Composting: Worms at Work

I have been a fan of gardening for a while, but I never really considered composting until I read about how easy composting could be from a blog called Small Notebook. I learned how to make a very affordable indoor compost bin and how to maintain it. One problem, I needed some worms. Not just any worms, but composting worms, because you see, if you add composting worms to a compost bin, composting happens much faster. (It's actually called vermiculturing.) I put the idea in the back of my mind until I saw the results of Rachel's year of composting. I knew then that I needed to give this whole indoor composting a try.
I finally got around to trying composting at the beginning of December, but the red wriggler worms that I needed to buy were out of stock. A week ago, I was finally able to place my order. A couple days ago, I assembled my compost bin. Today the worms arrived!

Here's how to assemble an indoor compost bin just in case you want to try it too.

1. Take two plastic storage containers and stack one inside the other. I had to put two empty sour cream containers in the bottom of one before adding the other bin so that there would be enough room for liquid to collect. Drill holes along the top and on the bottom of the inside bin. The holes look big, but they apparently stay inside. They tend to not like the light. We'll see.

2. Once your holes are drilled, add shredded newspaper, shredded bills, and cut up cardboard from toilet paper rolls, cereal boxes, etc.

3. Next, add a layer of food scraps. I keep all of my scraps in the refrigerator in a storage container because that was a suggestion from Small Notebook. It was suggested to microwave the scraps right before adding them to the pile so that any fruit flies that are present on the scraps are killed before going into the pile. My scraps included tea bags, coffee grounds, egg shells, brussel sprout leaves, lettuce leaves, apple peels, tomatoes, and carrot peels. (You can add any fruits and vegetables except citrus. Meats and breads are not recommended.)

4. When the worms arrived, I placed a layer of damp newspaper over the food and then poured the worms and the dirt that the worms came in into the bin.

5. Add one more layer of wet newspaper on top of the worms and then leave them alone for several days so that they can get used to their new home and they can get to work.

Oh, and if you want to add that special touch to your bin, you can add a cute picture and phrase to your bin with a black sharpie.