Red on the Homestead: Worm Towers, Pitcher Pump, Tomatoes and More

in #homesteadphotography6 years ago (edited)

This week's theme for the Homestead Photography Contest is Red On The Homestead. I love these contests. We are so used to walking around the homestead and doing our daily chores, we often forget to look around and see what's happening in the garden or on the homestead at the moment. These contests gives me a chance to use my creativity and imagination. I find myself wondering what the new theme will be each week. Seeing what everyone comes up with is always interesting to see. Thank you for hosting the contest each week @knowledge-seeker!

I use the themes of these contests to explain why I have certain things on my homestead and even learn the names of newly identified plants that I may have never taken the time to look up

Red on the Homestead

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Heirloom Tomatoes

We are already harvesting tons of heirloom tomatoes, Paul Robeson, Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, Pineapple tomato. I don't always get tomatoes each year. Not sure of the reason, but in my garden sometimes certain varieties of tomato will die one by one when they start producing. This year is no different. I have already had four plants that mysteriously died on me. I learned from Grow a Little Fruit Tree that

white_space.jpgWarm castings are like an alternative medicine of the plant world. Worm castings are rich in growth hormones, nitrogen, minerals, micro-nutrients, and microbes. Most remarkable is the castings' proven ability to control soil borne fungus disease. Worm castings seem to accomplish this systemically.white_space.jpg

Since I still have not figured out the reason for the deaths of my tomato plants. My strategy this year is to put a layer of warm castings down as mulch on top of these beds. We will see if this helps for next years planting.

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We are harvesting tomatoes before they are completely ripened on the vines because we have had a really dry Spring and sudden & large amounts of rain tend to split them and cause them not to store well. They will continue to ripen inside the house.

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Pitcher Pump Connected to Seasonal Artesian Well

We have one seasonal artesian well and another solar well on our property. According to Wikipedia:

An artesian aquifer is a confined aquifer containing groundwater under positive pressure. This causes the water level in a well to rise to a point where hydro-static equilibrium has been reached. A well drilled into such an aquifer is called an artesian well.

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When we first started to garden, we only had two raised beds, so we purchased a hand pitcher pump and used the well water to water our small garden. However, over the years as our garden grows into a food forest, we upgraded to a solar well pump for the other well on the property. That well has a static level of around 12 feet and a pitcher pump did not preform well on it. These wells are our only water source for the food forest.

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Red Coffee Cans

People who visit my garden have asked me why I have so many red coffee cans in my raised beds. This week's theme gives me a chance to explain the reason.

Worm Towers

I have worm towers in almost all my raised beds. It was one of the ways we used to add fertility to our food forest in the beginning. Worms play a vital role in the garden. They work & fertilize the soil, break down organic matter and naturally till the dirt & aerate the beds. They are a gardener's best friend. So how can we attract them to the garden? Build some worm towers, that's how.

All you have to do is put some food scraps in the towers to encourage worms to visit your garden beds. They will eat and break down the food waste. Their excrement will fertilize your beds with what we call worm castings. Have you priced a bag of worm castings recently? Good quality ones are expensive. This is a cheap way to utilize your own food waste and fertilize your garden with amazing worm castings.

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You can always find my worm towers marked with red coffee cans in the garden. If you would like to build worm towers for your garden, you can find detailed instructions from Midwest Permaculture

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Calendula

I love calendula and have them all throughout the food forest. I use it as a trap crop for aphids. It exudes a sticky sap that whiteflies & aphids love. Calendula has thick, fibrous roots and will help build your soil if roots are left in the ground after the plant dies. Pollinators love calendula. It also attracts beneficial insects such as ladybugs, lacewings and hover flies. Calendula not only adds beautiful colors to the garden, it is also edible. You can make a fancy looking salad by adding some calendula petals. Calendula has healing powers as well. Calendula has powerful anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties. It is often used for skin ailments.

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Ninebark

We added a new plant on our property this year - Ninebark. It has attractive foliage, interesting bark and beautiful white flowers. It is supposed to provide food for the birds, but since this is a first year plant, it is not yet producing red berries. I love the small white cluster of flowers against the red, peeling bark.

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Mushroom

This mushroom showed up on the homestead after a heavy rain. We are not certain what type of mushroom it is. We think it is Amanita Caesarea (Caesar's Mushroom). It's so cute. Doesn't it look like a Mario Brother's mushroom? I feel like if I eat it, I would get bigger :-) .

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Garlic in Mesh Bags

All the garlic have been harvested and cured. They are sorted and put in poly mesh bags for storage. The house smelled like an Italian restaurant when we were sorting all the garlic. Feeling pretty accomplished seeing my organic garlic in the mesh bags. They look like little gifts from one of those fancy online gift package companies. And in a way they are, but it's a gift from the food forest to us. A simple showing of gratitude for having a little fun with dirt.

This is my entry to this week's Red on the Homestead contest. Thank you for stopping by.

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All photos come from my food forest

Photo copyright: @thelaundrylady

If you find my post helpful, please upvote, resteem and comment.

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As always great and informative post! Gosh lady you are incredible. To think that you moved from the city to your homestead, you really learned a lot in such a short time.

I'm looking at that worm tower now. We have a garden tower and it's a similar concept but didn't think to put it in the ground for the raised beds! Coooool.

And the calendula for sure is a great info. I have calendula seeds, I'll get them out and plant some for sure!

Your comments always make me feel so good. Thank you so much for that @lovenfreedom!

I was very fortunate to meet an old local organic farmer. He has been at it for decades, so he has lots of knowledge from experience. He was happy to see young people like me learning to grow food the organic way. He took me under his wings and have been teaching me non stop. I am here to document everything I have learned and hopefully people find the information useful. No one lives forever. I think it is my destiny to meet the old farmer and use what I know to share all that knowledge he has been passing on to me.

