One Week Newspaper vs. Cardboard and This Week's Tips

And we have a winner!

After one week, the worms clearly prefer the cardboard over the newspaper:

As further proof, some of the corrugation of the cardboard had worms squiggling inside. Time to change up my paper routine to include more cardboard.



On to the tips! This week's tips are more of a list- a list of things that you'll find useful to keep close to the bin.

Once you're up and running, make sure these things aren't far out of reach:

-Garden gloves- Perfect for working in your bin and lowering the ICK factor of touching worms and/or scraps.

-A few plastic containers- Be as eco-friendly as possible- a small shallow plastic container is great to set your gloves in between uses, or to rest your worm bowl in before and after feedings in case of spills and for easy clean up. (They are also handy for harvest time.)

-Roll of paper towels- Good for when things get a little damp- wiping off your hands or the top of the bin

-Dry erase board- To keep track of feeding dates and types, or any experiments you are doing

-Cardboard- As I found out, cardboard was a great bed additive that not only stayed damp longer than newspaper, but also the worms seemed to prefer more. You can keep a few shoe boxes close by, ready to be torn up, wet down, and dropped in.

Vegetable update on its way this week- the vermicompost experiment continues, plus some interesting info about organics!