Worms Are Our Friends

I have worms. Yes, you read that right, but it's not what you think. So before you go jumping to any conclusions let me explain. I have red wrigglers, also known as compost worms. They are living in a modified Rubbermaid container in my basement. All winter long they have been feasting on our potato peels, coffee grounds, rusty lettuce leaves and many other compostable food scraps, while leaving behind a trail of poop, better known as worm castings. The worm castings are the main reason we decided to raise these squirmy, little fellows. The castings are extremely rich in nutrients and are great for houseplants, flowerbeds and vegetable gardens. All you have to do is mix the soil-like castings into your garden soil just as you would any other compost. Another way you can use them is to take some of the castings and put them into a homemade teabag (cheesecloth tied off at the top and hung on a string or rope), which you then dunk into your watering can or bucket. The 'worm casting tea' can then be used to water your plants.

Our worms are thriving. There are so many of them that they are to the point where they need a larger home, a second home or perhaps maybe even a worm condo. Yes, there is such a thing. The baby worms are very tiny. We tend to notice them when they are about a centimeter long and as thick as a strand of waxed dental floss. When we bought the worms in November we had a half a pound of them. It will be interesting to see how many we have now.

Some of you may cringe at the thought of having worms in the house, but we have had no problems. Well....that isn't completely true. Until we got the right balance of bedding (newspaper), food scraps and moisture we had a slight problem with fruit flies. The problem went away once we cut back on the amount of water we were spritzing in the bin and cut back on the amount of food we fed them each week. We also found that you couldn't add too much slurry at a time either (mushy food like apple sauce or over ripened bananas). There doesn't tend to be any smell from the bin unless it is a little too wet. This is easily remedied by adding a bit of dry bedding and mixing it with the wet bedding. Most of the time we just ignore the bin, checking it only every now and again. It is sort of like looking after a cactus, once a week or so it needs to be tended to.

Worm composting is a great way to dispose of your vegetable scraps in the wintertime. It sure beats trudging through the snow to the backyard compost pile. I am glad we tried this. Hopefully it continues to work out for us.

If anyone would like to know more about compost worms please feel free to drop me a note in the comment section below.