When I moved to Oregon I found the price of garbage disposal was huge compared to Austin, TX (where I came from). My brother had raised red wigglers when we were kids as fishing worms, so I already knew about them and decided they'd be a great way to dispose of my paper and food trash. I've helped set up 3 home bins so far and I know of one other person I'll be setting up a bin for soon.

I got started after another "I want a garbage disposal" discussion with Mrs. Joe. Now I consider a garbage disposal to be right up there with the electric toothbrush in the "WHY?" catagory of home appliances. So we'll pay a couple hundred for this thing, pay electricity, water and sewer fees to send our scraps miles down the road to a sewage plant, where they will spend millions of dollars a year to get the stuff back out of the water. Huh? After extensive negotiations, the worm bin was born. Now, our OM stays on the property, not gifted to the Sewer Authority.

So, I get my worms and my eco-weenie good vibes, and she gets the poop for her houseplants. Its worked well from both of our perspectives.

You know, I'm starting to feel that way about our garbage disposal. We haven't been in our house 2 years and I've already had to replace it and now it's stinky. Though I think it's gone stinky because I almost never use it because I have my worm bin! Love my electric toothbrush though. ;)

I will tell ya, a handful of ice (to chop) and a half a box of baking soda, with a lot of water, helped me when the disposal went south. I dont "use it" to get rid of food often, but pulse it every other day or so. (I had some stinky spoiled Chili)

I saw a presentation about worms when I was getting my Permaculture certificate, we got the Applehoff book, and spent a weekend workshop at GrowingPower.org in Milwaukee who have a HUGE worm ops.

I compost pile coffee grounds and spoiled hay, and I wormbin food scraps to keep down the invaders.

I also plan on including ducks and chickens soon, so I figure all the BSF larvae will be suplemental forage for them!

(and im a crazy hippie!)

I believe I must of read an article and then run into this forum and the rest is history. I have had a worm bins now about one and a half years and I am not quite as happy with my system so I keep tweeking. So far though people know of my worms yet I have not had the pleasure of roping any one in even though I have tried.

We're homeschoolers, and several years ago, we were looking for a project that would interest my son, who was quite small at the time.

I started out with about 200 worms in a redwood planter. They outgrew that rather quickly, and we moved to a larger space, then to a larger one, and now we've got 4 compost piles going.

Little by little, we've been able to send more of our scraps to the compost pile instead of the garbage bin. A couple of years ago, the city announced that they were cutting back on trash pickups, and fortunately for us, we had rerouted enough that it was not a hardship for us. Now, the compost pile is a necessity in order to live with the garbage restrictions.

Here is a link that might be useful: Our earthworm farm

About ten years ago I ran across an article on vermicomposting on the net, while trying to find information on composting yard debris. I told my wife about it, and we agreed we should start a worm bin. This summer our town was selling subsidized composting bins, and my old composting pile was falling apart, so I went to pick one up. They had a flyer on vermicomposting, so I went home and built a bin. We've been vermicomposting since July, but not very successfully. If it wasn't for the BSFlys, I think we'd have a box full of rotting garbage. But I'm learning from this forum, and from my mistakes, and I think success is just around the corner!

When we moved to Alaska two years ago, I discovered that composting, which had become a way of life for me in Virginia, was veerrryyy slow at best, and stopped altogether in winter. (I know, I've seen the steaming piles of horse manure even in January, but have no ready access to such additions to my compost pile). I felt like an evil person tossing out my potato peels in the trash. I had heard of worm bins inside, and it occurred to me that it might be the solution. I was already hanging out at the Far North forum here on Garden Web, so checked in with you all, and quickly discovered not only a wealth of information but some wonderful people! I set up a bin in the garage last winter, have harvested twice since then, and have been having a great time with the little critters! I also learned that kitchen waste compost piles can attract bears, so there's a double benefit to keeping my bins safely inside. My family all think I'm crazy, but that's nothing new ...