I am so glad you find the info I post helpful. It's the main reason I continue to post.

I'm benefiting from his knowledge and experience through you. We are just starting and we're not even full time homesteading yet. What more if we were on it 100%. It's good to see a lot of this information put together already for me and for sure for anyone starting out.

My comments are pure awe and thankfulness :) My husband and I are learning from your posts and if we ever go for a road trip maybe we can stop by and enjoy your food forest in person.

We are not full time homesteading yet, either. We have our own business, so that's still the main focus for our time. My husband and I often talk about what we can do if we put all our energy into homesteading and growing our own food. It's a dream and a goal for the future.

I will let my mentor know his knowledge from years of experience is helping so many people who are trying to have food freedom. He will love to hear that.

You are an awesome lady. It would be cool to meet you in person. So glad to connect with you on Steemit. Oh and thank you for the Global Homestead Collective nomination!

Wow, imagine being full time! Yes, please tell him we appreciate his wisdom and experience. It's a wonderful thing to pass it on to you.

And you're welcome :) They had the channel to promote someone's post and I thought what you have here should be shared with everyone there at Discord for future reference. It's worth a lot!


Congratulations! Your post has been recommended by @lovenfreedom to be the Global Homestead Collective's promoted post of the day. Come join us on discord!

https://steemit.com/ghsc/@ghscollective/today-s-promoted-post-thelaundrylady

Thank you so much! What an honor.

You are welcome! Thank you for creating great content!

Great post! I love the worm towers. What a great idea, I wish I had thought about that when I had my gardens, my soil was horrible, we were constantly trying to improve it....
Those heirloom tomatoes look so inviting...do you can them? Dehydrate and make sun dried tomatoes? I always found I had so many tomatoes I could always dehydrate some, they're amazing in so many dishes. Love your post :)

Worm towers are the easiest and cheapest way for us to improve our garden soil with what we have. They also seem to last, so it's a project for one afternoon, but a great way to invite worms to the garden forever.

My husband and I don't like canned tomatoes, so we always just eat them fresh or roast them in the oven. I have never tried dehydrating them. I should totally give that a try this year. Thank you for stopping by lovely lady :)

Very nice with the worm towers. I don't really use them but that is only because my worm bins produce several hundred pounds of castings a week and I am busy enough feeding them. Great use though I know they work very well for many people.

Wow, hundreds of pounds of castings a week! How big is your worm bin? I am so jealous! Would love to see the set up of your worm bin.

I run 3 wigwams right now in a shipping container and then I run around 30 20 gal containers with nightcrawlers, a couple 55 gal aquariums and my new favorite bin the urban worm bag. The wigwams measure 3 ft by 3 ft and are cft bins.

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I did a couple articles on it when I first started here a couple months ago but I need to do some update ones and maybe some video now that I am on Dlive.

That's an impressive set up! I will have to look back on your older posts. Is this all just for you or do you have an operation to sell worm castings?

We sell worm castings and a small amount of worms from time to time.

I found your post Making Money on the Homestead from three months ago. Very interesting post! I had no knowledge there are so many different kinds of worms. Do you only feed them your kitchen scraps or do you supplement with other food? Wish I had known you months before. I will spend some time reading your older posts. So much great information! Thank you.

I love this post...and I LOVE--------your worm towers!!!!! we spliced a few towers into our garden a ways back. they work soooooo well! i can't get enough of your posts!!!! please keep them coming! re steemed!

Thank you so much for the resteem! Your comments are always so encouraging. Really appreciate you!

WE...appreciate and are SOOOOOOOOO inspired by YOU!

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oh wow,, you got it all going on.. and those tomatos look like WOW! Thanks for sharing why they split too! I grew a whole field of them two years ago and couldnt work out why so many split... we are in a rainy area here.. so now i know!

Thank you! Heirloom tomatoes tend to split even worse with rain. That's why you almost never see these types of tomatoes in supermarkets. Once they have turned 50% red, you can harvest the tomato and let it ripen more in the house. It will still get as ripe and tasty as the ones ripen on the vine. Trick is to wait til 50% of the tomato has turned color.

Amazing. Your posts are always so vivid a nd beautiful. They always make me want to get in the garden too. Ive always meant to try the warm towers so im going to get onto that one. Thanks for the info!!!! love that beautiful red pump too!!!

Thank you! Worm towers really work. I am too lazy to make good compost, so I use all our kitchen scraps to feed my worm bin and worm towers. You won't be disappointed.

It might keep the mice out too. I have good compost out of garden waste straw and manure.

I had mice damage to my plants last year and the year prior, but not this year. I think I just found out the reason. I came across a black racer snake living in the garden the other day. It's a good snake, so I let it be. Scared the crap out of me though. I am sure that's why we haven't had mice issues this year.

Maybe you should keep a pet snake in the garden to keep the mice out :D

Aaaaah... no thanks. Actually the neighbours cat comes sometimes, or birds of prey.

There are several really good photos in your post! I like the idea of creating worm towers to help bring them in to help with the soil. Any natural ways to increase its fertility are good ones. Great Job!

Thank you. Our natural soil on the homestead was terrible. We couldn't afford to purchase a lot of worm castings when we first started our garden. Worm tower was the perfect way for us to invite the worms and get worm castings naturally and for free with our own kitchen scraps. It was quite fun for a city girl like me to see how the food scraps would go down and disappear in the towers within a few days. The worms were like my pets. I even talked to them when I fed them (ok, I still do that today). The towers have really changed our soil over the years.

Love your choices of red!

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