Worms

Did you know you can buy worms on Amazon?  I did not but I do now!

In the Fall, B spent a weekend afternoon with his Aunt Laura and Cool Ronnie.  (When B was still struggling with speech, he couldn't say uncle - it sounded like cool.  The name stuck).  B had recently watched a video on sustainable gardening and was sharing his knowledge with AL & CR.

Apparently, an important aspect of sustainable gardening is composting with worms.  I wasn't there but I'd imagine the conversation went something like this:

B: Worms are good for composting.
AL: What kind of worms?
B: Red worms. I need some red worms.
CR: Where would we get red worms?
AL: (Checks her phone) Amazon has red worms.
CR: Done and done.

One evening in December, Aunt Laura and Cool Ronnie asked if they could come over.  They came bearing a large silver rubbermaid box and an Amazon box.  They gave B a letter.  Cool Ronnie would build B a garden box as soon as football season was over. In the meantime, here were some worms to get the composting started.  B was so excited!

Together we all read the directions on how to care for the worms.  And we started our very own worm farm.  I must admit, I was not sure how I was going to like being a worm farmer.  But, it wasn't too bad.  We only had one escapee situation.

According to our worm intel, the worms would be restless for a few days after we transfered them to their new home from the Amazon shipping container.  But, they would settle down and burrow into the soil.  The second day we had them, B wanted to check on his new treasures so he opened the lid to our little farm.

I should pause here to say that this was December so the worm farm was living in my guest bathroom.  For some reason, worms can live in the ground in all kinds of weather but needed to live in my house in their rubbermaid bucket if it was 40 degrees or colder outside.

When B checked on our new charges, they were every where, all over the Rubbermaid.  It kinda freaked him out and he dropped the lid.  Ryan and I rushed in.  There were worms crawling towards freedom.  There were worms on my bathroom floor.  I grabbed some tissue and started sweeping them off the side of the bucket into the dirt.  Ryan and B picked the escapees off the floor and back into the bucket.  I'm proud to report that no worm was lost.  And we managed to get B to agree to not check on them for a few more days to give them time to settle.

At a basketball game in December, we talked to another friend who had worm farming experience.  Something came up about air holes.  Laura and I looked at each other - air holes!?! I immediately when home and used my candy thermometer to punch some holes in the rubbermaid lid.  I prayed we hadn't committed worm-icide.

Over the past 2 months, we've feed the worms our food scraps.  We watered the soil and stirred in the scraps.  It seems the worms have survived and thrived.  At one point we had little baby worms.   Or just smaller worms, I'm not sure which.  But part of our intel told us that the worm colony would double every 90 days so I figured it was part of the process.

The worms got a new home last weekend.  Come on back tomorrow and Thursday to read about our next steps in sustainable gardening.