I read about it years ago. Lived on 3 1/2 acres back then. Had chickens, big garden, several compost bins. Then we moved. Husband thought I was crazy to move the compost, but I stood firm. Then we moved again within 3 years. Now, I had even less room for compost bins (compost did move again), and I decided it was time. Have a worm bin now since May 2003. Moved again, compost and worms came along. :)

Moni

I read about it in a book on organic gardening about 8 years ago. At the time I could not really understand what it was all about. Later I read about it on the internet. However, red worms are not natives here and I did not how to get hold of them. Then, early last year, I discovered quite by accident that the agricultural department has a kind of trial project to encourage vermicomposting among the padi farmers. I also discovered that the worms were sourced from Australia and I could get them for 1.5 US cents each (USD 15 per thousand). I managed to get 1,000 (or at least that's what I was told). I also found this forum which has been my principal source of education on this subject ever since.
I managed to get my former boss interested in vermicomposting and gave him about 300. I don't know what happened to his wormcomposting exercise. I don't think the worms survived! No one else I know is interested in vermicomposting. So I remain, I think, the only person I know in my area (probably my country!) who is vermicomposting as a hobby. I do not really need to vermicompost my organic leftovers as I have a regular compost pile which serves that need much better in my area's hot humid climate.

How did I get started with vermicomposting? Well I think I have been brain washed. I do believe we should all do our bit and recycle all that we are able to. with this in mind I sent off for information along with cash and I was told worm composting is the way to go this I believed and so some more cash changed hands and I recieved a large deep plastic bin complete with all the instuctions. I was to fill the bin with four inches of gravel on top of which I was to place the worm bedding shredded paper ect ect. send us some more cash I we can supply you with all the worms you need, this I did.I was told that in no time at all I would have a surplus of worms and a endless supply of worm compost. this was not to be.All I got was I very wet stinking sludge.I needed to dain the bottom I was told and maybe drill some holes to allow air to enter into the bin. this still did not make good compost.and the so called leachate was just poison to my plants I needed to put more dry bedding in the bin and not to feed quite so much.I was told, send us some more cash for more worms and then you will then see a big change I did feed less and I did put in dry bedding it still got wet and stinky. what use is a bin where you cannot recycle all the household waste. still believe in recycling but not in the suppliers.they only seem to want to recycle my hard earned cash I said earlier I was brain washed but I am not totaly brain dead yet so with help from the worm forums I built a continuous flow type of worm bin five foot long,by two foot six inches wide and two foot six inches deep this takes care of all my domestic waste and just about all my garden waste,keep your cash build it yourself kind regards John

I think I first read about composting with worms in a gardening book but didn't pay much attention. One weekend, I was visiting my mother who has two dogs. She was complaining about how bad her rubbish bin smelled with all the doggie doo so after a bit of research I decided what she needed was a worm farm. I promptly bought an off-the-shelf model and set it up. It worked a treat and my mother was very happy with no more smelly bins.
Inexplicably, after a year or two she went back to putting it in the rubbish bin again so rather than discard the worm bin and its precious contents, I took it back to my place and changed the worm diet to kitchen scraps. The first harvest went back to my mother for her ornamentals.
I've had a few hiccoughs but overall, the bin works really well. I'm busy trying to get the worm population high enough to take all the kitchen scraps. I'm now putting in roughly twice what I was when I took it over, but it will be a while yet before we're in full swing.

Great thread...first post here.

Moved almost 2 years ago and potential garden beds are sandy and dead.

Composting research brought up worm composting. Also a freecycler used to give away worms once a month.

Then met composting instructor who had worms. Joined "thewormbin" Yahoo group just to learn more.

And what do you know, I was talking gardening with an old timer at the hardware store. He had lots of worms to get me going. FREE and his bin is just a regular 5 gallon nursery pot with peat moss and rotted compost.

I LOVE my "Wormies" and am quite enthusiastic when I tell people about them. So now my neighbor and a family member are in line to receive some wigglers. I finally have enough to share. As they were free to me, the are known as my "friendship worms".

I've had my first worm bin since May 2005. BUT, it was uncovered in the garage and the mice
got to the big fat wormies before I could create another bin. Got the nursery pot covered with a screen now.

Susan, California