Spring has not quite sprung!

Spring has not quite sprung here at Wicked Raven Farm.  We are still battling snow and ice, but now it’s mixed randomly with snow, ice and those dangerous patches that look like snow or ice but are really a soft mucky mud that will suck the shoes right off your feet underneath!

It’s not so much just the mud that is bothersome – it’s also the smell of the mud.  When Alaska wakes up from the slumber of winter, the smell can be downright gangrenous!  If your child falls into the “stink mud” as my children call it – and they always found some to fall into as well – just put those clothes out on your porch over the railing until they have had three or four good rains on them and maybe a freeze or two as well!  Don’t you dare put them in the washer machine – there is not enough solvent that you can put in that will get rid of that funk!  And it will also funkify your washing machine as well – even the sanitary load setting won’t help – that will just funkify your laundry room! 

But if you can get out to your garden around that soft mucky mud and you have some worm juice handy – now is a great time to pour on a good dose of pure worm juice!  As the snow and ice muck melt and meld into good spring soil, that water in it will mix with the worm juice and create a nice feeding station for your plants.  It’s a really easy, organic way to give your shrubs, fruit and berries a good head start as we go into the growing season!

I have had people tell me that it will burn my plants as there is too much going onto the plant in “raw” form, but I have been doing this for a few years now and I have not had any problems with it – success!

The above is not a fantastic photo - sorry - it is actually pouring down rain out there!  But at the center of the photo you can see a dark spot that is actually a cherry tree that I have dressed already with the worm juice and this one I actually added some worm dirt to as well.  A moose came by earlier this week and stepped into the cherry tree space and made a big deep hole there (my only consolation is that maybe it;s mother was mad at it about the stink mud on it's hooves) so I had to do some refill.  The only dirt I have that is thawed is worm dirt from the garage!  At least its a bit closer to spring and it's not snowing (yet anyway - well see how we look in the morning)!

If you don’t have worm juice and would like to know how to get some – read the blog post from January 11, 2013 at  http://wickedraven.blogspot.com/2013/01/finally-worm-one-or-growing-dirt-in_11.html  and check out a local source for worms in your area.  Or get some from a friend! 

With Easter just past it’s a great time to gather egg shells too for the garden or for the worms! 

Crush your eggshells up into a powder or into very small grind – pestle and mortar work great for this.  Spread the eggshells around the base of the plants and mix lightly into the dirt!  Great calcium addition – especially necessary for tomatoes and plants of that nature.  For your worms just throw them into the bin and they will take care of them - they dont eat them outright but they do make it so you don't have to do the pulverizing yourself - they are fine, thin and brittle by the time the worms are done with them!  Just leave them in the worm dirt and use like any compost.

I hope your spring is going well and that you too can make some sunshine out of dirt, worms, and a little rain!