a hat and sunscreen, and to "dress for Colorado weather". That means "dress for anything". It actually snowed during the Monday group's field trip. Thank goodness the forecast the morning of our walk looked a lot better.

There were enough parent volunteers for this trip that I was to be in charge of only 5 children this time. There was still snow on the ground when we left the school but the temps were in the 40's and climbing. It would take about 45 minutes to get to our destination.

Since this area is so pedestrian friendly, there were wide sidewalks and paths for most of the walk.

There were 2 classes going and each class was split into 4 smaller groups. Even within the groups, students were assigned their "buddies".

Everything went smoothly until we got to the final 50 yards or so where it was slippery mud and snow, but even the drama during that last 50 yards was just the kids over-reacting to the snow, the mud, the uphill climb, you name it. And then to make things more interesting, they found a prairie dog skeleton in a ditch. If you ask any one of those kids what they remember about the field trip, they're likely to mention that skeleton.

Once we got to the Plains Conservation Center, we formed 4 groups and partnered with a Center Volunteer who would give us the tour and teach us about the Cheyenne on the plains and how the pioneers of 1887 were able to scratch out a living.

First, we learned about the weather and rainfall here on the plains. An average of 12 inches annually. Last year, it was approximately 9.95 inches.

We learned about all the different uses for a Yucca plant - one of the few native plants pioneers and Native Americans would find growing on the prairie.

We hopped on a wagon and took a ride past the Cheyenne Camp (seen above) to the sod village. There were all kinds of animals on the prairie! Rabbits and prairie dogs, even an owl!

Tia got to take a turn pumping water using a hand pump.

Then she tried hauling the buckets of water using a yoke.

She fed the cattle...

And toured a home built of sod...

There is more about the sod village from our trip to the Plains Conservation Center at Christmas time for Christmas In The Soddies.

Thank goodness Tia decided to wear her snow boots. After all the recent snows, the ground was really muddy!

Her class learned how to erect a tepee and tie it...

...then learned how to cover it and secure it...

The day ended all to quickly and we soon found it was time to leave. Remember the first picture above with the tepees? This one was taken as we were leaving. All the snow has disappeared...

Gathering to wait for the last group to catch up...

Then we headed back to the school...

That was a great field trip! I'm ready for the next one!

Isn't this a fantastic view?

Yes, it's pretty grainy because I zoomed in so much...but that's downtown Denver in the bottom right corner...

National (Junior) Honor Society

A few weeks ago, Tristan brought home an application from school along with a letter saying he qualified for the National Junior Honor Society. The what?  I was very familiar with the National Honor Society (NHS). I was a member in high school. But I hadn't realized they had a junior version.

After talking about the requirements for NJHS (volunteering, community service projects, etc), Tristan decided to go ahead and apply. Two weeks later, he received notice he was accepted. The induction ceremony was to be held on Aprill 22nd. Wouldn't you know it, the night of the ceremony we started getting another of our weekly Spring snow storms. It wasn't yet bad enough to keep everyone away, though.

A little history here...I had done so poorly in my 9th grade history class that it took me until my senior year to pull my GPA high enough to qualify for NHS. Because of that, the induction ceremony for NHS was a big deal to me. It was confirmation for all my hard work.  I'm not sure Tristan felt that level of importance about the ceremony. He thought NJHS might look good when he was applying for colleges in 4 or 5 years. (sniff...only 4 or 5 years???)

He also liked the idea of getting dressed up. He does look pretty spiffy, doesn't he?