Worm wrangling

[boolean263]

As I mentioned about a month ago, I've been vermicomposting my organic waste, as part of a trial run by the City of Ottawa. Lately I've had to cut back how much I feed my worms, because the box seems to have quite a high moisture content (no doubt caused by making "smoothies" out of my organic waste so it's easier for the worms to process) and the

Comments

[rebeccmeister]

Ahaha, I have a funny feeling that I'll have similar amusing anecdotes to share pretty soon. I think my bin is a bit too small as well, but fortunately I have a compost heap to serve as a backup. I'm glad you mentioned the old shower curtain method! I was trying to figure out how I would separate worms from soil, and I happen to have an old shower curtain, so that will work nicely!

I've already had one adventure that you'll probably avoid--I added some real soil (from outside) to my bin as some initial bedding, and apparently there was a wasp pupa in the soil. Lo and behold, when I went to open the box, a wasp came out! Fortunately, I was able to trap it and put it outside.

A friend of mine is going to loan me a book called Worms Eat My Garbage, which promises to be helpful. Stay tuned. (:

[boolean263]

Nice! As I understand it, that book is the definitive bible of vermicomposting. I should check it out too

[semiloki]

Well, it is an adventure but you sort of have to expect little setbacks when you try such things in an urban setting. That's probably part of the reason you don't see it done more often. Finding room to work is a reoccuring problem in a lot of ways with urban settings.

Good luck with your little wormy guys. In your situation if this shower curtain thing becomes a reocurring problem, then I would just suggest trying to take in account what room you do have to work with. If you have a grassy area to work with you can clean that off fairly easily if you have a large bucket to carry water. If all else fails, look for a self serve car wash and take some quarters.

It's not free, but it works. Just make sure you have something to carry the wet stuff in and a place to air dry it later. Balconies work great for that.