Yes, it's snowing, but it's time to start gardening!

Like many of you, I've been blanketed in feet of snow and ice for the past several weeks and have been craving for some warm weather where I can work outside. And then this morning I was watching P. Allen Smith's Garden Home on PBS and P. Allen Smith gently kicked my butt into gear and reminded me that now is the PERFECT time to start preparing seedlings for spring planting! As an amateur gardener, I sometimes struggle with which seedlings to plant first and which ones can withstand a bit of cold weather. Smith provides a great guide for which seedlings to plant when:
What to Plant in Your Spring Garden.

Be sure to check your frost zones before deciding when to put seedlings into the ground.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

I'm a Christmas tree snob.

Believe me, I've tried to resist it. I'm generally an environmentally conscious person who recycles, uses fabric grocery bags, and energy-efficient light bulbs. I KNOW it's not good to cut down trees every year simply to adorn them with twinkly lights and pretty ornaments. But I cannot give up my Christmas tree. Oh, the glorious smell of pine that wafts through my living room! Oh, the wonderful needles that prick my fingers as I delicately place ornaments on its branches! Oh, the pine needles that fall off onto my floor and crunch under my feet!

There will never be a Christmas tree more loved than mine. Since I was a kid, I've always eagerly awaited the job of watering the tree. I have loved laying under its branches to look up at all the lights peek-a-booing between green boughs. I will unashamedly declare that I have hugged my Christmas tree.

I've tried buying a mini tree in a pot. I've even listened to friends discuss the pros of those nasty artificial plastic-y things that camouflage as Christmas trees...."I don't have to clean anything!" "The lights are already on it!" "It's so much cheaper than buying a new tree every year!" "It's less wasteful!" Oh, yes, the waste. This is the one argument that causes me to twinge with guilt. But hooray for the city of Lakewood! They have a fantastic initiative that somewhat relieves my guilt. After the holidays, Christmas trees are collected through the city's excellent curbside recycling program. Trees are then converted to wood chips which are available for residents to pick up free of charge throughout the year.

Find a recycling program in your area by visiting the National Christmas Tree Association's website and entering your zip code. Happy Holidays to all!

Kids + Dirt + Worms= Awesome

After six months of hard work on the part of my worms, it was finally time to "harvest" the compost. Instead of attempting to do it on my own, I decided to embark on this adventure with a class full of 4th graders. And wow, do city kids love to dig through worm poop! After a few initial disgusted looks and a few nervous squeals, I am proud to report that 90% of students willingly dug through piles of rotting vegetables, worms, and various other creatures with their bare hands AND LIKED IT! After an hour or so, we had a large plastic tub full of gorgeous compost for my garden.

Here's what you will need: a large tarp, a well-lit area (preferably outside), a container for compost, small shovels (we used plastic sandbox tools), and gardening gloves (optional) , newspaper, water, a bucket

If you're doing this with kids, it's helpful to assign jobs, especially if they have way cool names. Choose a couple of Vegetable Extractor Captains, a few Pile Engineers, some Worm Searchers, Compost Managers, a Quality Control Person, and a Photojournalist. If you are immediately starting a new cycle in your worm bin, you will also need some Newspaper Shredders and Hydrators.

1. Open up the tarp.
2. Dump out the contents of the worm bin.
3. Pick out any large vegetables that have not decomposed and put them back into the bin.
3. Using shovels or hands, make multiple small piles of the worm bin materials on the tarp. Our biggest mistake was making piles that were too large--aim for 2-3 handfuls of material in each pile.
4. Worms hate light. Wait a few minutes and the worms will migrate to the bottom of the pile.
5. Scoop the fresh compost off of the top of the pile and transfer it to your compost container.
(At this point, you might want your Quality Control Person to look through the compost to make sure there are no worms left in the compost container. They will survive for a while on the leftovers, but will eventually die if you do not keep adding new food.)
6. You will inevitably find balls of worms that were previously at the bottom of the piles. Transfer them back to the worm bin.
7. Once you have gone through all the piles, you are ready to restart the worm bin cycle. Have the Newspaper Shredders tear newspaper sheets into long, thin strips an inch or two wide.
8. Put the newspaper strips into a bucket.
9. Add half of a cup of water at a time and have the Hydrators mix the water with the newspaper strips until they are moist, but not dripping. If you have puddles in the bottom of the bucket, you are using too much water.
10. Layer the newspaper strips over the worms in the worm bin. Try to fill it almost to the top.

Where the Wild Things Are

There's no doubt that Mary Appelhof is the Worm Queen. When I first read her book, Worms Eat My Garbage, I learned more than I ever thought I needed to about worms. And so this summer, after reading her book, I started my first worm bin. Scary, right? It's certainly not "normal" to receive a 6"x8" a box full of live worms in the mail. I wasn't sure I was ready to vericompost when I noticed that some unfortunate worms had stuck themselves to the packaging tape on the box and I was tempted to just toss the whole box away rather than peel worms away. But a few weeks later, when I noticed my worms had consumed my dinner leftovers and magically transformed them into lovely, velvety, brown compost, I was well on my way to becoming the next Worm Princess.

Although my worm bin was purchased from the Worm Queen herself, it's easy enough to make your own.