We really do. Not only in the gardens, but on the back porch also.
Now, if you are one of those local lurkers who have spent some time on my back porch, you are probably getting pretty grossed out by this thought. :-) Not to worry, even sitting right next to our hard working little worms, you would never know they were there by sight nor smell.
This is the third time we have raised earthworms (Red wigglers, to be exact.). The first two times we just used a large Rubbermaid container with tiny holes drilled in the bottom and ventilation holes drilled around the top edge. (Here is one version I found online. You can Google for a ton more.) The only problem with our Rubbermaid bin was that it was too messy to put on the porch (Nothing to catch the liquid that drains out.) during the winter, so we had to release our worms into the garden once the weather got cold.
This year, we sprang for the "worm condo" bin. Ok, not really a condo, but a pretty neat and practical arrangement just the same. (There are many different versions on the web. Again, just search "worm bin".) We can now keep the little guys year round right on the back porch.
Why on earth would we want to do this? Well, several reasons actually. The first is so that we can harvest the nutrient rich worm castings for the gardens and potted plants. The second is that it is a great way to quickly compost our kitchen vegetable waste. By placing the vegetable scraps (the worm's food) beneath the top layer of worm bedding (in our case, grass clippings), there is never an odor or bug problem.
The third reason for our worm farm is the "extra" worms we get to remove and add to the garden when the bin gets a bit crowded.
But the final, and maybe most important reason we do this, is that it's great educational fun!
