Mike is in charge of our worm bin… He feeds our worm coffee grounds, egg shells, fruit and vegetables scraps (but not onions, peppers, cut flowers, no meat, no cheese, no dairy–worms do not like these!!!) and occasionally leaves, unbleached coffee filters, a paper towel and shredded newspaper.

We purchased our worm bin at Greenthumb and have had it over 5 years!  Believe it or not, Mike got it as a birthday present for me!  Well, I was speechless!  Actually, I wasn’t too excited about this gift (I actually made him feel bad about giving this gift, that he went out a purchased something a little more personal–we went to Sea World).

This system is a four level system.  The top level is where we feed the worms the above listed items. There is a second level, a  third level, the fourth level  are the worm castings “poop” and the last level holds the liquid used as very valuable, rich and amazing fertilizer.  Mike dilutes the worm juice at a ratio of about 10 to 1.  Plants love this fertilizer…I’ll post more about the benefits of worm juice in my next post.

Mike likes to use his “worm tea”– a mixture of water and worm “poop” juice at a ratio of 10 to 1 — it goes a long way!  We fertilize our house plants and container plants with it first, then if I have more left over, I fertilize the plants in our yard.

Check out a great website sponsored by the County of Los Angeles
Department of Public Works Environmental Programs Division for more about worm composting at    http://ladpw.org/epd/sg/wc.cfm