On a regular basis I have a customer come into the nursery and get excited about the containers of worms we have sitting on the counter.  Yes, there are worms on the counter.  There is also a cat and often chickens in the bathroom.  It’s a little Dr. Doolittle around there and I like it.  Anyway, worms…  Customers see the worms and say, “Oh! I need to get some for my bin.”  Much to their dismay I deter them from purchasing said worms for such purposes.  The worms we sell are earthworms.  They are for your garden, not your bin.  They are nature’s garden aerator and don’t like to be held captive.  Many of the customers ask, “well, what’s the difference.”  Quite a bit.

Earthworms are are for just that… the Earth.  Bin worms are red wrigglers.  They are adapted (my anthropologist husband cringes at that word) for digestion of decaying matter (ie. kitchen scraps).  They are much different than soil dwelling worms.  Sadly, our nursery does not sell red wrigglers and we cannot find a supplier for them.  However, there are multiple locations online that you can purchase your worms from.  Personally, I purchased mine 2 years ago from Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm.  This is where I direct people if they are interested in starting a worm bin.

So where is the weekend project in all of this?  Actually, it is more of an afternoon project.  So easy you could call it stupid easy.  First, visit this website to get the nitty gritty on how to make a cheap and easy bin.  You don’t need to purchase special worm bins.  The worms don’t care.

Next, you’ll need to get your bin ready for the worms.  When I started my bin I did loads of research on how to do this and how to get ready.  This was all well and good, but some of what I tried failed miserably.  Not so much that I had to start totally over, but I did have to let my bin sit for quite a long time.

Place a thin layer of garden soil in the bottom of your bin.  Healthy, fertile soil is best, but I just grabbed a shovel full and threw it in.  Next is the covering.  I’m not talking about the lid for the bin.  This is the biggest mistake I made when I started my bin.  If your scraps are not covered you will get gnats.  Gnats are gross.  When you open your bin and are attacked by thousands of flying little insects it’s icky.  Shred 2-3 Sunday newspapers and moisten them.  I throw the shreds into a giant tub and hose them down with the garden hose.  Once they are sufficiently moist, wring them out so they are only damp.  You don’t want your bin drying out, but you also don’t want it sopping wet.

Now you have your bin, worms, bottom layer and top layer.  Place the soil in the bottom as mentioned before, place your food scraps in a thin layer on one side of the bin (more on food scraps in a bit), then the worms on top of the food, then cover with a thick layer of the shredded newspaper.  The better the covering the fewer gnats.  Every few days place your food scraps under the shredded paper on the opposite side that you placed it the week before.  If you notice that your worms are not keeping up with the scraps leave the bin alone for a week or two.

The best thing to do is start slow.  You won’t be able to throw weeks worth of kitchen scraps in all at once and expect the worms to consume everything.  They are small, and need to get to work and reproduce.

As far as the food scraps go… that is where I had to do the most tweaking.  I found that if I put in large scraps the worms couldn’t handle it.  Or they could, they were just slow.  I started collecting my scraps in a bowl on the kitchen counter.  I had the tendency to forget about the scraps if they were in a covered bucket.  In the bowl they were more noticeable.  Every 3 days I put all of the scraps into my food processor and whiz them around until they are finely chopped.  I have to do it in batches.  I then put that mash in the bin.

As time goes on you will get a nice layer of vermicompost.  As that happens keep burying your food scraps under the compost.  They deeper it is buried the less likely the bin is to get gnats.

A few other tips and tricks:

1) Don’t put moldy food on the bin
2) Don’t put fat scraps in the bin (no meat)
3) worms don’t like onions, garlic or heavy quantities of citrus.
4) worms won’t break down avocado rinds, but they do like them for reproduction.
5) it is ok to forget about your bin for a few weeks/months at a time. I left my bin outside without feeding the worms the past 2 winters and they are still there.
6) if your bin gets too wet leave the lid slightly ajar and let it dry out a bit. This also works to get rid of gnats.
7) replace your shredded paper bedding as the worms consume it. As you get more castings (vermicompost) you will have to put in less paper.

Good luck on your bins.  They are very simple and rewarding.  If you have photos of your own worm bins please share them with us.  We love to know what creative ideas people are coming up with.  You can email your photos to sproutoff@sproutingoff.com.