I considerm it appropriate that I give here a copy of my post in FRUGAL GARDENING, "To be able to keep a pet horse would be an ideal situation for most serious gardeners, unfortunately most gardeners are, for one reason or another, unable to do so. Many people never give a second thought to the world of one our most friendly animals, as pets we canÂt hug or pat them. The lowly earthworm! We can of course recognize their terrific value and nurture them. To a gardener, economically, they are infinitely more useful than the more stately pet horse. Cultivate your worms and have a garden that will need no other fertilizers than natural compost. The more worms you have the better the aeration and drainage. and the fertilizers they produce is the best that one can get. So give them the treatment they deserve, treat them as pets and do not be squeamish about them and they will willingly be your servants in the garden. Go into GOOGLE and type the two words worm cultivation or the two words growing worms. There you will be able to learn much about the little creatures. You can even encourage the children to grow them as pets for the garden because that is wha they are." So make double sure that you do not kill your little working friends.

I used to start my compost pile with only a circular wire fencing. Residing in a townhouse community presents verbal comments from one neighbor about seeing rodents. (I don't think so, neighbor). So, this is what I been doing to avoid any alleged rodent sightings by my neighbor, who has a lawn and lovely flower gardens that she maintains to the point of discarding all yard refuse via our township program. A few years ago, I purchased an Earth Machine via our county recycling program for a discount. I start filling it with the usual veggie/fruit wastes, used coffee grounds, egg shells, leaves (whole & mulched), paper (brown, usually) in layers until it's completely full. Then, I pull off the whole EM container off the group with a small compost pile. Next, I surround that small compost pile with a larger circular fence section, fill the inside perimeter with leaves (whole & mulched), brown rolls of paper towers and toilet paper, ripped up paper egg cartons. So far, no rodent sightings have been reported. However, I don't believe there were any to begin with. BTW, it can be difficult to connect the top and bottom sections of the EM. Just takes some persistence and patience.

I've got tons of grubs and a pretty normal population of earthworms this year. Just dug out an area of lawn for a new garden, so at this point I'm intimately familiar with the communities living in and under my lawn. I think Ego recently posted something about this, though, so you might want to look for that thread.

I guess I suggested the tumbler, on a worm board, because there are way less things to go wrong, and if they do there is not water dripping, flies flying, or worms crawling indoors to where they do not belong. A round or square plastic worm bin, or cloth flow through, or other flow through, or tumbler with ileagle worms would all work. The tumbler would have the least chance of bad things happening indoors. Thus, I think your specific needs would be best served by the tumbler because there is no way something bad in the house could happen. A lone, wayward, lost mouse that found a tiny opening into your celar and enjoyed your bin, will not jump upon your leg and make you scream, as happened to me. This is way less tramatic outdoors. Plus, apparently, worms clandestinely live in them all the time. "no recycling whatsoever." reminds me of my recent visit to Montreal, Canada. I was at an international event and they took all the trash from the garbage, vegetation waste, glass and plastic and dumped the cans into the single dumpster. Other places it feels like a sin to put items that should be recycled into the garbage. Maybe skip the worms and run for public office to get recycling in your area. IN the future we will all only shop at Amazon. "a way to use the excess of paper and cardboard we end up with that won't mess up the planet. Do you think adding it to an outdoor worm bin would be harmful? I'd be more interested in handling the cardboard than in the resulting compost." The best way I know of is to use it below a garden in either a sheet mulch or hugelculture method. No need to even shred in either method. Ordering by Amazon might actually save more natural resources than somebody getting in a car to shop at the mall. The deliver truck goes right by your house anyways, thus minimal energy used. I would not only add cardboard to an outdoor compost system I would also ummmm pee on it. Because that is what it needs to balance into breakdown is nitrogen. But even skipping that step in a few years it should of broken down into beautiful material all on its own. Well actually zillions of friendly wee beasties helped it along. Also phone books and similar can be used to grow mushrooms.