Observations July 22

Today was an especially hot day outside. So much so my phone absorbed the humidity and the sweat from my body and my phone got a lot of water damage. I got it fixed at this wonderful place down in Chinatown in Manhattan. Sure, I could have gotten a new phone for cheaper than what I got it fixed for here, but it's not good for the environment which is very important to me. A new phone to me means polluting another hundred gallons of water.

     With that said, how are the worms coping with this heat? Many have migrated down to a place where they're not really supposed to be- the compost harvesting chamber. The lower picture is a close-up of what you see above. Compost is supposed to drop down from above onto this. It did do that. However, it looks like the worms came down with it in an attempt to escape the scorching heat of the compost bin. It hit 111 degrees fahrenheit today. There are some spiders down there, so... hopefully they won't make too much of a dinner off these worms... Black Soldier Larvae appeared under the plastic I put down. They don't seem to mind the heat. I decided to place a plastic layer over the entire top part of the compost. It may keep the air out, but we'll see. Otherwise, I'm continuing to aerate it with my hands every time. It seems to help in the composting process. I added some compost leachate tea on some hydrangeas and flowers, and am continuing to add water to the top layer, this is waste water from washing my gloves and hands from touching the entire mess not new water. This should not only help keep the top part of my compost moist, but it also will draw air into new nooks and crevices of the compost pile similar to what happens in garden soil from watering your plants. Watering plants does not just add water to the soil for plants to drink, it also allows a new supply of air to come into the soil (Lowenfels and Lewis 30)


Works Cited
Lowenfels, Jeff. Lewis, Wayne. Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Garndener's Guide to the Soil Food Web. Portland: Timber Press, 2010.