VERMICULTURE VOWS

The last laugh.

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Finding treasure among
the wreckage.

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by Sally Sheklow

I bring all of this up because I finally harvested my worm bin. Talk about a dichotomy of hope and despair. It all started last summer when I took home my blue plastic box with its white smiley cartoon worm saying "Feed me garbage" painted on the side. I envisioned myself soon scooping out copious mounds of dark rich worm castings, just like the stuff garden stores sell for $13.99 a bag. Tie some up with a colorful ribbon and - presto - no more holiday gift worries.

I did my best, initially, to follow the vermiculture creed, feeding my red wigglers measured portions of their favorite kitchen scraps and layering in just the right amount of carefully torn soy-ink newspaper strips for bedding. I dutifully mist-moistened the paper with filtered water and shielded the worm bin from harsh sunlight. This mandated wormfeeding regimen was tougher than Weight Watchers.

Predictably, after weeks of strictly restrained input and meticulous record keeping, my discipline gave way. I fed more than the prescribed amount of wilted greens. I gave my worms a whole spoiled cantaloupe. Instead of walking my sinkside scrap tub out to the compost heap, I dumped it all into the vermiculture bin, wantonly disregarding the instructions to sort out citrus rinds, avocado pits and onions. I essentially put the worms on a binge diet.

Apparently vermiculture is a more exacting science.

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