Worm Composting Amusement

Worm composting is fascinating. (Book recommendation- Worms Eat My Garbage!) It’s fun to see what they eat and what they leave behind. I find it makes me increasingly conscious of what is biodegradable, and just how long that takes for anything to break down let alone my waste from daily living. It’s fun to see which foods they like (they are loooooving strawberries tops and any berries that are getting away from me in ripeness.)

Fun experiments include burying a to-go cup. The worms will eat all the paper off the thin plastic liner. The thin plastic liner is one meant to be broken down at a professional composting site and you can see it at the bottom of the photo below. I feel like in less than three weeks time my worms did pretty well! I put it back for them to break down the rest. 

This week was one of my first big harvests of compost sans students. I was surprised at the number of stickers I ended up with. They eat all the banana bits, the avacado bits etc. (I think those are the only things that go in with a peel.) and all that’s left is the sticker. 

Tea is also fun. The worms like it. On any given day I can find a tea bag in the worm bin, tear it open and find a little nest of worms inside enjoying their tea. There’s one fancy tea company that has a plastic sided label and a really slow to break down bag. I’m wondering if it’s silk? Another tea brand used to use staples either to hold the bag to the string or the string to the tag. Either way they’re funny to find. A worm is often tangled up with them when I find them. Now I use staple-less tea bags if I’m not having loose leaf tea. 

This is the first year really having significant compost for my plants. I put some at the base of every plant I put in the ground in June and they seem to be thriving. I’m not going to lie that gives me a thrill.