12 Spring 2025 | edibleseattle.com Make a habit of checking conditions in your worm bin, at least weekly. Maintain drainage, and remove any leachate (liquid filtering down through the bin, different from compost tea) from plastic bins. Add more food regularly, to keep your worms happy and thriving. BENEFITS If you have a garden, the worm castings (worm waste) create compost that serve as a potent fertilizer that can feed your vegetable garden or other outdoor plants, but can also be used on houseplants. Sure, food scraps can go into a “clean green” city yard waste bin, but keeping more waste on-site lowers your carbon footprint, in addition to the vermicompost saving on fertilizer costs. Plus, “a worm bin makes a really good project for kids,” Rieger says. Children can “learn the life cycle of worms and practice taking care of something if they like pets.” It also connects them to their hyperlocal food system, showing firsthand techniques for waste reduction in their own backyards. If you don’t have a use for the vermicompost, you can still make use of a worm bin. “Find a friend who has a garden that needs those nutrients,” Rieger advises, “and trade them for some yummy tomatoes later in the year.” So, next time you’re prepping dinner, think not only of your family. Snip a little extra for your red wiggling friends, too. Seattleite Bill Thorness is author of two gardening books. See his work at billthorness.com. Thoroughly incorporate any new food into the bedding to keep your bin healthy and happy. YUCK, IT SMELLS! Top complaints are odors when the bin is opened, or a cloud of fruit flies rising up. A healthy, active worm bin should have very little odor, and few flies. Here’s some easy troubleshooting: Do not feed the worms more than they can handle in a few days to keep the food inside from becoming moldy. Do not feed the prohibited items. Their odors can attract vermin and flies. Always cover the food with bedding, which will keep the flies from landing. Keep the bedding damp, but not wet—the moisture should be about the same as a wrung-out sponge. Moisture can cause anaerobic conditions and rotten-egg odors. Add bedding to dry the bin out and to keep the worms happy. If they’re crawling up the sides of the bin, it’s too wet or there’s too much food. For plastic bins, drain off any leachate that accumulates and distribute it in the yard. This liquid is not compost tea, do not use it on food crops. Add bedding to reduce the amount of liquid that drains. “A worm bin makes a really good project for kids. Children can learn the life cycle of worms and practice taking care of something if they like pets.” —Reingard Rieger
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