https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2iC8eDJtwo&ab_channel=UncleJimsWormFarm

For your #1/2/3/4, that video should help. He says that in the winter their will be enough heat in the pile for the worms to live through it and I have seen people in Canada with outdoor compost piles. I think if you want gobs of castings, its worth the effort. Big outdoor compost pile = more worms = more castings. From the outdoor piles I have seen people always add some sort of a 'lid' to keep creatures out because I am pretty sure birds and other things would like an easy treat but that is just what I have seen, maybe someone with an outdoor worm pile can chime in.

Good luck!

Thanks!

I think you might want to ask on the Soil, Compost and Mulch forum as well as here, since I believe there are plenty of folks around with experince in both vermicomposting and regular compost piles. Here you might get slanted answers, such as "Definitely worms are better, they have CUTE POINTY HEADS!!" :-)

I don't have a good sense of how fast a regular compost pile can produce compost versus how fast a big outdoor worm bin can produce vermicompost. Vermicompost is pretty rich and concentrated stuff, but I don't know that it's hugely, dramatically better than regular compost. If I had a good-sized garden in which to use compost, enough space outdoors to create a compost pile, and much more garden waste to process than I do, as well as the ability to possibly collect materials from offsite (leaves, coffee grounds, what-have-you) I would probably want to do vermicomposting for kitchen scraps year-round, and an outdoor compost pile for large volumes of plant matter on a seasonal basis.

As it is, I have mainly kitchen scraps with a very small amount of garden waste to handle, a very small outdoor garden with limited need for compost inputs, no space for a compost pile, but room in my basement for a worm bin, so it's pretty clear what method makes sense for me. Your mileage may differ.

I just plowed in a large outdoor worm bed. I now prefer hot composting because I'm tired of the little tomato and squash plants growing where I don't want them, so I shut the worm bed down. I had great success keeping them warm by putting black garbage bags of leaves on top as a blanket. We had a cold winter-single digits at times-with lots of snow and they thrived until the plowing. I always had mice, snakes, racoons, and possums digging or living in there. You can put worms in a hot compost pile-they will stay away from the hot spots. But, turning the pile will likely put them in the hot zones and kill them.

A compost pile can handle a larger volume.

IF hot it will kill off any seeds.

Keep in mind the first attempt may not be hot or go as you expect.

You can make a bin with hardware cloth to keep the rodents out.

Life is a learning experience - Live it,

Red worms can be pretty hardy and live through winter but probably not in a closed bin with a hard bottom - or at least they bounce back every year. Don't expect them to process much material though when that cold. Try it and see.

I'm going to try this very thing - a large outdoor worm bin which is in ground and essentially uncontained.

My plan is to use a very large rug I was planning to take to the dump as cover for the pile, because from my limited experience I have already seen lots of evidence of rooting animals in my compost pile and trying to get into my outdoor worm bins. You have to give them cover which still allows some moisture in, no doubt about it. The varmints can clearly smell worms, hear worms, or both, and they smell, sound like dinner!

Honestly, I just watched last night as two very large coons foraged thru my garden leaving some good size holes. Of particular interest was watching as they massaged the UCGs with their front paws - I suspect to find the worms who were feeding there.

In the past I thought the smell of the UCGs would keep rodents from digging where the UCGs were deposited.

So I am wondering if a rug or carpet would be enuff to protect the worms. IF I were going to build an outdoor worm bin I would cover it with hardware cloth so all the elements (air, water, etc.) needed for survival would be available. And don't forget moles also will tunnel in to eat worms.

Hardware cloth is a really great idea, could put a layer down on the ground to keep out moles and such and would make a perfect lid too. For the perimeter you could cut the very bottom of it open so it has a bunch of little metal fingers to go into the ground and maybe also use something like garden staples to make sure it is into the ground a bit. That would surely keep most all critters at bay. Hope to hear back from you all that are trying this out!