How We Started

We were a little apprehensive at first when our daughter came home and informed us that she needed to pick a project for earth day. I am the type of dad that wants to come up with something totally awesome without having it be too difficult. We tossed around ideas such as recycling and having a more eco friendly house. At the time we were juicing fruits and vegetables and we had a ton of pulp left over from the process. That is when we asked the question, “How can we get rid of these scraps in an eco friendly way?” Then it hit us, composting kitchen waste with worms! We had to at least give it a try. One quick Google search and we were in business! Ordering was a breeze and I don’t know if there is anything as fun as getting worms in the mail! I was a little skeptical at first how this was going to work. In my brain I was still trying to figure out all the details such as housing, bedding, feeding and were they going to smell?!

Composting worms easier than we thought!

As it turned out it was super straightforward and surprisingly easy composting with worms. Using a few common household items we had a worm haven in a little over an hour. All we needed were 2 Rubbermaid containers for housing, a common household lamp, some old news paper for bedding and some common table scraps for food. Done right, you can get rid off all your table scraps and never leave the house! We have long cold winters and short summers here in Colorado and a year round outdoor compost pile is harder to manage. By starting a worm compost indoors it saves on space in your garbage can and the product the worms produce is great to help fertilize plants and give them extra nutrients. The worms quickly adapt to the amount of food you feed them. They will grow in numbers as you feed them over time. Let’s get this show on the road so we can get your worms coming!!!

Items Needed

1. –Two Rubbermaid containers– one shallow tub ( the kind you slide under your bed, and one taller Rubbermaid container with a lid that is roughly 18 gallons. You can always adjust your tub size to accommodate the space in your house. You just have to make sure the tall tub fits inside the shallow tub.
2. Bricks– We used 4 bricks but this will depend on your compost size. You are going to place the bricks under your tall tub in the shallow tub.
3. A drill– We will be drilling some holes in the tall Rubbermaid.
4. Shredded Newspapers– We shredded ours with a paper shredder we owned but you can cut your paper with scissors or get it from a friend or business around where you live.
5. Spray Bottle– This is only needed to spray the newspaper to get it damp before placing the worms.
6. Leaves or dry grass– We mixed a little organic matter in with the newspaper so the worms had a variety of wet and dry food.
7. Compost – We used all of our left over fruit and veggie scraps.
8. Worms– We ordered our worms off Amazon- We chose Uncle Jim’s worms. They were called red wrigglers.

Step by Step- Prep to Final Product!

1. First we took the tall Rubbermaid and drilled holes in the sides and bottom. Approx. 3-4 holes per side and 6-8 on the bottom depending on your tub size. ( We drilled too many holes in ours)
2. Add your newspaper and organic matter (i.e. leaves, dry grass) to the tub.
3. Use spray bottle to wet the mixture until it is very damp but not wet or too soggy.
4. Once they arrived we let them acclimate for two days then added food under the news paper (I feel that it works better if you use a layer of dirt to cover the paper, we didn’t do this the first time, but after that we did and it worked much better. It also helps eliminate smells and insects). Then you mentally divide the box in small sections to do a seven day food rotation. Start in one corner placing food in only one “plot” of the container per day. If you get back to the first plot after seven days and can still make out what kind of food is there, you should hold off on feeding them for a couple of days. If, on the other hand, you can’t tell what is in there, continue to add more food.
5. Type’s of food for the worms.
   • Any carbon based material such as newspaper (not the slick paper with adds and lots of ink), card board, regular printer paper (all that shredded paper work can now be composted), and even wood shavings.
   • Most kitchen scraps are good especially fruit and vegetable prep scraps. Avoid meats, and high acidic food (orange and lemon rinds).
6. After sixty to ninety days all the bedding and the food to that point should be ready to be used in the garden.
7. The migration of worms is a little more in depth, and can be done in a few ways. The way we did it was to feed them in one spot. Then pick them out the best we could. You want get them all but they repopulate pretty quickly. The other way is with stackable trays. You can purchase cool ones on Amazon or you could build one with the kids.

Our Experience with Composting with Worms

Overall, composting with worms was easy and really enjoyable. It is my favorite way to compost so far. We have a outside compost pile as well. But to keep the carbon and nitrogen ratio right and keep it working all winter is hard for me.

Do you have a fun way to compost? let me know!
-Ky