Have you or your kids been looking for an easy, cheap project to move you toward sustainability? A practically bullet-proof accomplishment that can provide fertilizer and maybe even some cash, yet is so simple that a child can do it? Homesteading can be hard. Sometimes, we just need to create something successful to boost morale! Well, let me tell you a little story.
We lived in a hot, concrete suburb of Las Vegas when I first began to get the bug to grow our own food. I was the busy, homeschooling mom of 8 children at the time, and often despaired that I would ever be able to put anything on the table that I had raised.
I failed at so many small-scale homesteading projects that I began to hide the evidence from my husband.
The Perfect Beginner’s Project
The first true success I enjoyed was not my own at all. It was a project that I gave to my seven year old son, with little hope that it would produce anything. But as it would cost very little money and take practically no effort from me, I knew we couldn’t go wrong. We needed only a handful of little worms, some kitchen scraps, and a few items from around the house. The results were so rewarding that I tried to convince all my other children to join in the fun and multiply our “harvest.”
“Think of the money you could make!” I cajoled. “Even if nobody else wants to buy from you, I will!”
“EW,” was the reply I got from my girls. “We are NOT growing bins of poop.”
For poop it was. Worm poop, to be exact. Fluffy, earthy-smelling red wriggler excrement by the handful! Called “castings,” the poop of worms is highly prized by gardeners as a wonderful organic fertilizer. Mild and perfectly composted, worm castings can be added directly to the soil, even around young, tender plants, or made into compost tea. If you’re looking for a way to create your own inexpensive fertilizer, worms are a great deal easier to raise than other critters, and practically for free.
Many varieties of worm farms exist on the market, and some of them are pretty brilliant contraptions that make “vermicomposting” so simple that a toddler could do it. The sale of castings can be quite lucrative. But I was just looking for a way to produce a steady supply of fertilizer for our own small garden, on a budget of under $20. I think $10 of that budget was spent on the worms themselves.
The construction of our worm bin was incredibly easy. In fact, my young son handled the entire process.
How to Start a Worm Farm
∙Clean out a Rubbermaid bin with a lid. It doesn’t have to be sterile, but make sure it didn’t previously store harmful substances. Avoid clear bins. (Worms HATE light.) If you dumped out a Lego collection to use the bin, I applaud you for your sacrifice, but by all means find a replacement quickly. Homesteading is already a lifestyle fraught with potential pain and danger–you don’t need to step on one of those suckers in the middle of the night.
- Drill several holes in the lid. (If you are always losing your drill, like we are, use another sharp object). Then drill several holes along the upper rim of the bin, about two inches below the lid. You want your little wrigglers to have plenty of air. Now, drill some holes in the bottom for drainage. Be sure to discard any plastic shavings this creates. We’re not like THOSE farmers who feed their animals plastic on purpose. If you want to prevent bugs from getting in your bin, you might want to line it with mosquito netting. My son thought that the worms might not mind some friends, so we skipped that step.
- Line the bottom of the bin with about six inches of carbonous bedding material like shredded cardboard or newspaper. Avoid materials with colored inks. Straw or sawdust is ok, too, but it will take longer to break down. Brown leaves are perfect. Pause for a moment and revel in the warm glow of knowing you have participated in the wondrous process of thoughtful “carbon sequestration” that Joel Salatin talks about.
- Lightly wet the materials so that they are damp, but not wet enough to leave more than a few drops of water on the bottom of the bin. The goal is to provide some moisture for the worms, bacteria, fungi, and millions of other magical microbes to thrive, but not drown.
- Toss in a few handfuls of decent soil. This will make the worms feel at home.
- Add a few handfuls of kitchen scraps. A worm will eat roughly their own weight every day, but some of that will be bedding. It’s common to add too much food at first, so be conservative. Worms are happy to munch on pretty much anything. Banana peels, apple cores, carrot peelings, coffee grounds, slimy lettuce, etc. Avoid citrus peels, garlic or onion, meat, or dairy. Now, don’t get hung up on the math or break out a scale to get this perfect, but you want a “carbon to greens” ratio of about 30:1. You’ll know soon enough if the balance is off, and it will be easy to remedy either way.
