Warning readers: if you don’t like pics of worms don’t scroll down.

The other day a lovely lady gave me her former worm compost bin complete with worms!!   I have to say I was so touched by this gesture.  We met for coffee one day and I asked her six million questions about worm composting.  I took oodles of notes. I guess she sensed my insane curiosity.

I first learned about worming from former neighbors who in retirement bought a farmette and started worm farming. I had never heard of such a thing!

Worms  eat your kitchen scraps, digest it, break it down and that becomes worm castings.  This worm waste is a profound rich natural fertilizer.  COOL.

Later, I read about worming at No Impact Man’s Blog.  Once I saw his documentary and actually saw his apartment worm bin I added the idea to my own green list of things to do.

As luck would have it I met Eco- Consultant Rebecca Rossi and here I am now sharing my own very worm bin reality!

I must admit to worm composting ignorance right now

I now have this bin, gifted so generously and I have followed all her directions but past that I have no idea what’s next.  I mean the worms will eat and digest my scraps, make worm castings and there will be some “tea” in the bottom of the second bin.  Both will be useful in my garden here!

Sounds good to me!!

Below are the details of the gift she brought me:

Here is the set up:

One bin with a lid, set inside another bin.

Top bin is for the worms, bottom bin is to catch the tea.

The holes drilled in on the sides are for aeration.   You aerate the top bin. The one with all the worms and veggie scraps in it.  More on that below

These are inserted into the holes of my top bin for aeration ( what these actually are…I have no idea – i have to ask becca again)

cans filled with rocks are placed in all four corners of the bottom bin

this lifts the top bin from the bottom bin

a spigot was added to the bottom bin for easy tea dispensing. tea is the moisture created from the entire process

holes are drilled in the bottom of the top bin, this is so the tea can drip to the bottom bin

landscaping fabric covers these holes so the worm can’t get through.

Rebecca had me shredd an entire newspaper

wet it and and place it on top of the landscape fabric

she harvested worms from her own successful home made worm bin and brought them in this container – i love the holes in the lid so the worms can breathe

add the worms to the top of the wet shredded newspaper — oh my gosh look at how many worms!!! aren’t they great?

I added my veggie scraps from the soup I made.

Voila! I am worm composting!!

Rebecca got her worms from Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm