I think I mentioned on here that Mr. Wonderful made me a worm composter for Christmas. Now, let's get something straight: I don't like worms. I've never liked worms. They're creepy and icky. But when I began researching composting options, worms seemed like my best bet. They can be contained in a receptacle, which is great given that I live in an apartment, and they create compost a lot faster than dry, bacteria-based composting.
Mr. W researched designs online before constructing this, but as you can see, it's just a plastic garden pot. (With a charcoal filter in the lid, of course, because he's attentive to details like that...)
Two of the inner tiers are drilled to enable worm travel between layers. In theory, the worms will eat through the food and shredded newspaper in the middle tier, then crawl up to the top tier for more vittles. This is when I will rotate them and move the little red wigglers back down to the middle so I can fill the top with kitchen scraps, and repeat. The bottom tier is solid, and meant to catch the worm poop, or castings.
Here are the pass-between holes in the middle and top layer. Hopefully nobody will accidentally fall through there...
Tonight when I got home from dinner and drinks with some coworkers, my worms were waiting on the front porch. I felt like a mother in labor. Although I'd studied up and prepared myself for their arrival, when it finally happened, I felt rather panicked about the process. And completely afraid to open the bag.
That's my bag of worms. From Uncle Jim's Worm Farm.
Protecting my hands from worm cooties with gardening gloves, I opened the bag and began dumping my wigglers onto the middle level of damp newspaper. I have no idea if I put them in there right. I then layered some of my saved kitchen scraps in between the dirt and newspaper. I won't lie...the process was a little bit gross. The veggies were a little putrid and the worms were creeping me out.
However, I was able to tuck them in and bid them goodnight soon after that. I put my second layer on top of the worm layer, then covered that with some damp newspaper. Although I had planned to try keeping the composter in the house, I was too worried that all 500 worms would crawl out in the middle of the night and be scattered on the carpet. So it's on my front porch. I hope I don't kill anyone. And I hope I feed them good stuff and that in turn, they give me lots of poop to fertilize the plants with. I'll let you know how it goes...
17 comments:
I raies and sell red worms and euro nightcrawlers, I think the euro is a better worm for fishing and composting. As far as buying worms go, I sell mine by the each instead of by the pound. The reason being, most of the selars like the one mentioned will say you get 600-800-to the pound, If this is true when the worms are 3/4-1' long you should get about 2000 worms. When you buy from me, if you orde 500 worms,you get 500 bed run worms. You can count them.
For more info go to my website www.berwickwormfarm.com or read my blog at today.com The Wormguy
Oh, wow, Uncle Jim's Worm Farm, eh? :) I would have been afraid of escape worms, too.
Other than that, I have absolutely no idea whether you did that right or not, so go you, I say!
That's awesome. If you don't like worms, I sure hope you don't have boys. Jameson LOVES them and whenever we work in the garden he hunts them down. I even had to work really hard to scale back my fear of snakes so as not to pass it on to him. (shudder)
My son would love this.
Therefore he can never know about Uncle Jim.
What a fun project. Are you worried you'll wind up with too much fertilizer? What do you do then? And what happens if there's a runaway worm - do you think your neighbors will be mad? =) Happy composting!
I think it's great that you are doing this but I know that I wouldn't be able to sleep at night with those things in the apartment. I would lie awake listening for their slither across the floor as they came to eat me.
yawn.....waiting for post about Greece and Italy! Just kidding...good luck with your worms!!!
I actually have a stomach ache from reading and looking at the pictures...worms make my skin crawl. Have fun and please don't bring them with you tomorrow!
I'm thinking you should've given Mike Rowe a call to come over and film this particular Dirty Job...
I love what geekhiker said about calling Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs! This post makes me itchy and Jack is never allowed near that bucket-o-worms! (Oh, and how appropriate that to post this, I have to put in the word verification of 'retchro' - like wretch!)
You may wish you had gone through labor instead!
Fishermen rejoice! Free live bait on Mel's front porch!
And you all thought Live Cufflinks were gross? At least they were covered with a thick layer of Modge Podge...
I could not sleep knowing there were worms in my house... good move taking them to the porch.
Now, I need to know more about the live cufflinks. Please?
That is positively frightening. I'd leave them on the porch, too. (am shuddering at your "lest..." mention of all the worms escaping. Oy.).
I keep mine in my basement and i havent had any trouble in three years.
They dont bite or smell.
FEED YOUR WORMS AND STARVE THE LANDFILL. YOU WILL BE REDUCING THE METHANE GAS GIVEN OFF BY YOUR LANDFILL
oh meliss... im sorry, but eww!
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