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WORM FARMING
 Harness the power of worms to convert garbage into food for plants! 
by: Duane Marcus The Funny Farmhttp://tinyurl.com/funnyfarm 
Organic Gardening Workshop
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Worm Farming 
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WHY GROW WORMS?
 For the castings of course! 
Why grow worms?
 There are many reasons why people grow worms... to sell to bait shops, to feed chickens and fish, to divertfood waste from landfills. All are very good reasons. We gardeners grow worms so we can harvest theirpoop to feed our plants. We call it worm castings.
Worms are livestock too
Worms, like any livestock, have basic needs that we worm wranglers must satisfy before we can get themto poop. They need something to eat, something to drink, air to breathe, and a place to live that is dark.Red wigglers are the most type used in a worm bin. Worms eat decaying organic matter like leaves, paper,food scraps, cardboard. They have very tiny mouths so they need help from the microorganism in the soilfood web to break down the food into teeny tiny pieces that they can ingest. Along with the tiny bits of food they also ingest bacteria that live in their stomachs continuing to break down the food so the wormcan absorb the nutrients in food.
Setting up a worm bin
First we need a container in which to raise our worms. It needs to be opaque to keep out light; it needs toallow air in and water out; it needs to be varmint
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proof and it needs to be big enough to accommodate theamount of food scraps one produces each week. I like to use a container that can be repurposed, saving itfrom the landfill. You can get buckets from restaurantsand donut shops. You can use old rubbermaid bins. Youcan build them out of scrap lumber scavenged from con
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struction sites. We will use a repurposed bin as an exam
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ple of how to prepare the container for use as a wormfarm.Step 1. Drill about 20 1/8” holes in the top of the bin tolet in air.Step 2. Drill 10 holes in the side of the container about 3inches from the top rim.
Organic Gardening Workshop
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Worm Farming 
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Step 3. Drill 10 holes in the side of the container about 3 inches from the bottom rim.Step 4. Drill 10 holes in the side of the container 1/2 way betweenthe top and bottom rows.Step 5. Drill 10 1/4” holes in the bottom of the container to let out water.Step 6. Place a piece of landscape fabric in the bottom of the bin tokeep the worms from crawling out of the holes in the bottom.Step 7. Place moistened bedding in thebottom of the bin 3” deep. Flu
ff 
bed
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ding up to create plenty of room forair. Good materials for bedding areleaves, shredded paper or cardboard.Moisten the bedding by soaking in wa 
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ter and wringing out the excess. It should feel like a damp sponge.Step 8. Sprinkle a handful of good garden soil or compost over the bedding. The soil serves to inoculatethe bin with soil microorganisms that will break down the organic matter. Worms need grit in their gulletsto crush up the food they ingest. They also get that from the soil or compost.Step 9. Add worms and cover with 1” of moist bedding.Step 10. Put in scraps from the kitchen. Vegetable trimmings, left over food
( 
except meat, cheese and grease
 )
, old bread, co
ff 
ee grounds
( 
including filters
 )
, tea bags, paper towels, shredded paper, torn up card
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Organic Gardening Workshop
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Worm Farming 
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