An Alameda Garden: 500 Garden Helpers

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

500 Garden Helpers

I'm venturing into the weird and wonderful world of vericomposting. My Wriggly Wranch worm bin, which I got for a discount through the county, arrived yesterday and today I got a batch of 500 red worms to get the whole thing going. The bin comes with three working trays (you start with one tray and add on the others as each tray gets filled with worm castings), a collection tray to collect all the liquid waste, a brick of coir to use as bedding, and instructions. The worms got settled in pretty quickly and I've fed them their first meal--lettuce scraps and coffee grounds.

The bin itself cost $29 and the worms cost $20. With this, and my other composting bin, I think that in a few months I may have enough of a regular supply of compost to take care of my whole yard. The worms will get the food waste, the compost bin will get the garden waste, and the city recycling service gets everything else. And my plants will get nutrient-rich worm castings and liquid fertilizer. Something for everyone!

4 comments:

  1. I am very interested in this! I'll be following your experience...maybe it will encourage me to try it. What a great deal on your worm bin!

    Good luck and here's to black gold!

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  2. That sounds great! I used to manage a big "Worm Farm" vermicomposting box at the GardensAlive store when I worked there. It is great fun and very interesting. Wait until you have babies- you'll be like a proud parent!

    I too plan to have a worm bin at my house this year, but I'm waiting for my garage to get warmer. It's 8 degrees outside today ;(

    Good luck with the worms!

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  3. Awesome. Are you keeping the worms in the house? I have seen under the sink kits.

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  4. Hey cool! My bin's been going mostly great...hopefully we can compare results and share information!

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