One of the best things you can do for any garden is to add compost. When people think of compost, they usually get an image of a large wooden outdoor structure. 

That type of composting usually consists of adding large amounts leaves, straw, plant cuttings, plant-eating animal manures, grasses and various outdoor-type materials. Worm composting or vermicomposting is different in that it uses the food scraps from your kitchen and some newspaper as bedding.

While worms are a huge part of the decomposition process in the larger outdoor composting bins, they just move into that type of composting all by themselves. With vermicomposting, you house the worms in a container and feed them just like pets! This makes a worm bin fun to do with the kids at your house.

Another great reason to worm compost with kids is because it gives them a clear understanding of how food and other natural materials break down and become soil, to once again provide food for us to eat. The worms that are used for vermicomposting are called “red wigglers”.

These are the surface dwellers of the worm world and are the same worms that eat and creatw compost outside. Other worms such as night crawlers live about 6” under the soil line – too deep for helping with decaying matter (although, they do their part by aerating the soil). The product they leave behind is called “castings”, which is a polite way of saying “worm poop”. Castings are the garden gold of compost.

Worm castings have proven to be several times richer in available nitrogen, phosphates and potash than average topsoil. What does “available” mean? It basically comes down to the nutrients in castings is water soluble and therefore available to the plants for easy absorption. Worm castings also improve soil texture in garden beds.

Red wigglers can produce their own weight in castings every 24 hours. How’s that for hard-working?

What You’ll Need to Make a Worm Bin:

• A container for your worms with holes drilled into the sides and lid – like a Rubbermaid one (try Home Depot or Target).
• A pound of red wigglers - try your local pet store, or online, or under your rabbit cages – these worms LOVE rabbit manure.
• Bedding – such as strips/shredded of newspaper – I like the newspaper as bedding (or straw or leaves).
• Food (veggie) scraps to feed your worms.
• Spray bottle full of water.

How to Build Your Worm Bin:

1. First make a nice fluffy bed of newspaper strips.
2. Take the spray bottle of water and wet the newspaper until it has the consistency of a wrung-out sponge.
3. Now, take the worms and place them into the bedding.
4. When you add the food scraps, you can put them near, on or away from the worms. It won’t really matter because they’ll have no trouble locating the food.
5. You can add some corn meal if you’d like or some coffee grounds – filter and all.
6. Last, it's a good idea before you place the lid onto the bin, to lay a double-thick sheet of newspaper over the top of the food. Spray the sheet of paper down so it's thoroughly wet, but not sopping.
7. You can now place the lid on the worm bin.

What to Feed Your Worms:

The worm diet consists of many things, but meat and dairy products are not one of them. You can toss in some rabbit manure but no dog or kitty manure (meat-eating animals).

Keep a container on the counter to collect the kitchen scraps for your worms. Also, go light on the orange peels.

• Veggie scraps
• Breads and grains
• Coffee grounds
• Tea bags
• Cereal
• Fruit

* Remember, no meat, dairy or dog poop

Keep the bedding damp and the container entirely out of the sun. Worms like cool, dark places.When the bedding looks like it, too, ids decomposing, it’s time to add more bedding to the bin.

If there is air circulation and bedding, the bin shouldn’t smell. Castings will be ready to harvest in 3-6 months. The more worms you have, the faster the food turns to rich compost.

Picture of bin copyright Kafka on Flickr