It's raining and the worms are here!

On the sidewalk you wonder?  No, in my basement!  Our vermicomposting adventures have begun!  What better way to celebrate the rainy season in Calgary!  I was exploring the best way of getting worms when I was talking with a friend and it turned out that her mother-in-law has been vermicomposting for years and has some extra worms.  We were very excited. Once I knew we were getting the worms I began to prepare the vermicomposter.  I had already read the book "Worms eat my Garbage" by Mary Appelhof and it had tons of useful information.  We started by getting a large, generic rubber bin.  Then I tore up a whole bunch of flyers into think strips and cut up some cardboard, enough to fill up the whole bin.

Then I added some water, enough to moisten the paper and even added a shovel-full of dirt from the garden (to get the bacteria going).  Now I had soggy, dirty strips of paper.

Then we got the worms - they look cold!  My garden-assistant helped me extract them from the compost that I received them in and put them into their new home.

So far so good.  They are still alive and they seem to be eating the food I've been giving them.  Also we haven't had too much of a problem with flies or anything which seems to be the biggest complaint.  So far so good!  The kids love or new pets!

It's blooming day!

There is a garden blogger's bloom day tradition of posting your garden blooms on the 15th f the month, but I never seem to make it.  I either forget, have nothing blooming or just am too busy on the 15th to make a post.  So I thought that I'd just post my blooms whenever I am especially excited.  We've been very busy in the garden this week.  It has been beautiful weather!  And I am anticipating the rains to come any day now so I'm trying to get everything planed before-hand to take advantage of the free water.  So we've planted and seeded the vegetable garden and potted up a whole bunch of annuals.  I know the average last frost date isn't until the long weekend, but we've had such a slow start to spring and now it has warmed up considerably and I'm convinced that summer will be early this year.  Yeah!

the side garden - lots of perennials have popped up

tulips about to bloom with Autumn Joy sedum in the background

the raised beds - trying out some bean poles this year

lovely red tulips

bergenia about to flower

bluebells

yellow tulips - the ones you see everywhere in Calgary with some cosmos I planted with them

Yikes! Sorry it has been a while...

It can only mean one thing!  The weather has gotten alot better and we've been playing outside!  And it is so nice to be outside tidying up the garden and checking on all my little plants.  They are doing awesome!  And so many of the bulbs I planted in the fall are coming up, so the spring has been very successful!  We've been up to other adventures too, so hopefully there will be more posts coming soon.  Here are a few pictures of what the garden is looking like right now.

buds on the apple tree - we're about to have leaves!

tulips poking out

Auntumn Joy - sedum - looking good

the rhubarb is also looking good, time to plant my vegetable seeds soon

strawberries

buds on the raspberry bushes - so exciting

some trial planters that I let over-winter, the sedums and bergenia faired quite well