Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Lethargy And Vermiculture

So I'm still under the weather. Still not biking. It's been 7 weeks since I felt well.

SEVEN WEEKS...

Grasping for perspective and anything positive I've turned what little energy I have toward hobbying. I started to think about all the cool things that I wish I had the time to get into but never did. The list was long but somewhere near the top was vermiculture. No, it's not something to do with breeding rats, it's composting with worms. I have been considering this for some time and it seems like just the low energy distraction I need.

A bin of worms will eat most non-meat non-dairy kitchen scraps as well as newspaper, cardboard, egg cartons etc, turning it all into highly effective fertilizer for my veggie garden.

There are several different ways to make your own worm composting bin. Most of which can be done with things you already have lying around your house (google it). After some research on worm compost bin design I settled on a simple one bin system from seattletilth.org. There are benefits to doing a stackable system where the worms will separate themselves from the compost on their own but I thought for my first venture I'd keep it simple.


My worm bin is coming along. I have a few vents installed but I think I need a few more. Rather than spend more money on fancy louvered vents I think I'll just drill some 1" holes and glue screen to the inside of the box.

PamJ is kindly helping me out with the worms, which I will get as soon as I'm finished with the box and bedding. Hopefully they will like their new digs.


UPDATE:
The 1" holes with screen worked out great with a healthy serving of super glue. I believe the bin is adequately ventilated.