How my girlfriend got worms

Breanna and I have talked all winter about ordering worms and starting a worm farm in the basement. It isn’t a massive undertaking and surely didn’t need the level of discussion that we gave it, but for some reason, we didn’t pull the trigger.

Worms really aren’t that complicated to keep (at least we are hoping they aren’t).  You basically just need a dark container that will easily drain so their environment doesn’t get too soggy. You don’t generally keep them in soil, you need a bedding material, and bedding is simple, it can be shredded newspaper or cardboard. We decided to construct a simple starter “farm” for our first attempt.  It is two spackle buckets, one which has holes drilled into it for drainage and is nested inside the second bucket. This will be our mini compost bin.

But why does anyone need to keep worms? This is the question you will hear most often if you ever decide to keep them yourself. There are actually a lot of reasons:

1. They reproduce easily and can be added to the garden or a cold compost pile.

2. They produce nutrient rich worm castings (manure) which can easily be sifted from the bedding and used in seed starting or as a fertilizer for plants.

3. They can survive off of food scraps, coffee grounds, etc, so they are good at composting waste.

4. The water that drains out of the farm is also nutrient rich can be used to boost the growth of transplants or houseplants.

5. They are delicious.  I don’t know if that is true, nor am I planning to find out.

So Breanna finally decided to order our worms.  She found a reputable worm dealer and for the low price of $19.99 ordered 1000 worms (she found a 5% off coupon, so it was a bit cheaper).  The worms would be mailed out on Monday.  The problem is, we were having road construction done and it wasnt finished yet.  So by Wednesday, we had gotten no mail for two days and weren’t sure if it was because we were unpopular or because the mailman couldn’t get to the box.  So Breanna called the post office. I was shocked when they didn’t hang up after hearing “We are expecting a delivery of live worms and wanted to check to see if the post office is holding our mail.” They were not holding our worms, so we checked the tracking number online and found out our worms had left Pennsylvania and were currently in Texas. This is the opposite direction they needed to be travelling in.  But on Friday, our worms showed up. They were bunched up in a ball and Breanna spread them out a bit to let them get their land legs, then she lovingly dumped them in their new spackle bucket home.  They are still there a week later and seem to be doing fine.  We will keep you updated on their progress.