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.

You can do it in the ground without a box. The worms will stay where the food is. Large scale vermicomposters will use a windrow system. I've read about a study that used bins made out of cinder block and used like a windrow. Basics are you pile your bedding on one end of a path and slowly add food to the end of the pile. You will slowly make a long path. Then you can harvest from the begining of the path without having to separate worms from castings. Then you can start a 2nd path next to the first, and the worms will naturally migrate to it for the food. I've seen in a green house where the owner kept the worm bin in ground, under his walkway. He just dug down and put cinder blocks to hold the shape. Then filled the hole with bedding and food. Easy but requires a little more work to separate the worms. Natives will come in also. You can put a tarp down to keep your worms in place, and natives out. Can't give you a size idea. Start with something about the size of a 18 gallon rubbermaid tote. Vermicompost is better than regular compost. I think I've read that it is like 10 times better, but can't find that information right now. If you have chickens, you can fee the chickens with some of your worms. You can also slowly add some of their droppings to the bedding, but not too much at a time. I'm going to give you a link to a really good pdf that someone suggested to me. It'll give you information from studies done with bedding and food types along with bins and other systems. Here is a link that might be useful: Manual of On-Farm Vermicomposting and Vermiculture By Glenn Munroe Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada

for me i'd be putting them in the garden wherever now, storage might result in loss of benefit, also would need to be dry i would imagine as stored wet in bags it could rot or mildew. our worm farming now occurs in the gardens where the benefits are delivered direct and where they are needed most. len Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page

This is a great topic. Not just a great topic -- a crucial one for all gardeners. Critical for the well being of our planet. Why? Because we're grappling with the issue of improving our soiI. And our soil supports life on Earth. And we've gotten it wrong long enough to really mess things up. So I think it's worth carrying on this conversation. I'm a novice gardener with no training in botany, so I look to people like Kim for his knowledge and experience. I do have a background in biochemistry and medicine, so I feel comfortable with scientific information such as that provided by the University of California system. And I'm a passionate gardener, immersed in the experience, and have been mulching and composting in a big way. Regarding compost v mulch, Catspa is exactly right. Mulch is organic matter (leaves, paper, kitchen scraps, wood chips, etc) that have not yet broken down. They can rob energy from the soil, so we don't mix mulch into the soil. We lay it on top of the soil where it helps hold in moisture, and insulates the soil from heat in the summer and cold in the winter. Mulch eventually breaks down (faster when moist), and when it does, it nourishes the soil. Compost is organic matter that has broken down completely and aged. It's leaves and paper and poop, and urine, and kitchen scraps, and garden clippings that have been completely transformed into rich, nourishing soil. It looks like soil, and it smells like fresh dirt. In an established bed we don't dig compost into the soil either. We lay it on top where with time it works into the soil and nourishes it. In a new bed, compost should be part of the mix, but preferably throughout the bed rather than just in planting holes. Ingrid, if I were you, I would buy good organic compost and spread it on top of your beds. Lay 4" of mulch on top of the compost. If you've already laid down mulch, don't worry. Just add compost on top; it'll work its way down. Then I would start a compost pile. Don't worry how complicated it is. If you get it wrong, you'll still end up with compost -- it'll just take longer. There are lots of ways to do it, but here's what I do to keep it simple (and it WORKS): 1. Dig a hole. The bigger, the better. 2. Throw in all your kitchen scraps, leaves, clippings, paper-based trash, coffee grounds, and manure. Whenever you throw in manure or yucky kitchen scraps, make a little depression first, put your scraps or manure in the depression, and then cover them completely with straw or leaves so there is no odor to attract critters. I have tons of critters that rip up my garden, but they never bother my compost holes. If you're concerned, cover the hole with wire. 2. Keep the contents slightly moist (not wet). 3. As you're filling up the compost hole, the decomposing materials will shrink, so you'll keep finding more room to keep adding. 4. At some point stop adding stuff to this hole, and start another one while you let this hole sit. Do keep it slightly moist. 5. Enjoy your compost. Yes, it will happen. Faster if the carbon waste and nitrogen waste are properly balanced, and it's kept moist, and it gets to the proper temperature. Slower if not. But so what? It's practically no work, you're helping the planet by recycling waste, and once you have the cycle going with a couple of holes (or piles, or however you want to do it), you're going to have rich, nourishing compost for your garden. No, I don't turn it. No, I don't shred stuff first. No, it doesn't get anaerobic and stink. Yes, it does work. You can spread the compost on your garden beds. Or you can leave the aged compost in the hole, add soil as needed to fill it, and use that rich new area as your next planting bed. jannike