In one of my many gardening tangents, I made a 3-4 cubic yard windrow consisting of woodchips topped with fresh horse manure, in a 50/50 ratio last august. I planted a cover crop. In October, I was poking around and admiring all the growth and all the worms. I filled a 5 gallon bucket with chips, manure and green cover crop residue, tossed in a handful of native worms--some red ones and monster Alabama jumpers. I put it in my grow room. Never fed them, per se, but it was convenient dumping spor for a bit of old potting soil. Also had some deer corn and feed oats growing in there for a spell (another tangent) Watered if I thought about it.

Took it outside today to see what's happening. The bucket is now almost all castings. The few woody pieces are very soft and fragile. There are lots of Alabama jumpers and red worms. I saw a few cocoons and a bunch of babies, but I wasn't really looking.

Thought I'd share this because 1)anyone else I tell is going to roll their eyes at me 2)I've always had the impression that native worms and vermicomposting don't mix. Sure, it's not a maximized system, by any means. But, the labor and cost were essentially nothing.

Here's a before and after comparison of the material, keeping in mind the "before" picture had 5 additional months of window breakdown than the "before" that actually went into the bucket.