Making a worm bin

Lots of you were intrigued by Hope's comments about her worm bin when I wrote about composting the other day. I asked Hope to write up a little 'how-to' info, and man did she lay it all out, photos, too. Take a look:

Worm Composting 101, by Hope

I’ve only been worm composting since March of this year, so I’m no expert, but I’ll pass along what I’ve been doing. First, I knew I was going to be attending a worm composting workshop and purchasing worms so I had to make a bin. I did a little research online and found out that I could make one out of wood, purchase one, or just build one using two Rubbermaid bins. Since I didn’t know how the whole worm composting thing would go, I decided to take the cheap route.

Here is a link showing what I basically did. I made one modification by drilling tiny holes in my lid instead of on the sides (didn’t want worms escaping) and it seems to be working just fine. I used 18 gallon tubs, but it does get heavy when it's full, so if your husband isn’t helping and you have limited arm strength, you might want to go with a smaller sized bin. Once you build your bin, mix a couple of inches of shredded paper with working compost or decomposing food scraps and a little dirt, add more compost then a nice layer of shredded paper on top.

I got my redworms from Northwest Redworms. Portland Green Parenting hosted a vermicomposting workshop presented by Doug of Northwest Redworms. Doug gave a very informative workshop about why you should compost with worms, what to feed and what not to feed your worms, what you can do with the by-products of vermicomposting, etc (he also makes some beautiful worm bins). And we each got one pound of redworms. They need to be redworms – plain old earthworms will not work.

Once I got the worms home, I scooped some of the top bedding aside dumped the worms in and then covered them up. Whenever I have food scraps, I make a hole in the bedding (I keep a set of gloves just for this purpose – it’s very wet and it is worm poop after all), dump it in and cover it up. You can basically feed your worms just about anything except milk products, meats, chemically fertilized yard debris, walnut leaves or pet feces. I’ve read that excessive garlic, onions or citrus could cause problems as well, but so far I’ve not had a problem. Just like regular composting, it’s better to have a good mix of greens and browns. Browns don’t have to be leaves, they can be shredded paper, sawdust, straw, etc.

In the summer I kept my bins in the garden in a shady spot and they seem to be doing great! I’m getting ready to bring them into our garage now though since the weather is going to start cooling off (don’t want them freezing). I’m not worried about smell or rodents since I really didn’t seem to have a problem with either at all this summer. The only problem I did have was remembering to put new bedding on top to keep fruit flies down. And you have to remember to harvest the worm tea in the bottom bin every couple of weeks. Diluted worm tea makes great fertilizer. I’m also going to try starting a new bin by placing my full bin on top of my new bins and seeing if the worms will migrate to the new bin where all the scraps will now be deposited. Then hopefully I’ll have plenty of usable compost for spring!

In this photo to the left, you can see that Hope filled four butter tubs with sand to keep the top bin elevated off of the bottom bin. This liquid in the bottom bin is the delicious 'worm tea' which you add to your garden.

Thanks, Hope, for sharing your worm bin experience! You've made it sound completely do-able. If you have specific questions for Hope, post them in the comments and she'll help you out where she can.