Feeding the worms

Now that I have the totes inside, it will be much easier to feed them on a systematic basis with my food scraps and compost materials.

For food scraps, they now consist only of egg shells, banana peels, and coffee grounds.

The banana peels, I put one in each tote as I have it.  I dig a hole to the very bottom of the tote, leaving only a thin layer of dirt underneath.  I've decided to vary my holes.  For each tote, I will alternate between digging the holes in right back, center back, left back; right middle, center middle, left middle; and right front, center front, and left front.  I've done center middle for the 5 totes in the bedroom, and left middle for the 2 totes in the closet.  I'll start with the back left to right next, and then the center, and then the front.  By burying the banana peels, I hope to aid decomposition and prevent smelling.  Also, I hope to get the worms moving around in the totes.

The egg shells -- I'm going to search for a small appliance that will crush them into a powder, as I've seen them used that way on YouTube.  I think a small coffee grinder will do the job.  And then I'll spread them evenly in the totes, just raking them into the soil.  I also need to get a small hand rake for the job.

The coffee grounds -- I have quite a few, and will just spread them evenly over the surface of each tote and rake them into the soil.  I think I will do one scoop at a time.

Now that I've got my instapot, I might start having more food scraps to use.  If so, I will bury them like the banana peels, rotating the totes as I use up the food scraps.  Lisa sent me an egg rack and a small pan to use in the instapot.  I'm going to get supplies today to make devilled eggs for a treat for Christmas Day.

I plan to buy two containers of worms with my check on the 3rd, to increase my worm population now that I have the totes inside.

I'm also looking for a grow lamp to start my seeds indoors instead of buying the plants.  I have one in my shopping cart at WalMart that sells for about $45, and it seems ample to grow my seedlings.  I am going to put more into the totes than I originally planned.  I want to plant some cool weather crops ahead of the summer crops.  The cool weather crops being some lettuces and peas, etc.  Of course also a lot of flowers to bring in the pollinators.  Otherwise, I plan to do a lot of hand pollinating for my cantaloupes and watermelons.  I'm debating whether to do some cukes.