Worm Farmin

Our plan for this Spring is to start a vegetable garden - nothing outrageous, just a little garden with a couple of veggies to get our toes wet.  Neither of us has ever had a real garden before so we're starting slow.  Our end goal is to be growing at least 50-70% of our food right here at home... But we're a long way from that goal.  For now, we're prepping our beds for Spring planting.  Luckily for us, we're on the Gulf Coast of Texas, where historically speaking winters are pretty mild and working outdoors is probably easier to do in winter than in the height of summer.

So we purchased some seeds online.  Planned where our beds are going to go.  Sourced some incredible dirt. And ordered some worms from Amazon.com... You know... the usual!

So you're surprised about the worms? While researching soil and composting I kept reading more and more about vermicomposting.  I remember a friend of mine used to have a vermicompost bin under the sink in her kitchen (in the UK) and she always said it was super easy to keep up, not smelly, reduces trash, but she never used the compost - that I was aware of.

The basic theory behind vermicomposting is this:  

You add a combination of carbon and nitrogen to your worm bin, the worms eat it, the worms poop, the poop is AWESOME in gardens.  The end.

Pretty basic right?  But how does one set up a vermicomposter?

1)  You order/build some kind of tote/tub/vermicomposter (loads of these online - check Google).

2)  You throw in equal parts carbon (brown stuff) and nitrogen (green stuff).

3)  You leave it to sit and break down for a couple of weeks so brown stuff and green stuff can start rotting and breaking down.

4)  Your worms arrive and you dig a hole in the side, pour them in, add water* to the bin, close it up and walk away.

* Important to note that you don't add a LOT of water, just enough to call the soil/dirt damp.

Here's how my little guys looked when I tipped them out of their sack.  I ordered 1lb of European Nightcrawlers.  There are really two good options for vermicomposting worms here in the States, Red wigglers, or European Nightcrawlers.  I believe the Euros are better with extreme temps - Texas y'all - and are really good for fishing -- which we do a lot.  So for us they were the best fit.

It is not uncommon for them to arrive in the mail skinny and small as you see to the right here.  But after adding water they swelled up pretty quickly.

Here's an updated picture taken today - Obviously they're not all near the surface and that's what you want.  The deeper they dig, the more of the older rotting stuff they're working on.  We still have a BUNCH of them in here -- I don't think we've lost any/many at all. Well.. you know... aside from the ones we pulled for the chickens.  Our ladies really LOVE their wormy treats!