Place a dark plastic sheet or burlap loosely on the bedding to conserve moisture and provide darkness for your worms. Experts recommend starting with two pounds of worms for a two or three-person household. Specifically, Red Wigglers ( Eisenia foetida), the most voracious eaters of the earthworm family consuming half their weight in food each day! You can buy them through garden supply catalogs. But always under the bedding material to keep the fragrance and flies at bay. Worm Casting “Tea” makes a terrific fertilizer.įill three-quarters of the bin with shredded newspaper, chopped dry leaves, sawdust, leaf mold, or a combination thereof (even better) and moisten to the texture of a wrung-out sponge.Īdd a couple of handfuls of sand or soil to provide the necessary grit for the worm’s digestion. So your basement, kitchen pantry, or even your bedroom will do. Any area that stays between forty and eighty degrees and is reasonably dark and dry works. Rather than buy worming castings, why not make your own?Īlso called vermicomposting, worm composting takes little space, and there’s no odor if done correctly. But you can build a DIY system for far less.

They’re kind of pricey, though, ranging from 80 to 180 bucks.

There are worm composting farms you can buy that tout simplicity and cleanliness.

Or you can spread a quarter or half-inch layer on top of garden beds. The ratio suggested is typically one-part castings to four-part soil or potting mix. Worm castings increase soil’s ability to hold water and nutrients, which promotes plant growth. A bit of warning, you may consider reading this when you’re not having breakfast. I’ll cut to the chase Joe, worm castings are worm poop or worm manure to be more “proper.” And you can make your very own with worm composting. Photo credit LeahLhey, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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