Here's the 28-lb bucket of worm castings I harvested today. I started my new worm condo on March 26th this year so it took almost 6 months. I started with 500 red wigglers. I kept the condo outside in the shade of some trees all summer and today I knew I needed to get them inside again for the winter. The compost is soooo rich and wonderful.
Here is the first floor of the condo being prepared for coming inside this fall and winter. I caught most of the worms as I spread out the castings and added them to this condo. Added shredded newspaper and dampened it. Topped it with a layer of spent soil from the annual hanging baskets. I buried some coffee grounds, crushed eggshells, chopped tomato tops and potato peelings all in one small area, which I chopped up small.This condo stays into my bathroom for the winter. There are 2 extra floors so I can add to it during the long winter. With more worms, they'll be more castings and the extra floors may be needed.
The cover you see at the top goes over it. Every few days I dig a hole and add veggie and fruit peelings, coffee grounds, etc to a new small area and cover it over with the newspaper and soil. Crushed, dried egg shells make good egg beds for new worms. I also sprinkle water over the whole thing every few days as well. The worms stay happy and well fed and do their thing. There is NO odor. The little spout at the bottom drips excess water into a covered bowl which is caught and used on both outside or inside plants. I like having less garbage to toss out and I especially love having castings to add to my raised garden beds in the spring.
