Fifty Seven Pounds

I finally got around to harvesting my worm castings. I emptied both bins and combined them into the bigger bin with fresh bedding which was dead leaves that had been soaked in water then drained. I have an awful amount of worms and when they are all in the bottom rolled up in a ball as I removed the castings, it's pretty gross. Especially when I have to pick 'em up. Ew. I think I will go back to my original way of harvesting which was to gently dump the whole bin on a plastic sheet outside in the sun. When I got down to just the worms, I just slid them off the plastic into the nice cleaned bin. No touching involved. Pretty sweet. While a huge ball of worms is icky, the castings are pretty amazing. It really does look like earth, rich and dark with a, well, earthy sweet smell. It really shows that every creature, no matter how 'primitive' or insignificant, does have an important part to play in nature. Worms keep the ground healthy and plants flourish because of it.

I filled up two feed bags about half way. I didn't want them too heavy. Just for fun, I weighed the bags. One was just over 25 pounds and the other topped 32 pounds. Fifty Seven pounds of worm castings. That's a lot, considering it is usually used in a 1 to 10 ratio. Like I have 570 pounds of earth/compost to mix the castings into. No worries, I will find a use for it all. If nothing more, I will use in the fall when I put the garden to bed.