- Gently add your worms to the bin, with greetings of hearty welcome. Everybody likes to feel appreciated. (Your worms really do need to be red wrigglers, which you can purchase from most garden supply stores or online. Other types of worms will not do well).
- Cover those babies up QUICK with a few more inches of your moistened carbonous material and soil. Maybe you have thousands of worms looking for a new neighborhood. Go ahead and repeat the layers, making sure that you add moisture as you go. Worms will die if they get dried out!
Now We Just Hang Out and Wait
Put the lid on and find a good spot for your bin. If properly maintained, the bin should not smell at all, but it might attract bugs, so keep that in mind. It should be kept at moderate temperatures. Somewhere between 55 to 77 degrees F is best. Pick a spot that is easy to get to. Nobody wants to climb over a pile of laundry or tubs of Christmas decorations to feed the worms. However, those of you with toddlers or determined pets probably don’t need to be told that you’ll just make yourself and your wrigglers miserable if the bin is flipped and the contents spread all over your carpet.
To prevent bugs, and catch drainage, place a slightly larger lid under the bin and apply a thin border of diatomaceous earth.
Feeding
Once a week or so, check on the bin. It shouldn’t smell terrible or look slimy/gooey. If it does, or if a huge cloud of fruit flies billows out, you need to add some more carbon bedding. Dig around gently to investigate. The moisture level should remain at that sweet spot: a hospitable-to-life-but-not-a-swamp level. If you see excess pools in the bottom, use a turkey baster to suck them out. This “compost tea” is liquid gold for a hungry houseplant. Did the scraps mostly disappear, and are your worms vigorous and happy? Great–feed them some more scraps. If the previous scraps are still there, just let them keep working on them. Every time you add some scraps, also add some carbon bedding.
It’s all about balance, baby
And this is why I encourage all wannabe gardeners to start a worm farm, even if they don’t have so much as a single plant in a pot. By observing, smelling, feeling, touching, and appreciating your compact microbiome, you’ll learn so much about that sometimes elusive balance that nature loves and needs. When you encounter really healthy soil outside, you’ll know instantly. “Hey, I know that smell,” you’ll think. “It’s like worm castings.”
Observe and Enjoy
Congratulations! You have nurtured life. Depending on your balance of worms to scraps, you should begin to see a significant amount of castings begin to form within six to eight weeks, and an increase in the worm population. A very exciting learning opportunity for the kids can be found in your humble bin here. Just scoop out a handful and put it on a paper towel. With some careful observation, you’ll be able to find tiny, white baby worms and maybe even be able to watch some hatch from their eggs (also called cocoons).
Harvesting
Advice abounds on the proper way to harvest worm castings. It really comes down to how tedious of a job you can tolerate, and keeping in mind that those little critters are pretty delicate. One way is to make a sieve or use a colander to gently shake the tiny castings and save your worms and larger particles for them to work on some more.
A pretty cool tip that worked well for us was to bury a corn cob in the bin a few hours before we wanted to collect the castings. Most of the worms went right for that cob like it was Walmart on Black Friday. This made it quite easy to gather them and set them aside so that they would not be subjected to the shaking process. If your population has exploded, and your bin is out of room for more layers, you may choose to take some of the worms and either add them to your garden or start a second bin. Entrepreneurial kiddos will probably be seeing dollar signs at this point.
Some Variations
Some folks like to use two bins, one inside the other, separated by a couple bricks. This allows for more airflow and a place for liquid to collect. Other people set up more elaborate stacking systems with multiple bins, allowing the worms to migrate to fresh food when they have exhausted the first bin. Vermicomposting is so easy and rewarding that you’ll likely be investigating these options soon.
Look at you, you’re a worm farmer!
You’re really onto something good here. Keeping a worm farm can provide you with a steady supply of worms, worm eggs, castings, and (if you’re not completely ruined from too much time on your phone) entertainment.
Questions? Fun vermicomposting anecdotes to share? Please add them below!