In-garden Vermicomposting

 I'm not sure how I stumbled upon it, but I just learned something fun about vermicomposting (worm composting) from this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=991qDFd-uaI&t=4s and decided to give it a try with what I had on hand - ice cream buckets (everyone has those, right?!).

I started by cutting out the bottoms of four buckets which I planned to intersperse throughout my square foot garden beds. I'm quite certain my ice cream buckets were easier to cut than the videoist's heftier buckets, but she does have the advantage of larger buckets. We'll see how mine work over time. 

I also poked holes throughout the sides in the interest of "...the worms crawl in; the worms crawl out..." (does anybody else remember that morbid song about the hearse driving by, or am I dating myself?). According to the expert, the worms move the compost throughout the garden through these holes and the open bottom.

Then I mostly buried the bucket in two squares per 4x8 bed, spread apart from each other.

I tore up some old paper to put in bottom and then poured in my recent compost collecting (I was out of town and didn't used the salad quickly enough).

It's not particularly beautiful, but I'm hoping it will be effective. I ordered 500 red worms from Uncle Jim's Worm Farm and am eagerly awaiting the arrival of my little "black gold dirt" makers. I had hoped to have plenty of worms left from my winter's indoor vermicomposting, but only had live ones in one tote, which I liberally spread throughout the gardens not knowing that I didn't have back-up live ones in the second tote, and I'm not sure why they died. I'll probably have to get new ones again in the fall when I start back with the indoor composting.

So, that's my new adventure in the yardening sphere.