From kitchen scraps to garden gold!

Worms Worms Worm!

Worms are my new best friends and I hope that they will soon be yours as well. I mean just look at them, aren't they awesome!
Like I said two posts ago, I am soon going to be making a worm composting bin. Once you get your bin built (so simple) all you have to do is feed your kitchen scrapes to your worms and they give you the two of the best fertilizers ever: Worm castings and fertilizer tea.

You can feed them almost anything that you would normal throw away. From fruits and veggies to tea bags, egg shells, and newspaper. I think I am most excited to finally have a use for the weekly neighborhood post that we get in the mail!

Building the worm bin is super easy to do. It's so easy that you could might be able to figure it out from just the diagram below.

For complete directions and way more information I suggest you do one (or both) of the following: Go to your local bookstore (I like to support the local stores if possible) and pick up a copy of The Urban Homestead by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen and/or visit the Virginia Tech website on Worm Composting

You want to make sure that the worms you buy are Redworms (Eisenia foetida) which are the proper composting worms. If you buy them online, try to buy them as close to you as possible so the poor little guys don't die in route. My plan is to check out the local bait and feed shops first.

Harvesting the worm bins is super easy to do because once your bin is full of worms and worm castings, you just stack a second bin on top of the first one and start the process over. Your little composting friends will slowly work their way up into the second bin leaving only worm castings down below. Easy!

I cannot say enough good things about The Urban Homestead I personally think that everyone that reads this blog should go out and buy two copies as soon as possible. Keep one for your homestead and give the other to a friend or neighbor!