AnitraWeb

Can you identify these?

#1: http://anitra.net/blogs/mesclun1.jpg

#2: http://anitra.net/blogs/mesclun2.jpg

#3: http://anitra.net/blogs/mesclun3.jpg

Our new garden includes two white chrysanthemums that were a gift, so I don't know any more about them than that they were labeled "white chrysanthemum." Up to last week they were all-white. Now their lower petals are blushing mauve. I have a before-and-after photo posted at http://uniongarden.blogspot.com/2007/05/our-white-... (not great photography, but gives you some idea of what it looks like.)

Is this characterisitc of white chrysanthemums, or is it an indication of something in the soil chemistry?

A group in our apartment building is starting our first garden in a new, raised-bed plot (about 70 sq.ft.) with very sterile, sandy-loam soil. We have some donated steer manure to add, and we may get a few other amendments, but we have a very limited budget. We can get quite a lot of coffee grounds, potato peelings, apple peelings, and banana skins very quickly, but we do not have time to compost them (not this year!)

I have read that worms will eat cooked potatoes, but not raw potatoes. (Not that we have worms yet, but I'm hoping to get some.) If I cook the potato skins, shred everything up, and add some molasses to help the bacteria along, can we mix the resulting mess directly into the soil?

Some volunteers built a small raised-bed garden for our low-income apartment building. The soil looks like pretty good sandy loam, at least a foot deep, but short on nutrients and with NO organic matter whatsoever, and NO worms (or any other living beasties, as far as I can tell.) We'll buy some organic additives before we plant, but I would like to get some worms in as soon as possible. I'd like to set up a worm farm. but we already have trouble with rats, and we don't want more!

What is the absolutely cheapest set-up for a worm bin, that will be secure from rats? Do you have a persuasive argument for keeping it inside, that would work on staff worried about hygiene and odor?