How I did it: This has been a wonderful experience. I now have three bins in rotation. The worms have not been difficult or bothersome and I'm starting to reap the benefits of all the great worm castings. I'm going to have more difficulty using up all the castings than I had in producing them. I have a patio but no yard. I keep my plastic storage bins in a storage area that's under the stairs to the apartment above us. Once a month I drag the bins out and give them a thorough turning. The rest of the time I just add to the two active bins and let the other one sit while the worms finish off every bit of food. Once they get it to a almost done state, that mass goes into a bucket--it has really shrunk in size by that time--and I whichever of the other two looks like it's closest into the sitter. I split the third bin's contents between it and the empty bin and then I start all over again. The bucket sits for another 3 months and then I start using it. Pretty easy.

Lessons & tips: I've never had problems with animals or ants but I have had some fly issues. Lots of dry bedding on top seemed to keep down the population but not eliminate it completely. I found that the most effective thing was to use a bunch of newspaper for bedding mixed into the compost and then put a layer of potting soil on top. This added to the volume I needed to process my compost since the potting soil is constantly mixing in with the compost, but it was worth it to keep those buggers down.

Resources: I love the book: Worms Eat My Garbage
My county had a really good program to get me started but they don't seem to be running it any more, darn you economic downturn! For $20 I got my first bin, they set up the starter bedding, and gave me a coffee-can's worth of worms. I took it home and went at it.

And that was it!

Dec 19, 2008, 10:12AM PST | 0 comments | 2 cheers