Recipe for Happy Worms

Nothing is more exciting than 1500 red worms wiggling in the dirt.  Just ask the kids in our afterschool gardening class. Here's their recipe for worm compost:

Ingredients

1500 Red Wiggler worms from a source such as Amazon.

10 gallon plastic bin with a few 1/4" holes drilled in the lid.

Shredded newspaper

Water

Food scraps

Dirt

1)    Put shredded newspaper in bin to cover bottom. 

2)   Get it damp but not soaking - about 2 cups of water is good.

3)  Put in some food scraps like, banana peels, apple cores, melon rind, coffee grounds, old squash, weeds you pull up from your beds (just make sure they’re not producing seeds!) What will the worms like best?

4)  Add a few handfuls of dirt.

5)   Examine your worms to make sure they’re alive and wriggling.         

Be sure to exclaim over their grossness, their slimyness, and the possiblity that they will poop on you.

6)  Put all 1500 worms in the bin!  (this is the fun part!)

7)  Gently cover worms with materials already in the bin.

8) Put them in a place where they won’t freeze. 

9) Check back in a week.  Is there some “black gold” compost in the bottom of the bin?  Use it as fertilizer for your garden beds. 

     10)  Or, make "poop tea," by tying worm compost or manure in gauze and floating it in a bucket of water.    After a few days, use the brew to water your plants. 

 

Got worms??