Composting with Worms: Set up a Compost Heap

Over the past few months I have been buzzing about composting with worms. You already know the benefits of worms – if not you can visit my article about why you want to use worms for composting. Now let’s move on to setting up a compost heap. I am going to admit that I am about to tell you the easy way of doing it – purchase a worm compost bin and a lot of the hard stuff is already done for you. They make bins that allow the worms to live happily, travel through soil and compost and multiply. Happy worms mean a happy worm owner, as you, your garden and your environment benefit from worm tea (leachate), compost and the reducing the amount of garbage you send to landfills.

One bin that I’ve had experience with setting up is the Worm Factory from Cascade Worm Bin. It’s a multi-tiered bin that allows worms to eat the waste in the lowest tray and then they migrate upward to the higher trays to fin more food. It naturally separates them from the finished compost that ends up in your garden.  Plus, as the waste is broken down, the worm tea gathers in a special collection tray at the bottom that you can tap using the built-in spigot. As you can tell, the tray makes the whole process VERY EASY.

There is still some set-up, beyond the stacking of trays. You do need to attach the spigot, which is provided along with the Worm Factory. And you have to attach the handle to the top cover. That is the end of assembly, though, and it takes mere minutes. The other step is building your home for the worms. You want to have this done before you order worms.

Place one of the feeding trays on the collector/base tray. Lay 4 sheets of newspaper in the tray to cover the holes.  Next scoop the moistened coconut coir into the tray by handfuls, squeezing out excess moisture. The fiber should not be dripping wet.

Mix several handfuls of rich, dark soil or compost with the coir to seed the bedding with the microorganisms that break down the organic material, making it available to the worms. Place 2 handfuls of food waste on top of the coir so that when the worms arrive there will be food ready for them. Cover with 4 inches of shredded, damp newspaper.

There you go! Set-up is done and now you just have to wait for your worms. At this point, when your worms arrive you want to place them onto the surface of the bedding, under the layer or shredded, moist paper.

If you choose to use the Worm Factory from Cascade Worm Bin, they provide complete instruction with their bin on when and how to add the next tray, as well as when to harvest. Plus, they have great support, durable product and wonderful instructions to follow! And you can also get great tips by following wormfactory on twitter!