Author: Kylee
If you've had the pleasure of meeting Katie Elzer-Peters (and I have), this already amusing story becomes more so, because you can visualize the facial expressions (more like lack of them!) and hear her saying it...
Well, I told Kylee that I’d write a post about my worm ranching operation for the blog, and...well...I am. This isn’t the post I planned to write. I planned to write about how my worms and I were getting along fabulously. We were sharing our food, and creating wonderful crap (er...castings) for the soil, and enjoying every minute of it.
I planned to write about the magic of worm poo, and how my worms and I are living happily ever after.
Instead, I have to confess to murdering my worms. How did we get from running into each other’s arms from across the room to confessing crimes against the soil?
Let’s back up.
On April 24, 2010, I celebrated my birthday by working at this little indie bookstore in my town, running our “Garden Extravaganza Day!” It was lots of fun, if somewhat poorly attended due to the fact that springtime in Wilmington brings with it a multitude of events - many more than people can actually make it to.
Anyway. One of our speakers was a worm advocate. She had a brand-new worm bin that she made out of a big Rubbermaid container. It had fresh worm bedding and happy worms. She told us all how to use it, and then gave it to me as a birthday present!
Worms! For my birthday!
I brought home my new pets (where have I read about it not being a good idea to give people pets for “occasions?”), and started dutifully feeding them. I wasn’t good about the “feed them as much food as the back of my hand every day” directions, but about once a week, I’d load them up. Every now and then, I’d toss in a handful of shredded newspaper.
Then, when there was more poop than worms in the bin, I began the disgusting process of sorting out the worms from the poo so that I could put it in my garden. I’ll spare you the details, but I feel lucky that I didn’t vomit. Then I put the poo in the garden, and the worms back in their box with new newspaper.
The worm poop really is magical. My garden soil was horrendous. I live in an area that is basically sand. We pretty much grow hydroponically here. In the ground. After adding the worm poo though, my winter veggies are so happy! They’re actually growing.
Today, when I went out to the garage, where I have the bin, to take some photos for this blog, I was dismayed to find that I can’t FIND the worms. And they didn’t escape. I think that the horrible smell I’ve smelled in the garage this week is, in fact, dead worms turning to slime.
Hello, my name is Katie and I’m a worm murderer.
I WILL try again next year with new worms, though, because their poo really is magical.
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