HOW TO CARE FOR YOUR WORM BIN IN THE COOLER MONTHS
The magpies return, we make an apple picking date and the cold bites us in the mornings and evenings, when we walk outside. It happens briskly and I am never upset about this transition — the Harvest Moon greets us with change and tells us that summer was abundant, but my yearning for Fall tells me that it was also hot. Sunny days brought to us harvests of plenty! It also brought me memories that will warm my heart through the cooler months, as I welcomed a baby just before the summer solstice.
Some gardeners will take Fall and Winter as a sign to rest and others will try for garlic and whatever else their soils can bare. I’ll be searching for medicinal floral seeds that need to overwinter. I long for a garden full of blooms that will one day give me an apothecary. If you have any suggestions for overwintering seeds or something you love to grow in the Fall or Winter, please flood the comments with your ideas and experiences!
Most important in the transition to cooler weather, is my ability to extend my stay — outside!! It also means I can work on my worm bins, without dread! Although the soil slows in Winter and farm stands close, decomposers are still at work. Eisenia Fetida are the worms that eat our garbage and they are decomposers. You can read more about my journey to worm farming, in this blog post.
I am proud to say that my worm bins always remain in abundance, with food scraps galore! Proud because it means my kiddos are eating veggies and fruits and the worms get the rinds, cores and anything else which remains.
In my experience, no matter the temperature, as long as the bins have a healthy amount of moisture, food and bedding, the worms will thrive. If you’re concerned about worm farming through the cooler months, I completely understand! My first couple of winters were scary and every time I would peek into my worm bins, I would assume that they had vanished. But I found the opposite to be true — that beneath the abundance of leaves and carbon contents, they were flourishing in their biomes!
Here’s what I do to prepare my worm bins for winter:
Move the bins to a sunny spot in the garden.
Gather any Fall leaves that you see, but make sure they are free from pesticide and/or chemical use.
Mulch the tops of the bins with leaves. If you don’t have access to leaves, rip up cardboard or paper bags. The goal is to mulch the tops of the bins with the worms’ bedding, which is a carbon source.
Make sure the bins are moist, but not wet.
Continue to ensure the worms have food. The leaves and paper goods (carbon contents) are food for the worms, but in composting the kitchen scraps (nitrogen contents) actually heat up, so I find that this may have been a contributing factor to the success of my worm bins. I continued to feed the worms, without hesitation throughout the winter months, because we have an abundance of kitchen scraps.
Head to this blog post to see what I feed my red wiggler (Eisenia Fetida) composting worms!
Take note: It’s best to do a lot of research, when worm farming, and find the most suitable option for your region, climate and lifestyle. Although my experiences have persisted in the past, I mostly had to experiment to come up with my theories and conclusions. I suggest experimenting with different solutions. The best option is the one that works for your worms and the one that uses recycled materials. I don’t think worm farming should cost any money, except for the worms, which can be pricey! So mulch those bins with natural, organic resources — like their lives depend on it! & check in on them often. I check on mine nearly everyday and I am always glad that I did.
