New: RI Network Compost Network: The Worm Ladies of Charlestown and the URI CELS Outreach Center have partnered to increase composting in Rhode Island! Together, we will create a network linking new and experienced worm composters to share information, exchange resources (i.e. trade worms for castings or peat moss), and raise awareness about the importance of food scrap recycling

...more about the worms...

...red wiggler worms (eisenia foetida)

The Worm Ladies of Charlestown (Nancy and Lois)

Lois and I are combining efforts in raising worms, providing information, and in helping you set up your worm bin with complete and easy directions.

Worm composting (or vermicomposting) is a natural and efficient way to “recycle” your organic kitchen waste; the worms do all the work. These worms have a big appetite, reproduce quickly, and thrive in confinement. They eat half their weight in food every day! Even in cool winter weather, where outdoor compost piles lie dormant, you can compost your food scraps indoors with worms and reduce the volume of your household garbage by as much as 25%. The end result is unsurpassed as an organic soil builder and plant fertilizer (worm castings.) This material has more phosphates, potassium and nitrogen than the material produced in typical grass-and-leaf composters. The worm castings or "black gold" are excellent for starting seeds and for houseplants. They can be put directly on top of your houseplants, vegetable and flower gardens. Worm castings will not need any extra nutrients. Lois has had our soil tested by the University of Massachusetts Soil and Plant Tissue Testing Lab. It is perfect for use on vegetables or flowers. Incorporate 1 part castings to 10 parts of soil for vegetables and a little less for flowers. As little as a tablespoon of pure worm castings provides enough organic plant nutrients to feed an 8-10 inch plant for more than two months.

Under proper conditions two pounds of worms will process about seven pounds of scraps per week. Two pounds of worms will be comfortable in a bin 2'x3' or an 18 gallon bin. One pound of worms contains anywhere from 600-2500 worms.

Our Products: (books and gardening gifts on separate web pages)

Starter Kit: worm bin, wet bedding material, and a bunch of hungry worms.

Price: $35

Complete instructions come with bins and worms.

1 lb of worms $20 plus $6.95 shipping

2 lbs of worms $35 plus $10.95 shipping

worm castings $15 for 5 pounds

coir (to use as bedding in the bin) $3 per package

worm farmer buttons $2 each

Medium Bin (18 gallons) is $30 and will hold two pounds of worms.

Large Bin (44 gallons) is $50 and will hold five pounds of worms.

Brew Kits $50 including the recipe and supplies to make the brew several times.

More about the brew: From TEAMING WITH MICROBES, A Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web, by Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis:

“Vermicastings (the name given to worm poop) are 50% higher in organic matter than soil that has not moved through worms. … Compost leachate is the liquid that oozes out of compost when it is pressed or when water runs through it and leaches out…but leachates do little to impart microbial life in your soils. Compost extract is what you get when you soak compost in water for a couple of weeks or more. The end result is an anaerobic soup with perhaps a bit of aerobic activity on the surface. Manure tea, created by suspending a bag of manure in water for several weeks, is also anaerobic. Modern compost teas, on the other hand, are aerobic mixtures. If the tea is properly made, it is a concentrate of beneficial, aerobic microbes. The bacterial population, for example, grows from 1 billion in a teaspoon of compost to 4 billion in a teaspoon of an actively aerated compost tea.”

The Worm Ladies make presentations for interested groups, schools and garden clubs. Fee: $100 plus 58 cents a mile.

We make "house calls"--$25 plus 50 cents a mile.

You can order worms from the WORM LADIES OF CHARLESTOWN*, Lois Fulton and Nancy Warner. through our email address (angoraandworms@cox.net, redwiggler@cox.net) or through Pay Pal on our ordering web page. Postage rates are at the bottom of the ordering page.

You may come to our homes for worms; it is preferable to call first to make sure we are home.

Visit our web albums: Earth Day at the Zoo, http://picasaweb.google.com/nwarner7/April2008EarthDayAtTheZoo

Dennison Pequotsepos Nature Center, http://picasaweb.google.com/nwarner7/April08DennisonPequotseposNatureCenter

Schools and Garden Clubs, http://picasaweb.google.com/nwarner7/LoisNancyWorms

*Our Story...The Worm Ladies of Charlestown

"Lois Fulton was taking a break at the Rhode Island Flower & Garden Show. She found a table where only one other woman was sitting. They got to talking and soon discovered that not only had both been students at P.S. 19 in The Bronx, but both had once lived on 236th Street.

Nancy Warner, the other woman at the table, had moved away from the borough in the third grade. When they shared their maiden names, Lost Rost and Nancy Hatch realized that they had been best friends 50 years ago.

'It was like finding a sister,' Fulton says. One thing led to another, and they soon discovered they were both living in Charlestown--on opposite ends of the same salt pond.

Two years later, Fulton and Warner are in business together: The Worm Ladies of Charlestown."

Tom Meade, THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL, MARCH 9, 2003

January 2004 Rhode Island Monthly Magazine

Under The Sink Worm Bins lined up in Lois's worm room!

Worms and bedding in a Starter Bin

The Worm Ladies Network

Lauran Cole Warner, Enumclaw Washington State, lacowa@earthlink.net
Matt Robinson, North Scituate, RI, 401-764-0644
Donna Robinson, Portsmouth, RI 401-688-9681, spiral1@mindspring.com
Dianne Log, Richmond, RI, 401-539-2419
Joanne Ruppert, Warwick, RI

Nancy Warner, 161 A East Beach Road, Charlestown, RI 02813, 401-322-7675, angoraandworms@cox.net

Lois Fulton, 39 Safford Avenue, Charlestown, RI 02813, 401-364-9673, redwiggler@cox.net