Ahh I hear you on the not planting of too many seeds. I often get carried away so have been trying to pay attention to what’s rising to the surface and allow some ideas to drain away. Happy travels 🤗
Yes seedlings teach us so so much. I think now over 15 years into work and even longer experimenting with creativity I’m finally in a space of a deep knowing of which ones are the ones for now and which might be for later or perhaps never... I’m in a season of bringing lots of the threads together and wondering about cutting ties with some too! 🧵✨✨
It’s a shame you didn’t get funding. I’m interested in the worm hotel idea at home and wonder about setting one up at our allotment too. It’s walking distance from the house. We already compost most of our own food waste and all the garden stuff. We have a mostly permaculture approach in our orchard garden.
Ah Hi Linda! Thanks so much. Yeah so it was an expression of interest - we didn’t even get past the first phase but 734 people applied for just 5 grants!
But I have just been accepted for a crowd funded match grant so I’m going to push that one out.
In the article I link to “the soil web” I talk about the type of worm hotel we use. It’s called Subpod! We’ve tried 3 others and this one is our favourite! Worms double in volume every 90 days so you can easily share them with your allotment neighbours and it’s a faster way to compost than a slow heap...
My thought is that with the crowd funding I can recruit community champions to train on the process who then support others to learn so the technique cascades into communities and potentially even shares other resources.
Have you heard of the food waste app OLIO? I tried it but not many folks are on it so no one wanted to pick up eggs from our chickens. I’d prefer it to be walking distance anyway... ✨🛺💕🦌
The crowdfunding sounds interesting. Yes, I tried Olio but it doesn’t seem to have taken off here on the Isle of Wight. We have a local junk food project that collects produce from local suppliers and redistributes it on a pay as you can basis. Our local Timebank has a Friday ‘market’ where we can collect from the junk food project or bring our own excess products to swap. People sometimes have eggs or honey to share too. Mostly eggs get sold at people’s gates here though. They also do bags of food to help out local families in need. That all works well. I’m not sure what the junk food project does with the unused food. I’ll try to find out.
Oh that’s so so amazing!! Would you be interested in writing a guest blog for me Linda? We have a junk food project too and they leave a stall of food at the church! ⛪️
Amazing - no rush! I’m considering the title and theme but it’s about inspiration and possibility how real folks are finding ways into the circular economy! I’ll keep thinking and drop you another line in the autumn. ✨
Our garden intentions didn’t come to pass this year after a small harvest of beets. But we did have volunteer tomatoes again. There’s always next year. 🌱
I hope your worm project can come to life, but even if it’s not how you envisioned there are already ripples even here “across the pond.” 🪱
I have a worm hotel! It's 10 years old, and the descendants of the original worms are thriving. We are vegan, so all our food waste goes in there (except avocado pits and skins, and excessive citrus). Our garbage is no longer stinky. It consists, unfortunately, mostly of non-recyclable plastic packaging. We've been able to shift to a bin every other week. A huge percentage of domestic garbage is food waste. Worm hotels are the way to go!
Aren’t they John! Can you believe it’s SUCH a hard sell for me? The next round of funding will enable us to train champions and set them up with a system but so far it’s proving hard to find the hook for them unless they are feeling connected to the idea like you obviously are! ✨💖
We have a bee hotel, but I’ve never heard of a worm hotel! I live in Canada, but if I were closer I would definitely take care of a work hotel in my yard. We already try to care for them by not rototilling our garden and leaving roots over the winter for them to use. Now I must look into this hotel idea 👀
Ahh I hear you on the not planting of too many seeds. I often get carried away so have been trying to pay attention to what’s rising to the surface and allow some ideas to drain away. Happy travels 🤗
Yes seedlings teach us so so much. I think now over 15 years into work and even longer experimenting with creativity I’m finally in a space of a deep knowing of which ones are the ones for now and which might be for later or perhaps never... I’m in a season of bringing lots of the threads together and wondering about cutting ties with some too! 🧵✨✨
It’s a shame you didn’t get funding. I’m interested in the worm hotel idea at home and wonder about setting one up at our allotment too. It’s walking distance from the house. We already compost most of our own food waste and all the garden stuff. We have a mostly permaculture approach in our orchard garden.
