Adventures in Vermicomposting

In the backyard of our former house lived two blue bins. What lived inside those bins was gold-ok it was black, but worth more than gold to me. It was my compost! I obsessed over what I could add to it, turned it regularly, and grew to love my ugly boxes of decay. Of course, in our adventure known as "moving" I had to dump out my precious compost and yes, I cried.

I've been sitting in our current house, a rental, missing the process of adding to my bins and knowing that after a few years I could feed all my beautiful flowers. This past Monday I decided this was just plain silly. I should be able to compost no matter where I live! With a little bit of research, a power drill, and some worms; I built a vermicomposting bin.

Being in the dead of winter, I didn't want my wormies to become wormcicles, so of course I stored them in our 1/2 bath downstairs! I knew we wouldn't be expecting any guests in the near future and The Father and I could use some exercise walking up the stairs to the throne. This was so much fun already! I fed them a few baby carrots and an apple core and made sure their newspaper bedding stayed dry.

Everything was going well until this morning! CAUTION: Worms on the lam! I woke up to find 15 worms shriveled up into sticks on my laundry room floor. There were 5 more that we rescued just in time. This time we secured the lid to the bin using the attached latches. There were air holes so surely they wouldn't suffocate.

4 hours go by... we return home from an outing to the library and hardware store.
I SHIT YOU NOT- 25 worms all over the bathroom floor, 3 two feet up the wall, 1 on the toilet seat and 1 had made his way into our kitchen!!!!

[insert the quiet sound of Taps being played on a tiny worm-sized bugle]

Where oh where did I go wrong? and better yet, what do I do now?

Did I mention how much worms gross me out? No? Well they do and I use a toothpick to move them from the from one area to another. No, I don't stab them like an appetizer; I just scoop them up and relocate their precious, squirmy selves.

For the moment, they are living in the garage as I try to find a better place for them to live.

I tried... and I failed. I accept my defeat.