by Wonder Worman | Jun 4, 2010 | Less in the Landfill, Red Wiggler World
I have been tweeting and facebooking about my newest worm adventure. Lavabelles has joined the “Wormability” movement!
Lavabelles is a really neat business. They have renovated 8 homes built in the 1940’s, I believe. I need to get the exact information from Cara, the head honcho. Each home is fully furnished with modern and turn of the century pieces. They can be rented for a night or as long as a month!
I was very excited when Cara wanted to expand her recycling efforts to include vermicomposting! Since this was my first gig with providing a worm service, I wanted to take my time researching to make sure this would be successful. With my camera in hand, I took photos of the property to find the best place for the worm bin and outside food scrap container. By the way, Carlos, my really talented, creative, designer husband, came along! He has an eye for this type of thing! Anyway, we found the spots, and then I was off to the stores to find the best containers. After a few hours, I found one for the kitchen and one for the outside.
This is what I found! This super cool stuff is on the kitchen counter in the “Flo” house. The container is for the preconsumed kitchen waste. Carlos created the “How to do the Red Wiggler” info poster which explains what the worms love and and hate to eat. There is also a condensed version on the counter, too.
Kudos to Carlos! Once again, he bangs things out and they look SWEEEEEET! Check out the stickers on the container.
After filling up the indoor container with food for the worms, it will be brought outside.
This is the outdoor food collection bin. I will be there every Monday to empty and sort the food for the worms. The renter does not have to worry about feeding the worms.
The last step of the composting process and my favorite, The Worm Bin. Not sure if you can see the combo lock there to the left of my logo. I assembled that nifty piece all by myself! It took me a few days and trips back to the house to ask Carlos how to work the drill, change the battery pack, and attach and detach all of the bits. Eventually, I was able to drill that sucker on!
I will be here once a week checking on my babies and making sure this operation runs smoothly! I am so excited to be doing what I love!!! There truly is nothing like it!
More to come.
Happy Worming.
The sun is finally making an appearance! I missed you!
by Wonder Worman | Apr 26, 2010 | Less in the Landfill, Red Wiggler World
Composting with Red Wigglers requires bedding material. There needs to be a mixture of green and brown waste. The green waste would be considered the veggie and fruits scraps and the brown waste would be the shredded newspaper/peat moss combination. In the past, I have been using a 50/50 combination for the bedding. This season I’ve changed the ratio to 75% newspaper and 25% peat moss. I want to mix it up a bit.
Making sure I do not have a lot of colored paper or the slick advertisements, I start the shredding process. Some vermicomposters like to use a paper shredder. I prefer to use my hands. Shredding the paper is very relaxing. I find myself day dreaming and traveling off to some tropical island. Any way! I wanted to share my new bedding material with you. I will keep you updated on the process and report if I made any changes.
Happy wormin’
by Wonder Worman | Apr 21, 2010 | Less in the Landfill, Red Wiggler World
Actually I delivered two bins today minus the Super Composting Red Wigglers. The weather this week has been rather silly! On Sunday, it was near 70, and today it was close to 40! Yucky for sure. The weather was not ideal, and I did not feel comfortable setting my red wigglers into their new homes. The worms will be delivered in about 2 weeks. By then, I hope the weather has improved and the nightime lows are above freezing.
My clients were very excited to get the bins even without the worms, knowing they can still compost. Food waste will be tossed into the bin and will begin to break down. So when the worms do arrive, the bedding will have food scraps for them to eat.
I am excited for this season of vermicomposting. I am scheduled to be at the Earth Day Fair this Saturday 4/24 in downtown Bend at the Environmental Center. There will be many local Earth loving people there!! Come down and say “Hi”.
More later! happy wormin’
by Wonder Worman | Jan 16, 2010 | Less in the Landfill, Red Wiggler World
After browsing through my worm photos, I found this shot of me with my Super Composting Red Wigglers!
Boy, I have missed them during these cold winter days. I am feeding them, but not moving the bedding around too much as to not blast them with cold air. I am also not selling them until the weather warms up, probably March? I will keep the worm community posted!
Any way, back to the “Layering”. Sorry, I got off topic. A common thing lately! Geez… So, when I feed the worms the various, yummy kitchen scraps from the day/week, I throw the waste on the top of the bedding then sprinkle a little bedding on top. Then I finally cover the bedding/waste mixture with wet newspaper.
The newspaper blanket, I believe, blocks out the light so the worms with come to the top to feed. Knowing that red wigglers are surface dwellers, I think this helps them feel more comfortable. When they are relaxed and less stressed, I think they will eat more and will have less indigestion.
I love these red wigglers and what they do for the planet! So I want to give them the best eating experience. LOL!!!
by Wonder Worman | Nov 18, 2009 | Less in the Landfill, Red Wiggler World
This is it! The final delivery of the season! It was a cool one for sure, and one that I will remember for a while (well at least when I have the pictures as prompts…I need all the help I can get. The mind ain’t what it used to be) On Monday, I took a pound of worms, a bin, peat moss, shredded newspaper, and my hubby to a Llama and Alpaca Farm. Marty, the human leader of the animals, greeted us with a huge smile and a hand shake. She lead us to the future home of the red wigglers, a renovated chicken coop that was invaded by racoons…Yikes. The chicken coop was already set up with a heat lamp and hay…perfect for a red wiggler set up in November. Totally cool! These guys love their llamas and alpacas and will soon love their red wigglers. Just look at that set up!
Here’s a picture of hay which is above sheets of newspaper. This will keep the worms warm especially during the chilly Bend nights.
Doesn’t this look yummmmmmy!!! Marty was all set with food scraps for the red wigglers. I put the rotting lettuce, celery, cucumbers and squash on top of the bedding and covered the scraps with the sheets of newspaper (another good use for USA today). I use the newspaper to keep the red wigglers contained to the food area so they won’t travel up through the hay. In the summer this helps reduce fruit flies.
Marty’s goal is to reduce her food waste and to also compost her llama and alpaca waste. I don’t have experience with animal waste so she is my test case. We will be chatting a bunch to see how the red wigglers are doing. I am excited to see what happens!!
by Wonder Worman | Nov 6, 2009 | Less in the Landfill, Red Wiggler World
I came home this afternoon to find my pumpkin collection bucket full of nasty, rotting pumpkins. My red wigglers will be feasting for a while, especially on something they enjoy.
During my 5+ years of vermicomposting, I have found that they love pumpkins. In the past, I have halved and quartered pumpkins and tossed them into the worm bins. After a day or so, I checked on them and lifted a piece of the pumpkin and to my surprise, I found a cluster of red wigglers underneath! Way cool!!!
If you have a worm bin and pumpkins left, go ahead and feed them to your worms!
Thanks to all of my friends for supplying these nasty, rotting pumpkins!
I have been tweeting and facebooking about my newest worm adventure. Lavabelles has joined the “Wormability” movement!
This is what I found! This super cool stuff is on the kitchen counter in the “Flo” house. The container is for the preconsumed kitchen waste. Carlos created the “How to do the Red Wiggler” info poster which explains what the worms love and and hate to eat. There is also a condensed version on the counter, too.
This is the outdoor food collection bin. I will be there every Monday to empty and sort the food for the worms. The renter does not have to worry about feeding the worms.
The last step of the composting process and my favorite, The Worm Bin. Not sure if you can see the combo lock there to the left of my logo. I assembled that nifty piece all by myself! It took me a few days and trips back to the house to ask Carlos how to work the drill, change the battery pack, and attach and detach all of the bits. Eventually, I was able to drill that sucker on!
