Vermicomposting: The Easiest DIY Home Project (& Kids' Pet) Ever

My husband had taken the news, that there were currently 2,000 worms traveling on their way to our home, incredibly well. I might say that I’d bought some patience with my willingness to indulge his own recent out-there scheme, if I wasn’t fully convinced that his acceptance was completely explained by the fact that he’s a saint. And a stoic. That may have helped, too.

With the hard part behind me, it was time to prep for our new friends. I purchased bins from Home Depot and drilled some air holes toward the top of all 4 sides. I used some screen door mesh I had left over to cover the larger-than-the-worm-sized air holes to prevent too many from escaping. While I thought this might be an unnecessary step (adding the screen, not the holes- worms need to breathe! Don’t skip the air holes!), later it was one I was incredibly glad to have taken.

A few things will cause your worms to attempt a run for it. Those include if your farm becomes too out of balance, too acidic, too wet, too dry, too populated with baby worms (Mama worms, I feel you, sometimes we all want to run away!), and when they’re adjusting to change, such as when you first add them to their new home, or when the barometer changes (for example when a thunderstorm is rolling through). Suffice it to say that I would have been wormless after the first week if I hadn’t added the screen. During that period, every time I removed the lid I found mounds of worms desperately searching for an exit. They calmed down thereafter, and seemed to be as happy as I imagine is possible for a worm.

Worms need “bedding”, the contents of which will also find its way into your newly composted soil. I started with a brick of coconut coir, to which I added water (per instructions with the brick). Once the coconut coir was nice and fluffy I mixed in scraps of cardboard. If you’re like us, you got very used to deliveries pouring in while self-isolating, the accompanying cardboard boxes go to great use in a worm farm. Be aware of dyes in any of the substances you add, since they’re not great for the worms. I always have more than enough cardboard, so I usually don’t use any that has something printed on it (usually in black ink) or parts where there is still sticky residue from sticker labels or tape. I try to keep this rule in mind, too, when adding paper from my shredder. White paper, the most common I shred, has been bleached and too much is not great for the worms either. That being said, I added a few handfuls of shredded paper to the coconut coir and cardboard for the worms to bed in and turn into something useful! I topped it off with a little top soil to give them a little grit, and enough water to make the mixture feel similarly wet as a wrung out sponge.

At this point we made a small hole in the bedding, deposited the worms in the hole, covered them with a bit of water, per the instructions with which they were shipped, and covered them up with some of the bedding. The worms do not like light, and they definitely need a few days to recover from their travels, so we waited one day before adding a little food. We added the scraps much like we added the worms, digging out a small divot, depositing avocado peels (worms love avocado!), apple, and bell pepper scraps, and then covering up the food with bedding. While I’m sure the worms appreciate not having to come to the surface to access the food, this really helps reduce the chances that you develop a pest problem.

I kept an eye on the rate at which the food disappeared to determine how much we should be adding weekly, left the lid off outside on occasion when the worms seemed to be congregating on the escape route (again, they really don’t want to be in the sun- but I only did this if I was sticking close by gardening since we had some pretty brazen birds who would have had a field day otherwise), and sure enough I had some black gold within three months! If the harvest from our garden had anything to do with the nutrient rich worm castings we were regularly adding, that alone would have made our vermicomposting project a success. That it was also a low effort way to reduce our trash creation and it gave us an opportunity to teach and entertain our kids were bonuses that lead me to encourage anyone with interest to give worm farming a try!