This was the hands-on activity at the end of my composting class. Inside are dozens of red wrigglers, happily munching on a couple of banana peels and some leftover tea bags.
Worm composting is not only great for the environment by helping to limit the amount of trash we send to the dump, but the castings (aka worm poop) are PHENOMENAL fertilizer for your garden. And, BONUS - keeping a worm bin is also a great educational activity for your kids!
So how do you make a bin? My bin is a plastic storage container, 15" long by 12" wide by 9" deep. You can see the holes in the lid - three rows, roughly equally spaced 1/4" holes that were drilled. There's also one row around the top edge of the container itself. About 5 holes per long side and 3 on the short sides. No holes on the bottom.
There are loads of other worm bin designs online, along with other information about how to start them, etc.
Mine was started with about 1/3 of the container filled with moist shredded newspaper. Moist like a damp, wrung out sponge. If you squeeze it, only a drop or two of water should come out. On top of the moist paper, my worms were added with some of their "native" soil. More shredded moistened newspaper on top of that, then a solid layer of moistened newspaper.
We are on week 2 of this grand experiment. I brought them home on a Saturday, and last Saturday, I added a couple of peels from bananas that had gone bad. I've also added a few tea bags throughout this week.
If you'd like to try this experiment at home along with us, here are some really great links:
Hope you'll join us!
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