Worms, Worms, Worms
Back in February, for my birthday, Juliana got me a worm farm. Actually, it was just a warm composting system, but in the following months, the worms have multiplied, like little rabbits, and now it truly is a farm. They've been prolific and now I've got a great big bin full of black gold - worm compost! The worms were obviously quite happy, and it was time to give them some new bedding and start another worm bin, and continue the wormy happiness. So on Saturday, I took the worm bin outside and dumped out the contents into about 6 piles on a tarp. Very quickly, the worms moved toward the center of the pile, away from the sunlight. This allowed me to "harvest" the black gold. As I took away more and more of the dirt, the worms moved closer together in the center, until there was a squirmy, wormy, seething mass! (They don't have eyes, but they must have some sort of photo-receptors on their body, I guess.) It was grotesque and beautiful all at the same time.
It took a while to "harvest" all the black gold, but ultimately I ended up with a couple pounds of the best soil ever. Prior to this dumping the worms out, I had prepared the new worm bins, tearing up sheets of newspaper to use as bedding. I also put in some leafs and a bit of dirt for grit for them. I moistened it all down and then added the new worms, but not before I held them in my hand. Pretty incredible little creatures and very able composters. I've add their "black gold" to a pot that I just planted basil in. I hope it will be the best basil ever.
Right now, the worms handle most of the kitchen scrap, and the rest goes out to the compost. One of the most facinating things was that after I'd transfered all the worms to their new bins, I started to bag up the good soil and I noticed that there were dozens of tiny little baby worms still in the soil! Tiny little guys and gals. There were also lots of other little buggy critters in the soil, which I hadn't noticed before. There were little egg shaped things about the size of a Cilantro seed. I'm not sure what they were. But I suppose I've got a whole little eco-system in there and shouldn't be surprised to see other life forms. I'll have to consult my worm book to see if I can figure out what they were.
It took a while to "harvest" all the black gold, but ultimately I ended up with a couple pounds of the best soil ever. Prior to this dumping the worms out, I had prepared the new worm bins, tearing up sheets of newspaper to use as bedding. I also put in some leafs and a bit of dirt for grit for them. I moistened it all down and then added the new worms, but not before I held them in my hand. Pretty incredible little creatures and very able composters. I've add their "black gold" to a pot that I just planted basil in. I hope it will be the best basil ever.
Right now, the worms handle most of the kitchen scrap, and the rest goes out to the compost. One of the most facinating things was that after I'd transfered all the worms to their new bins, I started to bag up the good soil and I noticed that there were dozens of tiny little baby worms still in the soil! Tiny little guys and gals. There were also lots of other little buggy critters in the soil, which I hadn't noticed before. There were little egg shaped things about the size of a Cilantro seed. I'm not sure what they were. But I suppose I've got a whole little eco-system in there and shouldn't be surprised to see other life forms. I'll have to consult my worm book to see if I can figure out what they were.
posted by Justin Schroeder at 11:02 AM
2 Comments:
Wow! That's pretty crazy. How did you get the worms to move out of the dirt so you could collect it? Something about sunlight? Pretty interesting stuff. I'm sure you're basil will be magnificent.
I've never seen a worm farm. It sounds pretty amazing. So you just throw your kitchen scraps into the box, and they "digest" them?
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