25 lbs of worm castings!
Worm castings or vermicompost as it is called is an excellent, nutrient-rich organic fertilizer and soil conditioner you can get at the garden nurseries. Last year while planting tomatoes I added some worm castings that I bought to put in each hole with the plants to make the soil richer. I vowed that I would not buy them again as they are expensive. I thought with all stuff here on the property that I could feed the worms, I should get some red wiggler worms and become a worm farmer. So I did.
Screening the worm castings
Wednesday I ‘harvested’ my first worm castings. My worm bin is outside and consists of some straw bales formed in a ‘U’ shape that I have across from the chicken coop. I built it last fall and have fed the red wigglers a variety of food including giant pumpkins, coffee grounds, eggshells, straw, newspaper, fruit (no citrus-it will kill them) and vegetable kitchen scraps. Just like a regular compost bin but no work is involved-no turning the pile over and over to get it to decompose. The worms do the work. They eat everything and leave their castings behind. I built a screen to sift out the worms and debris from the castings. I sifted it twice to make sure I got the worms and stuff separated from the castings. I got a full 5 gallon bucket of castings! Unbelievable and wonderful! I took it up to the house to see how much the bucket weighed and it weighed 25 lbs!
giantveggiegardener 
Fantastic!
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Celia! I didn’t realize artchismo was you! Good to hear from you!
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Janine! Hi, it was great to meet you at the wedding in Taos this weekend. I am so grateful for your blog, im going to need some rainy days to mine it for all that i want to learn.
I would love to receive a gigantic pumpkin seed, if you have a moment, my mailing address is Mike McMannon, PO Box 2187, El Prado, 87529.
Thanks again, and i will be in touch- im super excited to use the Garden Plan link, as i am tired of my graph paper and colored pencils. Love!
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Great to meet you too! I will get a couple off to you this week..
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I had no idea worm composting was as easy as that. May have to give it a try.
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It’s super easy. I’m not a very good traditional composter but for vermicomposting all I have to do is give them some food and water- enough to keep the stuff moist but not super wet. I actually got about 50 lbs all together!
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I love vermicompost for my garden. I have a DIY stacked bin that works great.
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LOVE all those little wormies…THEY do all the work, and I just feed them with stuff and love…
I just built a straw bale worm bin, which should help them survive the freezing temperatures of
winter and the sun and heat of summer…(I never could master summer heat and winter cold when I had them in plastic bins outside: goodbye my dear little friends from the plastic bins…RIP…
I am looking forward to taking my bucket of worms out of my bathtub next week, and inviting my lil’ worms to their new home…More fun than having goldfish (“Not that there’s anything wrong with that”).
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