Creepy crawling creatures, Oh My!

I have wanted to have a compost bin for quite some time now. Every time I would look into purchasing a bin, I take a look at my pocket book, and the two never seemed to get along. Luckily, most of my vegetable ends make their way into the freezer to make veggie stock, but then post stock making the leftovers went into the trash. That is, until this past week.

I was introduced to a cheap and easy way to make a compost bin at http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/easywormbin.htm, and with the materials, minus the red wiggler worms, were found around the house.

So I set out to make a bin, followed the directions, and in the end had a bin.

 

 

 

Notice: Picture from website, not actual Hooper bin

But, once I had the bin, I needed the extra ingredient, the wiggly work horses, err, worms. I had heard about a local ranch, Recla Ranch, that supplied the surrounding area with red wiggler worms. After work I drove over, met one of the owners, and left, a very proud owner of a small amount of worms for the bin.

As I named as many as I could, Wiggles,Skinny, Curly, Slim, Hank, Pedro.... I placed them in the bin, my chest puffed with pride. Finally! I had a compost bin after so many years of yearning. A little soil, dead plant matter, a few food scraps and moistened cardboard, and the lid safely secured, I left the bin outside the kitchen door to work its magic.

I am not so sure how long it will take the military of eaters to make compost, but I excitedly peeked on them last night, and they are working away. Now my food wastes have been reduced even greater. I now can add the veggie scraps that made stock (once cooled of course) to the compost to feed the wigglers.

Oh how this garden is growing...