Invasion of the Red Wigglers!

Worm Advisory!!!!
..........So, we brought home our to-go mini worm farm from Nowana's and I couldn't wait to get my very own VermiHut Worm Bin. I went right to the Internet and ordered a 3-tier unit to get things going. The VermiHut units are made from completely re-cycled plastic. The coolest thing is now we can make our own 100% organic soil/fertilizer and reduce our household kitchen waste up to 30% and the worms do all of the work! Worm composting is known as vermicomposting and it works much faster than traditional thermal composting in the garden.

I came home from work a couple of weeks ago, and to my delight, this was waiting for me at the front door. There's no turning back now.

 I got right to setting up the new worm condo. The bottom container is designed to catch the worm juice and has a spigot at one end. I know, it sounds disgusting, but this stuff is extremely good for your plants. As the worms eat your fruit & vegetable waste, they produce compost or worm castings, some of which is liquid. This liquid finds its way to the bottom bin. This very concentrated liquid should be diluted 1 part juice to 10 parts water. Who needs to buy liquid fertilizer ever again? And, it's organic! The piece of white cloth is there to keep the worms from falling in the liquid and drowning. What a way to go :o) Then the first composting tray is added.

 Dampened shredded newspaper goes down first. Worms love damp newspaper.

 This unit came with some shredded coconut fiber bricks to use as a soil starter. You can use any kind of good quality compost dirt to start with (not potting soil).

 I broke apart one brick and added water to make a moist bedding.

 This is mixed up with the shredded newspaper and the worm starter farm from our friend Nowana.

 Another piece of barrier cloth is put on top before the lid goes on. This will keep the worms from crawling out of the condo through the air holes in the lid and finding their way around Rowan's office and onto her laptop and into her slippers! Ewe!

As soon as I got the unit all set up, I ordered a large quantity of red wigglers (500) from a worm farm in Pennsylvania. They arrived in 3 days and once they got to work, this is what the first tray of the condo looks like after only 2 weeks. The more worms you have in a bin the faster they work (they can double in number every 90 days). Each of these trays is designed to hold about 1000 worms with bedding, dirt, etc., so as the worms reproduce, more trays will be added.

This is a REALLY awesome way to do composting. As the weather gets warmer, the bin will be moved outside and as the worms keep producing they will be added to the garden with the soil. Can't wait to see what kind of vegetables will come out of our garden this year. I never imagined I would know this much about worms in my lifetime. We just never get too old to learn something new every day. Thanks, Nowana!

Stay tuned for landscaping and chicken adventures coming soon..............