worm inn | Crazy About Compost

Worm Wonderings #1: can you compost waxed paper?

For fun, I decided to add some wax paper items to my worm composting bin: I decided to add a Jimmy John's sandwich wrapper and some little blueberry muffin cake things left over from Thanksgiving I forgot about. Seriously messed up on that one- my mom makes killer food. Sorry mom! I'll let you know if the worms like it (they did, but not the wax paper). Oh- did you know that the majority of "paper" cups you see contain a plastic liner in them? If your finished worm castings seem to have bits of shiny plastic in them, and you put a paper cup or two in the worm bin, chances are the remnants are what's left from the cups. Vermicomposting is fun, but I always go back to…

Without a Winter Worm Worry

I live in a super old and drafty house, and in the wintertime I always wonder if my worms will survive. The worms reside in the colder half of my basement, but apparently it's no problem for them: I was reading my Worm Briefs email subscription and there were testimonials of people that had worms surviving in both sub zero and above 100F temperatures! Check this out: "I've had redworms survive Winnipeg winters for 2 years in a row. Frost gets down past 6" as I recall (could be wrong) and we do get rather severe winter temperatures. This year we have a thick blanket of snow but last year the sledders were complaining quite a bit. Not sure of temperatures under the snow but this evening we're at -32…

Checking In with the Worm Inn

I'm a proud Worm Inn owner that doesn't have a stand kit. If you saw my original video for this, I hung it underneath my steps pretty easily. Then the wintertime came, and somehow the mice found their way into the house. I've spent so much time shoring up the perimeter of my house, but there's one section underneath the backyard decking that I can't reach very easily and they must be getting in that way somehow. I guess they found the Worm Inn quickly, since it's in the basement and it has plenty of food scraps in it. One day I came downstairs and noticed some tiny rough spots in the mesh lid. It appears I've gotten lucky and they haven't ripped a hole. Now I have to hang…