A friend asked me the other day what I fed my worms. When I explained that they got most of our kitchen produce scraps she wanted specifics, so I decided I would let all my readers know through pictures.
Vermicomposting is a green way of getting rid of your kitchen scraps. It is quicker than composting and can be done on a smaller scale indoors.
First, I checked the worms. They looked healthy and happy.
Next I added some romaine lettuce that had gone smushy.
Then, four ears of corn that had been pushed to the back of the fridge, forgotten about, and gone soft.
Finally, I added the contents of my counter compost bin. This included some moldy raspberries, old bean sprouts, a tomato from the garden with a soft spot, a tea bag, and some vegetable peelings that were almost a week old and unrecognizable.
Before I closed the bin, I added bedding. Our trees drop leaves all year round,
so naturally this is never a problem for us.
I have been wanting to start vermicomposting for the longest time now. I live in a town house and have very limited space. Does the set-up take a lot of room?
As it is now, I just take all of my kitchen scraps out back to a wooded area and scatter it.
Not at all! My set up is about 3 ft high by 1.5 ft wide and 1.5 ft deep. That includes the space needed around it. It could easily be set up on a porch or under a deck. Smaller worm houses would work well if you have less scraps. I use the Worm Factory (5 level) and really love the system. It is easy to set up and maintain. If you search the internet, you can find directions to build your own worm house as well; the benefit is you can build to suit, the disadvantage (to me) is they seem more complicated to maintain. I will try to write a post about setting one up in the next few weeks.
As Koofie’s esteemed husband, I admit I was reluctant at first to having a bunch of worms around the house but I grew into the concept when I saw how it worked. Our oldest daughter also named every one of them, “Gabriela-Troy”, as an asexual tribute to her favorite characters on High School Musical. We have Gabriela-Troy 1, Gabriela-Troy 2, Gabr… you get the idea.