I came across a link for apartment composting back in April 2008. Being an apartment dweller and one who tries to minimize her carbon footprint, I clicked and read, becoming increasingly enchanted with the idea of worms eating my garbage right here in my apartment. A month after finding that article, I was over the "grossness" factor of keeping worms in my home and bought the materials to begin composting in my kitchen: my first worm bin, Adam.
Everything went swimmingly and I enjoyed my worms, checking them regularly to make sure they were happy. Then it came time to do something with the worm castings (poop). Thrilled with composting but not sure what to do with the box of poop, I bought the materials for a second worm bin. Dividing the poop over the two bins left plenty of space in each for more bedding and food, so I continued on feeding both bins, Adam and Eve.
Later I put a second story on the original bin, Adam, and split the second, Eve, into two bins, yielding three worm bins total: Adam, Eve and The Offspring. I tried giving poop away and there were no takers. Apparently, folks were too bothered by the fact that I wanted to give them worm shit. One day, my boss, Ken, was desperate to save a palm tree in his yard which had taken ill. Finally, a poop-taker! Ken marveled at the quality of the poop, nice and dark without odor, and has since boasted the power of worm poop to coworkers, who in turn accepted worm poop.
To date my worms have effortlessly cranked out at least approximately 52 gallons of fertilizer, right here in my tiny apartment, all of it given away to coworkers, a friend in outskirts of Chicago (who subsequently started her own worm bin), property manager, and neighbor, many requesting more. And now, worm poop is no longer in the excess category but has fallen into the demand category.
Thus, the blog. Questions are answered and if they haven't been yet, I'll be happy to answer new ones. Paper and food donators will be able to see where their donations go and poop receivers will be able to see their poop gifts in the making. Poop receivers, I hope you'll send me photos to post illustrating how you use your poop and what might grow from your worm poop. For those of you who want to start a worm bin of your own, I'll show you how to do that as well as how to maintain it.
If you are intrigued but still grossed out or worried that you won't be able to maintain worms, I won't hold it against you. I wasn't too confident about my being able to keep worms when I first read about it. It's easy to imagine the whole thing going wrong and having a big pile of muck on the floor and worms all over the place. Stick around and I'll show you what to realistically expect when keeping worms.
Maybe you'll change your mind about having worms and will start a bin of your own. Maybe you'll simply be more aware of what goes into your garbage disposal/cans and shop wiser and dispose wiser. Or maybe none of that will happen but you continue reading because my superior writing skills keep you enthralled. Snort, gfaw! In that last case, I hope you pass the link on. Thus, everyone wins.
Worm Wrangler, 100311
