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!
by Wonder Worman | Oct 30, 2009 | Less in the Landfill, Red Wiggler World
Calling all Halloween Jack-O-Lantern and rotting pumpkin owners!
When you are tempted to toss your icky pumpkins into the trash can, don’t! STOP and think about other options.
1. toss them into the corner of your backyard.
2. toss them into your compost pile.
3. toss them into your worm bin!!!
and if these options don’t work for you, GIVE THEM TO THE WONDER WORMAN!!! (if you are local)
Pumpkins are 100% biodegradable. When added to your compost pile, you will have rich fertilizer for the spring! A huge bonus, if you have a worm bin, the worms will have a Halloween treat too! They love, love, love pumpkins! I can’t stress that enough!
REDUCE THE AMOUNT OF USABLE WASTE THAT CLOGS OUR LANDFILLS!!!!
by Wonder Worman | Oct 27, 2009 | Out and About, Red Wiggler World
This has to be the highlight of my Wonder Worming job! I love to go visit the schools and see kids, teachers and staff members eager to learn about worms. I also like to gross them out with some really vivid and cool photos of decomposing food and the red wigglers feasting on it!
Seven Peaks, a beautiful, private school on Bend, recently bought 5 pounds of my earth loving red wigglers. They are creating a school wide composting project to reduce their usable waste and then use the rich organic fertilizer that the worms produce for their community gardens. I will be guiding them on their journey! Stay tuned for future progress.
by Wonder Worman | Oct 4, 2009 | Less in the Landfill, Red Wiggler World
What an unusual day! Bend got about 4 inches of snow! I did not want to disturb the Red Wigglers but had a bunch of kitchen waste that needed to go some where! Usually if we have a lot of snow, I don’t bother the worms and leave the snow on top of the bins for natural insulation. I felt comfortable about going in the bins because this weeks forecast will be in the mid 60s.
The worm bin bedding is at 50 degrees. It has dropped 12 degrees. When the bedding is at 40 degrees, I will insulate the bin with hay.
I didn’t think the worms would be this active. I pulled away the watermelon which was very, very mushy and saw this!! The worms were underneath feasting on the watermelon. Not much has changed with the other food waste.
I look forward to seeing the change when the temperature rises this week.
Happy Wormin‘
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.
