Worms Eat My Compost

Thank you to Sabine with the Seattle Urban Farm Co-op who got me started with some new worms from her own backyard bin. By changing a few small things our worms are much happier and thriving in their new home.
I have  added bedding on top of the vegetable scraps as well as two large pieces of wet cardboard, and have let the whole Worm Inn stay out in the rain. A large amount of fruit has been added but with the additional bedding and cooler weather fruit flies are at a minimum.  Hoping to have our first harvest of worm casings in the next month or so!

Funeral March

To put it bluntly, the worms are dead. A series of mistakes led to the untimely death of 1 pound of red wigglers over a 1 week period. The following led to their demise:

• No bedding on top of worms. A layer of moist bedding should have been placed over the top of the worms and pulled back to add food each day then replaced. The bedding got worked into the mix over time and I didn't replace it causing the worms to get dry and expose them to the elements.
• They starved. Most vermicomposting information suggests that you weigh your food scraps for 1 week prior to getting started so that you have a good idea what 1/2 pound of food scrap per day looks like. We go through so much food scrap that I skipped this essential step an instead added food scrap as it was produced. When the funky smell started in the worm inn I found about half of the worms were stringy and thread thin in the middle.
• They might have been exposed to a bit of direct sunlight...a major problem for creatures used to living in the dark damp earth.

It is upwards of 90 degrees here now and I am at am conflicted about getting more worms at this point as they need to stay cool and would be moved inside the house. 

Welcome Home

The worms finally arrived last week. I soaked shredded newspaper in water for the bedding and placed it in the worm inn before placing our new 'pets' inside. I decided to give them a night to get used to the surroundings before introducing compost. When I went to check on them in the morning about a dozen or so worms had escaped out the bottom and were floating in the receptacle bucket-thankfully still alive! Apparently I had made 2 mistakes: not adding enough bedding, and not cinching the bottom of the worm inn tight enough.

A few days in and I think they are happy. I have added vegetable cuttings twice and I think they are eating them-a little difficult to discern when there are newspaper shreds, dirt, worms and vegetable matter all mixed together. We won't have enough worm poop to add to the garden for a couple of months so we are trying to be patient and let the worms do their thing.

Hopefully no more escapees!

The Great Worm Experiment

The Great Worm Experiment

Twice a year we do the seasonal cleanse at our practice. This Spring we had a particularly eager group who were mostly new to eating organic, local, and seasonal food. I participated in the cleanse (and will do another in June), and was inspired to start some new projects that I have been mulling over for some time. I have started my first organic vegetable garden, am making my own homemade yogurt and alfalfa sprouts, have installed a shower timer to cut down on water usage, and lastly I have decided to give worm composting a try.

After much online research I decided that worm composting (vermicomposting) would be fun for my boys to participate in and would feed my growing garden while cutting down on the food waste we add to our yard waste bin (to be turned into compost by Cedar Grove and sold back to me as a consumer!).

There are various options to house the worms including: open bins, closed drawer style bins, and flow through systems. I went with the flow through system after reading reviews and other blogs and purchased a container through The Worm Dude.

We are all set up in the garage and just waiting for the worms to be delivered today!

I will be blogging about our experience with our new friends.

More soon...

Dr. Wada (and family)