Early one weekend morning before Matt was up, I got inspired to start a worm bin. It's like a compost pile, but more urban- ie, it's inside. Everything I read about itdescribed the process as "easier than taking out the garbage," "no smell," and "too easy for instructions." So I found an arbitrarily sized plastic bin, ordered some red worms online and started saving scraps from the kitchen. Unfortunately- the scraps got ahead of the worms, which is probably not an ideal way to get the bin started. Because, without worms, a worm bin definitely smells. So the worms arrived, and had a lot of catching up to do. This probably set a bad precedent. Matt asked me if I think of the worms as pets, I suppose because I worry about them a bit. I don't think of them as pets, more like a slightly malfunctioning appliance.
You see, being an organic appliance without instructions, there seems to be quite a lot of tinkering to deal with. First to get the wetness right, otherwise the worms try to crawl out. And if the worms aren't doing all the eating, fruit flies start breeding. And if there is too much wet, and not enough air, all the old food creates an array of horrific smells. Currently, I've drilled some holes in the lid to circulate air, added extra cardboard to moderate the moisture and set a fruit fly trap in the basement. It's still a work in progress, but I hope someday we'll have the hang of composting our own food scraps on site.
1 comment:
Tell Matt -they are not really pets if you have not named them.
Have you considered putting some straw in their bin for absorbency and fluffiness? Might be easier to find in P'burgh around Halloween if people use it for decorating.
I really appreciate my worms, this year I actually harvested enough of their compost to be useful in the garden. They do not have names.
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