Not that kind. That would be gross. No, these are the good kind of worms, red worms. As part of my "it's SPRING! I must GARDEN!" mood I sent Will off to work a few days ago with a couple of old coffee cans to take a part of his company's monthly worm bin harvest. They have a big, black worm bin in one of the closets of their office that turns lunch leftovers and coffee grounds into the most amazing black soil (well, worm castings) I've ever seen.
We do not have a compost bin currently. I know *gasp!* The horror of it! But we dispose of most of our bread like things by setting them on a little tray for the birds and the squirrels (mostly squirrels) and the chickens have been eating up a lot of the vegetable matter, but we still have more compostable stuff going into the trash than we would like. So as I was adding a few spoonfuls of the worm castings to my violets I decided it was high time we did something about it. And as the worm castings Will brings home always have plenty of worms in them, now seemed the perfect time.
The next day I was offered, out of the blue, two just the right size to fit under the sink plastic tubs. Better and better. We would now have a totally free, saved something from heading to the dump worm bin! So while Evelyn was napping (or playing Lego's, I'm not sure which, it seemed pretty loud up there for a nap) I drilled holes in the two bins, shredded some paper, wet it down and added the worms. So far they seem pretty happy down there. Most of the directions I found online suggested that dark bins were best but since they are under our sink in the dark I'm thinking the clear bins will work. And other than the fact that somebody, and I'm not naming any names but he is tall and I'm married to him, keeps forgetting that we have a worm bin now and continues to water the hydrangea with coffee grounds every morning, I think we're getting the hang of it.
Chew! Wormies! Chew! My plants can't wait for some nice, made-under-the-sink compost to get them through the growing season!