>> Marjory: Marjory Wildcraft with Grow Your Own Groceries here.
I was recently travelling in the Pacific Northwest and I made a new friend that had a spectacular
garden.
His name is Peter Paul.
Heís married, has two kids and a fulltime job and heís growing food primarily because
he just loves being out in the garden and also he wants to make sure his family is getting
really safe and nutritious food.
When I asked him what was his secret and what was he using for fertility, he showed me an
amazing system with the worm bin that he's using.
Right there I did an off the cuff interview with him because I really love this idea and
a pretty amazing interview and I wanted to share it with you.
>> Peter: The reason we started this compost bin is we moved out in here in the country
and I was trying to build a compost pile with my kitchen scraps and really I was just feeding
the raccoons and skunks come out and they'd tear it apart and all that'd be left would
be orange peels.
A neighbor of mine, another friend of mine actually, told me that he had worm bin.
I went over and looked at his worm bin.
I was like, "Hey, I got to get started."
I started and since then we turned all our kitchen scraps and the best stuff possible
for worm food....
You'll see that I just have a bunch of leaves on top and you can see some of the worms scrumming
around here and there.
What I do is underneath I drop... pull it back and I drop it.
This is where I last dumped it.
Here's the fresh compost from the last time I dumped it and you can see the worms are
already getting in there and doing their thing.
I'll work from one into the other.
This is where compost was dumped probably about a month or so ago and you can tell it's
pretty much done.
>> Marjory: Nice. Very nice.
So you just keep adding compost to this in different places?
>> Peter: Yes.
I'd start here and then I'll work down.
It takes about a month all the way across.
I put all our kitchen scraps in here, some stuff from the garden.
>> Marjory: Do you feel okay dumping meat or bones or feathers?
>> Peter: Yes. I'll show you.
If you have an indoor bin you probably don't want to put the meat in there and such.
With the outdoor bins there's actually ...
it's not just worms in here.
There's a fly in here.
Let me see if I can find a larva.
The larvae eat meat.
It's actually a ... it's not just ... here's one.
Those will work on the meat and so ...
>> Marjory: You not necessarily just have a worm bin, you have a whole composting system.
>> Peter: Those self-introduced themselves.
They showed up all in their own.
The compost is really hard to, in this system, get out.
I have to dig it out and hand separate it and something I do on a warm spring day.
What I'd really like you to see is the worm juice.
Under here this is set at a slight slant.
There are a bunch of holes drilled in the tank and
it collects what I call the worm juice.
It's really compost tea but the worms do urinate and they take water while doing it.
When I'm not using so much in the winter, I store it and keep it.
In the spring I offer it to my friends, I sell some and I use it for direct feeding,
foliar feeding, both.
>> Marjory: Nice.
You've seen incredible results using this?
>> Peter: Yes.
When I started using this for feeding the plants, the first year I did it my tomato
plants grew faster than my sunflowers.
Before they fruited they were about seven feet tall and then they fell over a little
bit of course.
I couldn't believe it.
>> Marjory: Wow.
I've heard you made some really good trades.
>> Peter: Yes. I just traded five gallons of this for an iPhone.
>> Marjory: An iPhone?
>> Peter: Yes.
I offer it up to some other friends for their gardens and stuff.
Anyway, just keep it covered.
Last year, I got about 30 gallons just over the winter time.
When I started the worm bin what I did was I filled it about two-thirds full with composted
manure, fresh manure and leaf and straw.
They really like the carbon.
Then let it set for about two weeks and then ordered some worms.
The worms showed up, I put them in and started adding compost.
>> Marjory: Wow.
How long was it before you started getting juice out of it?
>> Peter: Immediately.
>> Marjory: Oh really?
>> Peter: Yes.
As soon as I put the worms in and they started creating juice.
When add dry material you wet it down like ...
If you come over and take a look again, the top layer what I do is this is composting,
the worms are up in here.
Every couple of months when this turns gets really composted down, really broken down,
I'll just bring a bunch of the oak leaves that are, we have big old trees on the other
side, and bring in a big wheelbarrow of oak leaves and put a fresh layer on top.
They're composting not only the stuff underneath but that carbon material down.
>> Marjory: Great.
Where did you get your worms?
Are these just fishing worms that you got at the local store or did you get ...?
>> Peter: No. I order them online.
I can't remember the name of the website but it's for about $20 a pound and for this
setup I put in five pounds of worms.
>> Marjory: Nice.
>> Peter: You can put in less.
It just takes longer for them to multiply.
When they do multiply, let's see if I can ... they make little eggs.
This one. Here in a bunch.
See those little ... those are going to be worms.
Those are worm eggs, those little yellow...
Actually the smaller worms like you want to have as many of them reproducing because the
smaller worms are more vigorous as they're growing.
The thing I like most about these worms is just how easy it is.
It's a lot easier than building compost piles, turning compost piles.
I add compost to it maybe twice a week.
I add the kitchen scraps and really that's all I have to do.
I get the juice out into bucket every once in a while and other than having to spend
an afternoon in the spring separating out the worms from the compost, it doesn't take
much effort.
>> Marjory: Wasn't that amazing?
I've been inspired and I'm growing my ...
I'm going to be making my own worm bin right here.
If you have any great suggestions by all means drop me an email.
I'd love to hear about and I'd love to share it more with the online community that's
growing among us.
Until I see you on the next video.
I'm Marjory Wildcraft and you can Grow Your Own Groceries.