Ha! You KNEW (and were, undoubtedly, fervently hoping) there would be more about worms soon-- my wonderful Red Wigglers (as distinct from an earthworms, AKA night crawlers)!Here's the coolest thing: My failed compost heap (caused by consistent laziness), has yielded quite the bonanza of interest in worm culture and the resulting Brown Gold of worm castings! How often does laziness pay off so well (or at all)?!! Not so often, take it from me.
So at the fair, I went to a little demo about to learn more about worm-keeping just after I finished making my worm bins from inexpensive blue plastic tubs from Target. One sees stackable worm farms everywhere up here for $99, but this cost us just $20. Basically, the tubs are magically transformed into fabulous worm condos by drilling lots of holes and adding shredded damp newspaper. You can see ours here, below, in the mud room where they will live year round.
The only thing left to do was to get the worms out of the uncompost pile and into the bins. Let's just say that the worms don't seem any too excited about the Big Move. Typical little worm brains: The status quo is always best. They are making me dig for them, one by one, so that I can lay them gently into their new two-story, which comes complete with their favorite food, cantaloupe rind. I'm pretty sure they'll be so happy there, but I wish they could tell their little friends.
However, in the process of the worm hunt, I'm finding that nearly the entire compost heap (which is bigger than it looks in the photo) is already mostly worm castings (that's some of it in the white bucket--yeah, I know. Looks like ordinary dirt)! A bag of worm castings, the best fertilizer there is, goes for $20/1cu.ft.! I'm not sure how much we have already, but maybe three or four cu.ft. I'll know in a couple of days. Cool, huh?
It's going to take me all week (a couple of hours a day) to separate the worms from their castings, which is so worth it. After that, I'll start a true compost heap in that spot (provided I can conquer that pesky little laziness problem), which turns a much greater volume of garbage and clippings into great soil much faster. It's just not quite as rich as having passed through the digestive system of a little red wiggler. Clearly.
Once I have them all in the bins, I'll need to feed them fruit/veggie scraps and keep the newspaper damp. Some vermiculturists only feed about once every two weeks and it's possible to leave them a month at a time, if necessary. And they're fairly quiet little creatures.
So far.It occurs to me that I haven't included any pix of the actual worms...as far as you're concerned, they could be imaginary. Well, Tom has seen them (you trust him, don't you?), though he doesn't seem to share quite the enthusiasm, yet. However, when they are settled and happy in their new house, I'll find a bunch and snap some candids (they're shy) for you. I'm sure you'll love them, too.
