Friday, July 01, 2011

Composing compost

I am trying to grow worms, or more like, make compost. We have the chicken wire structures for leaves in the backyard, but we haven't harvested any compost yet. The leaves are from last fall but admittedly we left them scattered about the yard throughout the winter and didn't gather them for composting until this spring. So we wait.

But today, as I was expanding the garden beds (still need to get large stones or some other edging material), I found a bunch of worms. I have the general idea that our yard is really unhealthy so I'm surprised that there's actual life! Ever since my friend shared her compost setup with me, I've wanted to try the same thing. So I made a mini version of http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/easywormbin.htm using those rectangular plastic takeout containers. I only put in maybe 5 worms with the hope that they'll reproduce and if things don't quite work out, I won't be responsible for a major worm massacre. I also don't want to undo the good work that these worms have been doing outside. Hopefully I don't commit worm-cide or track unwanted pests with this but we'll see how it goes.