worm bin covered with black plastic

since last year, we have had a home-built wooden box about 4′ x 2′ by 6″ high on the floor of our basement. we built this to experiment with vermicomposting–using worms to compost our organic waste. having read the book, worms eat my garbage by Mary Appelhof, we decided to give it a shot since our compost pile outside seemed to be too far to schlep during the cold winter months. the process is actually not that hard once you get the worms going and get over the fact that you actually have worms in your basement. in our case, no rogue worms have gotten out of the bin and the whole set up is not offensive to the olfactory senses. so, how did we set it up:

materials needed

• wooden or plastic bin (with airholes drilled in the sides and bottom)
• shredded newspaper
• dirt
• worms, of the red wiggler variety
• food compost (no meat, oils or dairy)

worm bin with food waste

food waste covered with shredded paper

shred newspaper (we used a store-bought shredder) and soak in water for 5-10 minutes. wring out excess water and spread paper in your bin. mix in a couple of handfuls of dirt. add your worms (we put in about 500 worms to start). then we added food waste about once a week. the ratio of paper to food waste should be about 70 / 30. the worms eat the compost and the paper and leave behind worm castings, which are hands down the best garden fertilizer going!

other good sites to reference include:

six steps to set up worm bin
Composting Your Organic Kitchen Wastes with Worms

benefits

• keeps food waste out of landfills
• produces the best organic matter for your garden
• it’s cool to see the full life cycle of the veggie waste from our garden help next year’s crop flourish