Worms on the move (con't) by Larry Feltz

I filled the box with 15 pounds of shredded newspaper. Then I added 45 pounds of water (about 5.5 gallons), and about 2 gallons of soil (earth worms require a bit of grit for their gizzards to help grind their food - sort of like chickens). To this "bedding" I added the worms and about 20 pounds of garbage (no meats, fats, dairy, or oils).

For the next five months I added whatever organic household waste we generated. Corn husks, corn cobs, lettuce, melon rinds, everything organic (except for the few above mentioned items), coffee grounds, tea bags, stale chips, leftover pizza, everything. The worms (and their allies) composted everything even the newspaper-bedding. gradually it all was passed through the gullets of these tiny worms and what emerged was "worm castings" or the "black gold" that gardeners praise as the best soil additive available. I had great luck with this system and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in recycling, composting, gardening.

But these worms normally can't live outside in the earth. Not enough organic matter; and they can not withstand freezing temperatures. In fact they are most active right around 70 degrees F. They become pretty sluggish below 50 degrees. So it was time for me to bring them inside for the winter. On Wednesday, September 26, 2001, I emptied the contents of the box into two half-barrels that I got when I cut in half a 55 gallon drum I had obtained from the local carwash.


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