Worm Depository 10/24/09Today, when the sun came out, I continued my preparation of the worm depository for winter. A worm depository, as it is called by Growing Power, is a mound of “cooked” compost where worms live, feed, procreate and cast. To keep the worms healthy it constantly needs a mixture of carbon (brown) material, wood chips and leaves and nitrogen (green) food stuff, coffee grounds and garden scraps. A worm depository is different from a compost pile or worm box since its main goal is to grow healthy working worms not to make soil or castings. I will need to add “worm depository” to my glossary of growing terms.
Since worms need a fairly even temperature, in the summer I need to keep the worm depository cool and wet. In preparing for the winter, as I am doing now, I need to make sure there is a heavy layer of carbon — wood chips and leaves — over enough food — nitrogen — for the cold months. In real cold weather the top layers of carbon will freeze while the bottom soil stays warm enough for worms. Snow and rain going through the outer layer provide water, and the carbon, like wood chips, provides plenty of air spaces necessary for worms.
The first couple years of my worm depository I was real worried that the worms would not make it through the winter. After spring thaw I would go out to the pile with a pitchfork and turn it over. There always was wiggling worms below.
So now before the cold, snow, and winter freeze I am just piling it on, some nitrogen food and lots of carbon cover. Waste and worms go together.
In life I have learned a similar lesson. I have noticed that if you really believe and work for something consistently, just piling it on, it sometimes happens. Some persons find my consistency annoying, especially when it is a message they do not want to hear. But like a worm consistently eating and casting or preparing the worm depository for winter, I just keep piling it on.
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