How to build an inexpensive and fool-proof worm bin!
I have done this many times over the past 21 years. It is easy to do, costs next to nothing and will give you a great bin the worms will love to call their new home.
You can start by recycling just about any old sweater box bin you might already have: see you are already recycling for your worms and our planet. If you don’t have one you can buy one at your local thrift store or at a garage sale. If that fails you can go to a big box store and buy a snap-down top, Sterilte bin, either a 10 or 16 gallon, one depending on the amount of kitchen waste your home generates per week. This is about a $5.00 investment which will pay off for years.
You then take your trusty drill, using your 1/4″ inch drill bit and drill 9 holes equally distant from each other. Make sure you have drilled the corners, too. I learned the hard way that I had to place the bin on the floor in the garage, on top of a stack of newspapers or I drilled into the garage floor and had to get a new drill bit. Then line the bottom with either dry cardboard or 3 or 4 sections of the newspaper. Add shredded and soaked newspaper until it comes up to 2″ below the top of the bin. Make sure you have wrung out the soaked paper until no water can be wrung out anymore. When you add it into the bin, pull it apart ( sort of fluffing it up), so the worms will have air spaces to crawl through.
Take 2 tablespoons of regular garden soil and sprinkle it over the top of the paper. This is to add in all the micro organisms that will work in concert with the worms to breakdown the food wastes.
You will want to place your bin at waist level. Recall you are not only saving landfill space but your own back as well. Find a shady spot in your garden for the bin. Place it on a tray to catch the leach-ate which will drain out the bottom of the bin. Use 3 pieces of 2×4′s, equally spaced under the bin, so it doesn’t bow and break under the weight of the casts as the worms produce them over the next 4 to 6 months until you harvest the casts.
You are now ready to order your worms! Good job. Well done! See you here in a few days. I look forward of hearing your progress. ~Shel
I just told my dear husband that I want a worm factory for Mother’s Day, but I think I’ll try this for now. My only concern is that I live in a place that gets very hot during the summer, so I’ll need something I can keep inside somewhere.
Hi Anne,
Where are you located that you need to keep the bin inside? Deep shade is generally enough to cool the worms off during our wide temperature swings. That and having plenty of bedding should make the bin comfortable enough for the worms to thrive and do their work.
If you do choose to keep the bin inside, I have clients, who keep the bin under the kitchen sink or in the garage, with ease. Generally the temperature of the garage floor is a constant 55″‘F.
The other trick is to take anything you might already have around the house or garage that you have used as an insulator and bungee cord it around the bin on all 4 sides.
I hope you have a good Mother’s Day!
Please let me know if this works out for you or helps.
~Shel