Making a Worm Bin

I am not a very good gardener.  I did not inherit my Grandma Anna's green thumb.  But I always try to grow my own food.  One of the things that is really needed for growing things is good soil.  I have a couple of compost bins but I also wanted to make a worm compost bin so that we could also do vermiculture.  I had a simple one made from a plastic bin in grad school so I was excited when I saw these instructions to make your own worm bin from two plastic bins.  I saved it to my pinterest boards with the intention of doing it one day.

That day came this week when my daughter decided to do a project with worms for her science fair experiment.  We got a small container of 30 red worms so that she could test what material (rock, sand, soil, leaves) they preferred.

Red worms (Eisenia hortensis) 

 After we tested them we needed to do something with them so I used it as an excuse to make my worm bin.  Since worms eat about half their weight in food scraps each day 30 is not really enough so I will most likely get more.  They will also multiply on their own.  In the mean time I am making sure to only give them a small amount of our food scraps and the rest will either go to the chickens or into the regular compost bin.


This worm bin is so easy even a seven year old can do it (with adult supervision). 

1/4 inch holes are drilled into the bottom of both bins for drainage and worm movement between bins.  1/16 inch holes are drilled in one cover and around the upper edge of both bins for air exchange.



Getting the bedding ready for the bin is great fun for kids and even the toddler wanted to help.

Shredded wet news paper serves as bedding while coffee grounds and filter serve as food.  I later added some sand after remembering that the worms need it for their crops where they grind their food.

I put the bins out in a sheltered part of the deck.  The undrilled cover is beneath to catch moisture and vermicompost "tea".  This bin is small enough it could also be kept in the kitchen, pantry or garage. 

Some additional resources that might come in handy:
Ladybird Organics and Monticello Vineyards is a source for worms.  If you don't want to make your own worm bin you can also buy worm castings from them.  I have bought their castings at Tallahassee Native Nurseries and through Turkey Hill Farm.

Worms Eat my Garbage was a book I used when I was vermicomposting in grad school and I found it to be very helpful.