Brian and I invested in a worm bin this last May. We took an organic gardening class earlier in the spring, and we decided to expand our composting options beyond just the regular old bin. Worm composting is one way to do that. There is a lot of information about getting started with worm composting online:
- Treehugger on Vermicomposting and Vermiculture: Worms, Bins and How To Get Started
- Wikipedia on Vermicomposting
- City Farmer on Composting With Red Wiggler Worms
- Worm Woman
We found the bin at a local green shop and bought a pound of worms from a local worm farmer. We got them started with shredded credit card statements and some alfalfa pellets. Since then, we’ve been feeding them veggie and fruit scraps once a week or so.
After three months, there were a lot more castings in the bin than there was bedding and the whole bin had more than doubled in weight. When I mentioned that we needed to clean out the bin and harvest the castings, my friend Sameera volunteered to help and a few other friends wanted to watch. I decided we might as well make an event of it and thus came the idea for a worm compost party.
In spite of the ick factor – or maybe because of it – it was a lot of fun, and now we have a giant bucket of worm compost that’s going to be some great tomato fertilizer.
Did you pick out the cocoons, too?
That is really tedious work- you were lucky to have made it into a party!
Total ick factor, but good for you guys! I find that kids can usually deal with gross things a lot better. I mean, I used to collect snails in jars. Ewww.
Jill, we did pick out the cocoons… at least as many as we could. There were a lot, but we must have done pretty well. It seems like the worms are producing a lot more compost since the harvest.
Alisa, my niece actually loved harvesting the worms, much more so than my nephew did. Of course, they have hissing cockroaches as pets. Let’s talk about icky.