Composting With Worms

• When you set up a simple worm bin and deposit your food scraps into it, red wiggler or "compost" worms eat them and excrete their "castings," which are a rich source of fertilizer. You can keep a worm bin in the garage or under the kitchen sink: the temperature must remain between 55 and 77 degrees F.
  
  

Benefits of Vermicomposting

• Not only does vermicomposting recycle food waste right in your home and prevent it from going to the dump, the end product of this practice is manure that is safe and beneficial for all types of plants, from vegetables to fruit trees to houseplants. Worm castings have a nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium (NPK) ratio of about 3-2-2. Unlike some other fertilizers, worm castings will not burn plants.
  
  

Advantages of Homemade Worm Castings

• When you purchase worm castings at a garden supply store, it can sometimes contain slaughterhouse waste and animal manures. When you make your own worm castings, you can control what the creatures eat. They prefer non-spicy foods such as lettuce, squash, tea leaves, potatoes, spinach and more.