Build a Simple Outdoor Worm Bin

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How do I set up a worm bin?

Build a Simple Outdoor Worm Bin

If you have a few square feet of garden that you can spare, a worm bin can be easily set up on it. Just nail together a few boards into a square configuration, or cut the bottom off some sort of square container. Basically, you're just looking for four walls, at least 10 inches deep, which will hold their shape if they get wet. Now find something that will serve as a roof or lid, to keep the rain off. Bingo, you're done!

Scrape the soil flat in the garden where you're going to put your worm bin, and set your bottomless box on the soil. The worms won't try to get away. Now add some moist bedding material, which can be the black and white pages from newspaper, or portions of plain brown cardboard boxes. Wring out this material in water to give the worms the moisture they need.

Red wiggler (composting) worms can be ordered year-round through sellers on eBay. Once your worms arrive, put them all together into the bedding, and add some kitchen scraps. You can monitor the rate at which they consumer their food, and add more when they're getting low. It takes a few months for them to transform your leftover food waste, but their rate of consumption will increase as their population grows.

When the worms have produced a bin full of rich black compost for your garden, you can move it all to one side of the bin and add fresh bedding and food to the empty side. Then, after waiting for several days, the worms will have moved into the new area of their box and you will be able to harvest the compost.

   

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