The concept of gardening from the ground up is that I start by creating pure compost in a worm bin which I then use to make compost tea which is circulated through an bioponic system. The system should require no fertilizers or chemical additives to grow vegetables in a dirt-free, weed-free environment.
I have decided to document the process of building the system, cataloging what works and what corrections I have to make to keep the system working.
This week I received the works I ordered (500 red wigglers) and placed them in the worm bin I had prepared. I expected that they would settle in comfortably but after the first day I found that roughly ten of them had escaped to seek better accommodations (and died on the ground in the attempt). I realized that I had too much course material in the worm bin and added about a gallon of peat moss. Twenty four hours later I checked on the worm bin and found that none of the worms had left so we may have a good bin situation now. I will keep monitoring over the next week to be sure.