Save the Worms

Vermicomposting = composting with worms

I've been hearing about this for quite a while now - I picked up our latest edition of Audubon magazine & there was yet another article outlining the simple setup. So, I've got to give it a try. My Saturday is free & it's my one goal of the day - to get this worm experiment up and running. The great appeal (if you don't mind a bin of worms somewhere in your home!) of this system is that it's INSIDE COMPOSTING = no yard necessary. A friend of Beth's (my little sis) in Atlanta is doing this in a closet in her apartment! Although I do have ample closet space in this house, I still think I'll start it out in our garage.

Here's the lowdown: You can reduce your overall waste by as much as 12 percent (if you're not already composting in another way) and it makes rich fertilizer to boot. You'll need a plastic bin with a lid (I'm thinking a rubbermaid storage container) and a pound of red wiggler worms. The worms can eat up to 3 pounds of food a day in ideal conditions. The pile needs lots of air, so the one 'job' to this project is to drill quarter-inch holes in the lid every four to six inches.

Line the the bottom of the container with damp paper & then fill 3/4th full with carbon material = newspaper, straw, or leaves, ect. = this is the 'brown stuff.' Then bury in the 'green stuff' = this is all your non-dairy/meat kitchen waste = banana peels, coffee grounds, eggshells, ect. The 'burying' part keeps the fruit fly population down. The experts also recommend no spicy foods (worms with heartburn?). At this point just add worms and in a couple weeks you should start seeing some progress. You'll want to maintain the 3 parts brown to 1 part green to keep the worms happy!