Worms: Nature's Recyclers

In her recent post about recycling, my good Twitter, Facebook and Farm Ville buddy, Jenn Hammer, over at Recycling Gardener, got me thinking about the recycling we do when we're working on client's yards. We recycle the pots we use at The Yard Fairy by returning them to the nursery, we recycle our green waste by separating it out from the general trash, and we re-use materials of all kinds as much as we can (here's a picture of our recycled concrete retaining wall). It's really important for any landscaping business to take care to minimize the waste it produces; it's part of respect for the land, and it shows that we care.

But what about in my own yard? Well, we have a worm composter and we recycle all our kitchen waste and our junk mail. Yes, junk mail. We seem to get a lot of that - do you? Here's how we do it.

First we take the ingredients. The kitchen waste is our fruit and vegetable peels, coffee grounds, tea bags, egg shells, kitchen roll (so long as it doesn't have cleaning materials or fat on it), in fact most everything but meat and fish We try to avoid citrus (too acid) too. We have a compost pail by our kitchen sink that is great for collecting it all in.

The junk mail is anything that is not printed on glossy or plasticized paper, run through our shredder: bills, fliers, office papers, newspapers, and scrap paper. When the shredder bin gets too full, I move it to another bin I have outside and make it wet it down with the hose.

My worm bin is one I got many years ago, and it puts everything in one container. Newer worm composters come in layers, which does help with the harvesting. Some San Diego residents can purchase worm bins at a discount from The Solana Center.

When my kitchen compost pail gets full, I take it out to my worms and feed it to them. I cover the food with a layer of damp (not soggy) shredded paper, and add a handful of dirt sprinkled over the top. The shredded paper acts as a bedding layer for the worms, and helps to reduce any smells and discourage flies. Once the lid is back on the bin, the worms get to work and do their thing.

The worms in question are commonly known as 'red wigglers' (Eisenia foetida). They are shy creatures who bury themselves when exposed to light. Red wiggler worms can eat about half of their weight in food every day. This means if you put one pound (16 ounces) of worms (about 1,000 worms) into your bin, you will be able to feed them one half of a pound (8 ounces) of food every day. The great thing about worms is that they tend to multiply when there is more food around, so you don't have to worry too much about the exact number you start with.

About once per year, I harvest my 'worm castings' - the wonderful highly concentrated, nutrient-packed fertilizer, also known as 'black gold'.

The harvesting process involves separating out the top 12 inches of worms, food and bedding material (shredded paper) and putting that to one side. I then empty out the worm castings from the bin and I use it around my yard and in my vegetable bed. Studies have shown that plants 'fed' this form of fertilizer do significantly better than those fed with chemical fertilizers.

Once the worm castings have been harvested, I put a fresh layer of damp shredded paper back into the worm bin, replace the worms with their food and older bedding, and the whole process starts over again.

The other by-product of worm composting is 'worm tea', a liquid fertilizer that can be used to water potted plants. Many worm bins will have a spigot to drain this liquid. I collect mine in a watering can and then bottle it into recycled soda and juice bottles for later use.

So there you have it, worms really are nature's recyclers and worm composting is a great way to recycle your kitchen waste into valuable compost and fertilizer.

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