Earthworms Arrive

The post office delivered the red wiggler earthworms from Uncle Jim's Worm Farm today in Duane Schallenberg's mail box so... Kim gave them a ride and dropped them off to be housed in their new vermiculture composting system. I have spent part of the afternoon putting the worm bin together, reading all the information on getting them settled, and then added "worm food" and installed them in their new home. They are part of the composting program for the Community Garden and will be used as both an instructional aide and a means for creating compost tea and compost nutrients for the garden. A small group of red wigglers will be moved to the rotating compost bin and in the big bins we will build from the pallets at the garden. I just scrubbed all the bedding material and my own compost out from under my fingernails and the worms have stopped trying to escape over the top of the box. They have to be left alone for the next 3 days to get used to living in Illinois and then will be moved over to the garden in June but will have to be kept indoors at the garden to protect from heat and from pesky moles who love to eat earthworms as a favorite treat. There are 2000 worms in this new vermiculture box and we will see how they grow and make compost for us to nourish the garden.