Who’s protecting your plants? Show off your pollinators, pest controllers, and perpetual powerhouses — from insects and companion plants to anything beneficial — on this day of honoring all the rebel forces for good. 🌸🌼🌺🌻🐝🦋🐜🪱🌱

What’s buggin’ you right now? Drop a pic of a “pest” that’s disturbing your growing area — it can be an animal, insect, or anything else that tries to disrupt soil life, plant health, or your inner peace. Tell tell us what it is and why it’s a nuisance to you. Extra-special bonus bragging rights if you include a solution to successfully manage or eliminate it. 💥

I am now out of finished compost, which ends the seed sowing and potting up of plants for this season. Hopefully by September the next compost will be ready for use and I'll start again. This works out well because the chop and drop period is about to start and until then I have all the starts and cuttings to find homes for and get them settled in before the end of the month and the beginning of hot weather.

So, here in the Raleigh, NC area, we are in a drought. The night before last it rained. Today it rained again. But I'm conflicted. You see, Thursday morning, I put two seeding trays on the back deck to harden off. I had my pepper starts, a few basil starts, and my oregano start in those trays. Then I pulled my back right after I put them out there and spent most of the day flat on my back recovering. I think two of my peppers survived. The basil and oregano are gone. Not sure where, they're just gone. Guess I'm going to direct seed the rest!

I know i have been preaching this since day one but I finally ran across the research article that i read about this. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/environmental-science/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2019.00055/full Summary if you don't wanna read the whole thing. 1. Worms Don’t Add Life… They Reorganize It You’ll hear people say worms “add microbes to the soil.” That’s not really what’s happening. Worms take what’s already there and reorganize the entire system they change: - Air - Water - Food - Microbial activity So instead of “more microbes,” what you get is: a better-functioning microbial system 🚨 There is another research paper that proves that worms actually multiply microbes.....ill have to find that paper. 2. The Worm Gut Is Where the Magic Happens When organic matter goes through a worm, it’s not just eaten… it’s transformed. Inside the worm: - Material gets broken down - Mixed with microbes - Coated in mucus - Rebuilt into something new Think of the worm gut like a biological blender + reactor What comes out isn’t the same material… It’s a more active, more usable version of it 3. Worm Castings Are Microbial Hotspots A single casting isn’t just “worm poop.” it’s: - Organic matter - Wrapped in mucus - Packed with microbes Each casting is its own mini ecosystem So when you add castings to soil: You’re not adding nutrients...you’re adding living biology that gets to work immediately 4. Worms Don’t Feed Plants… Microbes Do This is the big shift most people miss. Worms don’t directly grow plants microbes do Here’s the flow: - Worms improve the environment - Microbes break things down - Plants access what microbes make available Worms are just setting the stage 5. Location Matters (Soil Isn’t One Thing) Not all soil is the same even in the same garden. There's the: - worm gut - castings - burrows - surrounding soil