Earthy Updates

I haven't written about my little wormy friends in a while now. Seems appropriate time for a quick update! I've moved the worm bucket outdoors at Captain Obvious' suggestion (worms creep her right out) and I've moved them to a shaded area in the car port away from sun. I have to admit, with my summer schedule in full swing, I have less and less time to regularly monitor the bin. So, I end up periodically going in there. They're not thriving, let me tell you. But, they're not dead either. Some baby worms are being born but I'm not "swimming" in the wormies.

I have been loosely monitoring what I put in there and seeing what's eaten quickly and what sticks around for a while. Here are some things I've noticed about my worm bin:

1. Peels are eaten at a much slower rate. And it makes sense since skins are meant to protect the fruit/plant from the outside
2. Root vegetables are not the favourite food of worms
3. Worms love leafy vegetables
4. There is no such thing as having too much newspaper bedding because they'll happily go through it quickly for you
5. If it's too damp, add dry shredded news paper and close the top--the moisture is absorbed by the dry paper
6. Regular feeding is preferred but you can easily overdo it if you're not careful
7. Daily feeding isn' really necessary and if you have a pile every few days, that's really ok
8. Chop up what you have--especially if it's fibrey. The worms seem to have a better time when things are in smaller pieces

Possibly things people already know but I'm still learning about what's acceptable to put in there and what isn't so it's all still new to me! At least I didn't kill them this time so I'm in good shape. I'll need to check in about egg shells because I was putting them in whole but I read that worms need some "grit" to help them digest their food and that egg shells are really only good if they are added in a fine powder. Who has the time for that?! I've done it before but it's rather time consuming.

My next major goal with this project is to increase the population of worms so that I can dig my hands in and pull out actual worm castings and worms. Right now, I'm still getting recognizable pieces.