Feed the Worms – Small Space Composting

Four years ago, my daughter started to have an interest in gardening. More specifically, she wanted to play with the worms in the garden.

I was interested in worms, too. More specifically, I was interested in worm poop.

“Ewww…” right?

My friends who had bountiful vegetable gardens used compost. They had compost heaps or one of those spinning compost bins. Although we have a spacious backyard and could technically put a “heap” there, I just didn’t want to go through the hassle of asking my husband to build a corral for it. I also didn’t want to look at a pile of “trash” in our backyard. Those spinning bins were a great idea, but are pretty pricey. So I took matters into my own hand and built a worm bin for composting.

It was amazingly easy. I found instructions online on how to build a worm bin out of two storage containers. For under $20, I was able to get everything I needed in one store — two plastic storage bins and two packages of live “red wriggler worm” bait from the fishing section. Don’t use nightcrawler worms – apparently they’ll die in a worm bin.

This is my setup (excuse the dustiness and cobwebs — we’ve had it for a while):

Worm Bin

The top bin has holes drilled on the sides, bottom, and the lid. It rests on two bricks that are inside the bottom bin (to catch excess moisture). You can drill holes in both bins and use the extra lid to catch drippings, too. The latter setup allows your worms to migrate to the bottom bin and you’ll need to make sure to add food to compost in there, too.

Read the rest of the post at Don’t Mess with Mama.

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