Tiny plants have been sprouting in all our pot plants. This is not unusual when you use worm farm castings to enrich the soil in pot plants (castings is basically worm waste i.e. poo and it looks like a soil/mud composition).
Usually I pull out these little plants from the pots, just as if they were weeds. A couple of months ago I challenged my thought process on considering these little plants as weeds. Basically a weed is any plant you do not want to grow in your garden. What if I wanted these plants to grow?
I wasn’t actually sure what the plants were but knew that they had to come from the worm’s castings and hence the plants were once food we consumed in the past i.e. fruit or veggies.
So I decided to let my plants grow and hence they no longer were labeled weeds.
It has been really enjoyable watching the plants grow to discover what they were.
I have really no idea on growing veggies (although I am planning on taking a Sydney City course to learn) so I am hoping my readers might be able to answer some of my questions about the photographed plants below:
1) How large do capsicum plants grow (I am starting to get concerned)?
2) I am so proud of my little cherry tomatoes and it appears little green worms share my excitement. How can I save my tomatoes from being eaten without spraying pesticides on them?
3) Can I really grow pumpkins like this?
Greener Me 
Thanks Alice,
Our bush is now three times the size and the capsicums are now looking more like bell chillies as they have all gone red but not grown in size.
I will look further at the link you added as this might give me some answers.
I am liking the plant as it now looks like a large Christmas tree with red lights!
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i am growing an indoor capsicum for the first time in NZ. mine started small but has got as big as yours, so i guess that’s normal! it’s stopped growing now that it’s stopped producing fruit. and doesn’t appear to have any new leaves.
i’ve just found this link about over-wintering the plant. will be usefull to keep in mind as the seasons change!
http://www.thechileman.org/guide_overwinter.php
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Thanks Jstackhouse.
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Hey very nice blog!!….I’m an instant fan, I have bookmarked you and I’ll be checking back on a regular….See ya 🙂
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Hey Nevyn, sorry for the late response (one long long week). Thanks for this – I might like to get myself a copy of the book.
Thank you 🙂
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Your blog is so informative … ..I just bookmarked you….keep up the good work!!!!
Hey, I found your blog in a new directory of blogs. I dont know how your blog came up, must have been a typo, anyway cool blog, I bookmarked you. 🙂
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The recipes came from a book called “The Organic Garden” by Jeffrey Hodges. It’s a handy book to have.
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Thanks to Nevyn, she emailed me a receipe on making your own, natural pest spray. Here is Nevyn’s email:
“I’m going to give you 2 recipes though I’m pretty sure you’ll only be using the first one. The other depends on how much you value your blender, you’ll see what I mean when you read the recipe
All Purpose Onion, Garlic and Chilli Spray
all purpose pest spray which also a mild fungicide, antiseptic and antibiotic – has a strong odour
effective on all kinds of soft bodied sucking pests such as aphids, mites, thrips and scale, as well as slugs, snails and caterpillars.
Combine 2 finely chopped onions and 6 cloves of freshly crushed garlic with 1 tablespoon of hot chilli powder ( or 6 finely chopped red chillies), cover with 2 cm of water, stir well and allow to steep for 24hours. Dissolve 1 cup of pure soap flakes in 5 litres of warm water, then add the strained onion, garlic and chilli mixture and stir well. Use within 24 hours.
Bug Juice Spray
Bug Juice spray uses naturally occurring bacteria, viruses and other micro-organisms that attack specific pests. Sounds gross but is supposed to be very effective.
Collect a cupful of the target insects – caterpillars, grasshoppers etc – and mix them in a blender with 500 mls of water. Strain then add water to make up 5 litres. Use immediately – DO NOT STORE! If desired, add 1 cup if pure soap flakes as a ‘wetting’ agent.
Neem oil is also said to deter pests and is also good for your plants, it’s commercially available, I got mine from Bunnings.
I hope this helps you with your hungry green worms.”
Nevyn you are a living legend – thank you so much!
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Well done! Fancy growing veges without even trying to, clever girl.
As for your hungry green worms there are organic sprays you can use that should do the trick. You might even have the ingredients already. All you need is some garlic, chili and onions steeped in some water for 24hrs then strained, mixed with a bit of soap and poured into a spray bottle. I’ll have to dig up my books to get the quantities.
You could go to the Aussies Living Simply website and have a look there, they’ll definitely have what you need and it’ll probably be faster than waiting for me to email you.
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