A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2007 My Worm Bin

About this time of year in 2003, I was gifted ten (10) red-wiggler worms by a neighbor. I knew very little about vermiculture. I tossed them into a watering trough that I had with some hand-shredded newspaper and started adding my kitchen scraps.

Notice the tools that I use, a gardenfork and my handy-dandy plastic gloves. I don't mind handling the worms but my hands get so ingrained with dirt that I try to remember to wear them most of the time.

The "lid" of my bin is just a piece of expanded metal covered with a couple of trash bags. There is plenty of airflow all around the edges as it is propped up on slats.


It's easy to just flip up and toss in the day's kitchen waste. I use everything, including the things you are not supposed to use like citrus and potato peels. I toss in corn husks and cobs. I put in a whole pumpkin last fall that started to get soft. I still get seedlings in there from that. And of course more shredded a paper that a couple of friends give me.

Open sesame (and anything else I can find to toss in, including stale bread)

I kind of scoop the top few inches off to one side to retrieve castings from the bottom. Today I am just turning it for the camera.

I don't chop, grind or blend anything that I add. I let Mother Nature and the worms deal with it.
Turned

Then every so often I run into a massive 'wad' of worms. I don't know what it is that attracts them all to one place like this.

Turned with fresh shredded paper on top and ready to close up again until next time.

There you go Patches.

Boy those worms are fat little suckers!!!

I will be starting mine this summer.

They are not as fat as the camera makes them look, Pat. Actually too small for fishing for instance. That is from being overcrowded, I think. Why are you waiting for summer?

WOW, Tina! Now, I'm confident I can do this! Seeing these pictures has really helped me a lot!

Aren't you afraid you'll hurt the worms with the pitchfork? Last night, when you told me I could carefully turn up a little dirt to see if they were still alive, I must have looked like I was handling fragile bird eggs.

I have 2 or 3 projects ahead of the worm bin. Going to be laying floor tile next weekend, and then have a couple of windows to replace. Also have another garden bed to prepare.

I don't have a lot of time to get things done.

Oh, Pat ,there's really no time involved in vermiculture to speak of. I hardly notice mine at all. Sure set-up may take a couple hours but after that it's just a matter of scraping a couple of dirty dishes into it!

I laughed at your pumpkin sprouts, Tina, mine is constantly sprouting cantaloupes, may have to transplant some outdoors! And those are fishing worms They are much more active than a fat garden worm, easy to hook , and perfect for fishing. Any good bait shop is selling the exact same worm as what you got there.

Well Patches, when I've used the fork, I haven't heard any screaming. So I must have missed them all.
Actually, I remember in science when I was in grammar school. There was an experiment where worms were cut in half and each half regenerated into a new worm. So I really don't worry about them much. I have never seen a squished worm or any injury. They are always scrambling to rebury themselves when I turn them over. And I really try not to bother them often. I used to feel guilty about the neglect until I realized that they thrive on neglect.

My worm bin will be made out of concrete blocks with a gable roof. I have enough material to build it, it will be a permanent outside bin. I plan to till down a ways to bring the heat/cool up into the bin. It will take a couple of weekends to finish.

I just haven't had the time to do it yet.

Mel, got pictures?

Tina, after you mentioned how your worms were huddled together and so were mine, I got to wondering about it. So I searched the internet and ended up finding out there's a Wormsway store in St. Louis and I called them to ask about it. The person I got told they were huddled together either because they were cold or doing their thing (mating). Well, my basement is plenty warm, so...

Well it's nice to see the worms being friendly!!!

I thought that might be that.

Great worm farm. I have a couple of those tubs actually. My worm farm is operational but i could sure make more. How do you catch the "juice" from the fluids. Or does it just drop onto the earth? I don't see a container underneath.

It is actually on a slope and there is a single drain hole. I can and do catch some of the fluids under there but a lot go to natually watering that one downhill tree; a hackberry. And some castiron plants right there.

Evidently, these are VERY friendly worms!

Tina, I put some worm chow on top at one end of the bed, then if it disappears I would assume they are alive and "working"! I'm just curious!

patches

I'm glad you're enjoying them, Patches. I don't do everything by the book but I see happy healthy worms. And then I remember that I started with ten 3 years ago. They like living here.

Well Tina, I guess I would like it too, if I was living on a hillside in California, nestled next to a national forestland! Geesh, I'm sure that would make for happy worms!

patches

Don't forget all of the scraps from the kitchen. I really dislike waste. Being able to give my dog some and the worms the rest , leaves me feeling like I'm doing something good for the world and future generations of people as well as worms.

Usually all my kitchen waste and what I collect from Farmers Market goes into my compost bins, so there is really nothing that goes to waste. One of my students, who works at Starbucks, is even bringing me bags of coffee grounds and those are going into my worm bins. "Waste not, want not"!

patches

Patches, share some of the wealth (kitchen scraps) for the worms. It will enrich the castings you get.

Tina, I will do that too, but I thought I would wait until the month was up so I wouldn't disturb them by burying the kitchen scraps. I wouldn't want to interupt their "friendly interactions.

patches