Ah Hi Linda! Thanks so much. Yeah so it was an expression of interest - we didn’t even get past the first phase but 734 people applied for just 5 grants!
But I have just been accepted for a crowd funded match grant so I’m going to push that one out.
In the article I link to “the soil web” I talk about the type of worm hotel we use. It’s called Subpod! We’ve tried 3 others and this one is our favourite! Worms double in volume every 90 days so you can easily share them with your allotment neighbours and it’s a faster way to compost than a slow heap...
My thought is that with the crowd funding I can recruit community champions to train on the process who then support others to learn so the technique cascades into communities and potentially even shares other resources.
Have you heard of the food waste app OLIO? I tried it but not many folks are on it so no one wanted to pick up eggs from our chickens. I’d prefer it to be walking distance anyway... ✨🛺💕🦌
The crowdfunding sounds interesting. Yes, I tried Olio but it doesn’t seem to have taken off here on the Isle of Wight. We have a local junk food project that collects produce from local suppliers and redistributes it on a pay as you can basis. Our local Timebank has a Friday ‘market’ where we can collect from the junk food project or bring our own excess products to swap. People sometimes have eggs or honey to share too. Mostly eggs get sold at people’s gates here though. They also do bags of food to help out local families in need. That all works well. I’m not sure what the junk food project does with the unused food. I’ll try to find out.
Oh that’s so so amazing!! Would you be interested in writing a guest blog for me Linda? We have a junk food project too and they leave a stall of food at the church! ⛪️
It might take me a while to get it done. I am pretty busy just now but yes, that sounds possible.
Amazing - no rush! I’m considering the title and theme but it’s about inspiration and possibility how real folks are finding ways into the circular economy! I’ll keep thinking and drop you another line in the autumn. ✨
Perfect! I’m in full on harvest squirrel mode here just now 😂 🐿
Gah, hit send too soon! Thanks for the invitation 😊
Our garden intentions didn’t come to pass this year after a small harvest of beets. But we did have volunteer tomatoes again. There’s always next year. 🌱
I hope your worm project can come to life, but even if it’s not how you envisioned there are already ripples even here “across the pond.” 🪱
I have a worm hotel! It's 10 years old, and the descendants of the original worms are thriving. We are vegan, so all our food waste goes in there (except avocado pits and skins, and excessive citrus). Our garbage is no longer stinky. It consists, unfortunately, mostly of non-recyclable plastic packaging. We've been able to shift to a bin every other week. A huge percentage of domestic garbage is food waste. Worm hotels are the way to go!
Aren’t they John! Can you believe it’s SUCH a hard sell for me? The next round of funding will enable us to train champions and set them up with a system but so far it’s proving hard to find the hook for them unless they are feeling connected to the idea like you obviously are! ✨💖
I bought my bin at the farmer's market. That seems to be the right demographic.
Interesting! We don’t have those in the North East! Maybe we’re the wrong postcode... will keep searching!! ✨
Yes, mine's WA 98236 these days! (Used to be PO16 8JG)
We have a bee hotel, but I’ve never heard of a worm hotel! I live in Canada, but if I were closer I would definitely take care of a work hotel in my yard. We already try to care for them by not rototilling our garden and leaving roots over the winter for them to use. Now I must look into this hotel idea 👀
Aww the 🐝 bees!! Here’s some more info and our favourite Subpod worm hotel do ship in Canada!! https://open.substack.com/pub/creativelyconscious/p/the-soil-web?r=506nf&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
"Don't plant too many seeds" is probably a good axiom for me to keep in mind as I try growing my substack presence. Everything needs balance.
It really does - we have to check our worm hotel for moisture levels and they don’t like citrus or onion! ✨✨
They have an ecosystem, and so do we!
We do and mine runs seasonally. I’ll definitely not be “here” as much in the winter! ✨💖
Lovely ❤️
Thanks 🙏