Hi! Earlier this year I started worm farming using an Urban Worm Bag. The bedding was mostly shredded paper (I used blank sheets from old notebooks, junk mail, and tons of news papers), cardboard, and some dried up yard waste. I got 1 lb of red wigglers mailed to me from a local worm guy and started feeding them my food scraps. After about 1 month I started seeing little worm eggs and it was so exciting. I have found it to be so easy and low maintenance. I’ve gone weeks without checking in on the worms, and they are still wiggling.

Feed: coffee grounds, paper coffee filters, used tea and the tea bags, veggie scraps, egg shells (but ideally you save them, bake them, and pulverize them into a fine powder rather than throw them in), toilet paper tubes, cardboard, newspaper. Some people throw food in every day, some people freeze the scraps and add it in in a bigger batch.

One problem I did encounter was a brief gnat and fly problem. I think it happened after I threw some avocado and pomegranate and let the bin get too wet. I fixed this issue by shredding up a TON of news paper and really mixing it into the bin to try to suck up the extra moisture. Then I left it alone for like 2 or 3 weeks and when I check in on it the moisture was much more balanced and no gnats or flies came out.

I think I can try to harvest some of the worm castings for the first time this weekend, which is exciting and just in time for my tomato and pepper plants. I think I am going to get another pound of worms so they can keep up with my level of kitchen scraps.

I’m happy to answer any questions, but I am still very much a beginner. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested.