Gold for the Garden!

So today we took advantage of the sunny day and dealt with our worm composting bins. They have been neglected and I seriously needed to get in there and get the dirt out. The drainage had gotten plugged up by the weight of all the “worm poop” and our bins were just too full. So we had developed a fruit fly issue, or at least we think that is the cause. We were pretty good about adding lots of paper but the drainage was not very good and they hadn’t been cleaned out for over a year. We are a 2 person vegetarian household and our worms were in wormy heaven.

First, I dug out and put aside the top layer of food and paper. Then I laid out the compost on plastic bags in the grass. I spread out the compost in order to encourage the worms to move towards the plastic bag, as they are allergic to sunlight.

Arial did her part by making a fresh bed of cardboard for the worms in the bottoms of the bins and putting the worms back in their tended and prepared home. She tore up fresh cardboard and used shredded paper for the bottom and than layered it with the food we took out off the top.

Together we bagged ~ 30lbs of pure compost, the best organic compost available to humans. The compost that these worms produce is commonly referred to as “black gold” by many gardeners because it is so fantastic and it is GOOD for the environment. It is a living compost that does not wash away with watering and continues to improve soil each time you add it. If you want to learn more about this gold here is the wikipedia.

If you were to buy this composting it would cost you ~$20/5lbs of worm castings. It cost us $20 to set this up!

As for the worms, well they have reproduced beyond any amount we could have dreamed! There were so many we left 100′s of them within the compost to be planted in the vegetable garden in a few weeks. So about 500+ worms will be sacrificing their life to improve the soil in our vegetable plots this summer. (they will die once it freezes) About 2000+ worms will continue to live and reproduce within their bins with our loving support for more of this GOLD in the fall. Also, if anyone wants to start their own bin for composting just let me know and I will make a package for you. You only need 100 or so to start a bin. Egg shells make them reproduce.

We also have some seedling sprouting up under the plant lights. We plan to have a very vegetable FULL garden this summer, I want to fill my shelves and freezer!