Notes From My Garden Shed 2: Vermicomposting… What Is That???

Vermicomposting... yes, it is worms!!! Yes, worms make the best compost commonly called “black gold”! This is a doable way to compost (once you get past the ‘ick’ of worms!) Worm composting produces the best organic soil by taking food scraps and turning them into the best natural fertilizer for your garden.

What began as a way to pass the time during those weeks of lockdown has now become a vital part of our gardening plan. The ‘red wigglers’, bought on Kijiji, have given us many buckets of beautiful black soil additives. The worms take kitchen scraps and produce compost with a very high nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium content. This produces very high yields of many kinds of plants.

There is almost no smell to the worm buckets (actually Rubbermaid tubs with holes in the top). The worms only need to be fed kitchen scraps about once a week (best pet ever!) and within 6-8 weeks will have turned those scraps into black earth additive. There were a few fruit flies in the fall, which was solved by some window screening over the top of our buckets. Yes, there are now two Rubbermaid tubs, but I will be honest, I let my husband sort the dirt from the worms every 3-4 months!