Meanwhile, back at the Wriggly Wranch..

No deer or antelope to speak of this time around. This range/ranch is more of a plastic box with legs that houses eisenia fetida, or Red Wriggler worms. These very squirmy wormies are originally from South America and like to live in the relatively shallow top layer of earth, where they eat decaying organic matter. This fact makes them ideal for vermicomposting (you know, "verm" + "compost"), due to the fact that they are tolerant of living in small spaces like a plastic box with legs.

I got my Wriggly Wranch when I attended a Los Angeles County Dept. of Public Works- sponsored gardening workshop where eager but yet-ignorant citizens can learn about backyard and worm composting as well as fire- and water-wise gardening and grass recycling. If you attend, you can buy either a biostack or worm compost bin with worms at a subsidized price. Yes, the subsidized price still wasn't dirt (pardon the pun) cheap, but I consider the Wriggly Wranch and my worms worth the $65.00 I paid out.

I set up my little worm condo on my porch at the beginning of November 2008, when we were having some unseasonably warm weather. Setting up the bin involved wetting and fluffing a compacted brick of coconut coir (the shaved outer layer of coconut husk that covers the shell) inside the Wriggly Wranch and then burying the worms, along with some kitchen scraps, in it. Put the lid on and wait and the worms eat the coconut coir and the kitchen scraps and produce a poo poo (aka "worm casting") so full of plant nutrients that any old nasty seed tossed into it will sprout a healthy seedling in just a couple of days flat. The worms can eat almost half their weight in food per day when they're feeling their oats (..or green pepper stems, or mango peelings), quickly producing a finely textured compost in a fraction of the time it takes to compost in the traditional way.

Nevertheless, there are some hazards to avoid:

Hazard A: You need to learn how not to "overfeed" the bin. If you feed the worms the right amount, your bin will smell earthy but not stinky at all. The worms like to eat food scraps as soon as they begin to acquire bacteria. (Think of veggies that are starting to get slimy or droopy and brown-looking. This yukky stuff is just perfect to the worms.) Because they like decaying food and can consume it quickly, you'll only be left with stinking food scraps if the worms have too much to eat and can't get to all of the food yet. The worms, if not overfed, will eat the veggies before they can begin stinking and before they start growing mold. Thus, a very clean, stink free bin due to quick "turnover" (consumption, digestion, and excretion by the worms.) If you see mold begin to form in the bin, chances are you've overfed. Word to the worm-wise: be advised that if you put in some freshly trimmed green parsley stems..or fresh anything.., the worms may not eat them for about a week or more, until they start to wilt and go bad. In the picture to the right, you can see the food scraps and coconut coir. At this time, I had a small amount of worms and this amount of food turned out to be too much for them, which I learned when a white mold started to form on the surface of the coconut coir beneath which some of the food scraps were buried. In the left front corner, you see some pumpkin seed sprouts. These were pulled out of the coconut coir where they'd begun to sprout up.

Hazard B: Bugs. Little other creatures will also make a home of the bin (especially if you put the bin outdoors for any length of time.) Springtails, fungus gnats, mites, fruit flies, drain flies, and house flies all like the decaying organic matter in your bin and will happily abide/nest /eat there. Most of these bugs actually help the composting process and do not hurt the worms or the compost. However, if you are like me, you do NOT want house flies and fruit flies and flying things that escape the bin in your house. Don't fear. You can prevent them from getting in there or get rid of them if they do take up residence. When you "feed" the bin, it's important to bury the scraps in the "bedding" (which can be moistened coconut coir, shredded paper, shredded cardboard, etc. on top of or mixed in with the worm castings) to keep fruit flies and the like from laying their eggs on the decaying food.

As the weather began to dip below 50 degrees at night (which is sort of a minimum temperature for the worms), I brought my Wriggly Wranch inside and put it in a corner of my kitchen by the NatureMill and the trash can. Although the lid was on all the time, there was a thriving ecology of bugs that were living in the bin such as springtails, fungus gnats, mites, and drain flies. I learned that the teeny tiny fast-crawling hypoapsis mites eat fruit fly and fungus gnat larvae as well as decaying organic matter so I decided we should keep those around. Besides, the mites aren't interested in crawling outside the bin because there's no food for them outside. As far as the flying pests, it took about a month and a half of burying food cleanly and vacuuming up fruit flies flying around my kitchen, but I did eradicate the population. (Beneficial nematodes can also be introduced to the bin to eat fly larvae.) Always keep an airtight lid on your compost collection bucket, too, because the fruit flies will begin to lay eggs on that if you expose it to the air.

Hazard C: (And this isn't a big hazard.) Wandering worms. There are certain conditions that will cause the worms to crawl up the sides and up in the lid of the bin instead of staying in the dirt. Avoid too much moisture, not enough moisture, too much acidity, not enough bedding material, and overcrowding/overpopulation. (Worms may also temporarily crawl out of the dirt when the barometric pressure drops due to rainy weather, too.) I've never had a worm actually crawl through the aeration holes in the lid, even though some are small enough to do it, because they like to avoid light and dry conditions. You've got the ideal moisture level if you can squeeze a drop or two of water out of a handful of compost. Add more water or bedding material to get the balance right. Important to have enough bedding material because if the worms are living in a container that mostly consists of their poop, it can be toxic to them. So get a good percentage of bedding mixed with the castings. If you feed your worms lots of acidic food such as tomatoes or fruit, your bin might be too acidic. Try adding garden lime or eggshells to get the ph balance corrected. If your worms have been eating a lot, they'll tend to reproduce and crowd the place. They might be crawling out of the dirt just to get a little elbow room (although they don't really have elbows.)

Hazard D: Know what not to feed the worms. No citrus. It has too much acid and isn't good for them. No oils or salt, not even a little bit. And just so you're aware, the worms will avoid anything that is so disgustingly rotten and moldy that it looks like a science experiment. FYI white or blackish molds are safer than pink, yellow, green, or other colored molds. A little white or black mold is OK. The others are starting to make penicillin.

Here's a gleeful picture of the contents and inhabitants of my worm bin. This is a cucumber and some junk mail being eaten. The bin has been doing well since its inception and I'm thinking now that I'm going to turn the outdoor traditional compost bin into a worm bin as soon as the nighttime weather gets above 50 degrees outside. By the way..the worms like to ideally live in temperatures from 50 to 80 degrees, but can survive, although not thrive, at somewhat higher or lower temperatures.

WINNOW'S PICK! Currently, I feel that vermicomposting outshines the competitors (porch traditional compost bin and NatureMill) as the glittering ideal in composting methods! Its advantages include: 1) stink-free when done right 2) best compost (finely textured, most aerated, most plant nutrients) 3) can be located in a kitchen without offending humans 4) can be fairly bug-free when done right, 5) nice by-product compost tea, 6) quickest composting time (just as fast as the NatureMill without the smell).

Now if that's not enough to motivate you to get yourself some worms, I don't know what will. :)