Friday, September 07, 2007

Worm composting

I keep worms. I keep them in the backyard in a hinged box that people call a worm bin. The term is unsatisfactory. Bins are for dirty laundry and trash; this box, sort of a plywood footlocker, has more varied and mystical functions. It is a chest of garden treasure, a microbial engine room, a guilt extinguisher and a bank for small deposits of virtue. The worms, you see, eat my garbage.

The worms obliterate evidence of neglect, the things that provoke annoying pinpricks of kitchen guilt, and give you compost in return. Their waste — the tactful term is castings — is not gross or maggoty. It’s wormy, with a lush, loamy smell. It’s near-black, velvety and shockingly fertile.

- NY Times (read full column here)

I have to try this.

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