Brian Fraus, owner of Texas Big Worm Farm in Bertram, holds a bin of compost, complete with coffee grounds and filters, that he uses to nourish seedlings for his garden, some of which brighten up his office on a cloudy March afternoon. Staff photo by Suzanne Freeman
It’s worm and soil season in the Hill Country, and, at Big Texas Worm Farm, business is heating up — literally — to 140-160 degrees. That’s when the combination of leaves, wood chips, beer grains, and other organic materials piled in heaps by Brian Fraus on his Bertram worm farm begin turning into living earth.
While that heat is good for the compost, it’s not so good for the worms, which are kept inside two large metal buildings at the farm on Texas 29 east of Bertram. The worms live and multiply in plastic bins and just about anything else that will hold them by the thousands.
“I fluctuate from worm farmer to composter, but those two things kind of overlap,” Fraus said.
Basically, he makes the soil in which the worms live, and both soil and worms are used to break down organic matter to make things grow in lawns and gardens. Both are for sale, but that’s not all he produces. He also sells worm castings (otherwise known as worm poop), another essential ingredient for fecund flora.
“Worm castings are the black gold of soil,” Fraus said. “Worm castings hold moisture four to five times longer than regular dirt. It works as a catalyst between the plant and the nutrients in the soil.”
You don’t feed the plant, Fraus stressed. You feed the soil.
“If you don’t have healthy soil, you’re not going to have healthy plants,” he explained. “You can fertilize a plant or feed it plant food, but, if you stop, it will die because you didn’t develop a healthy soil. Feed your soil and your plants will grow better.”
To Fraus, making compost mimics nature. “Compost is a whole living society of organisms breaking things down to feed plants,” he said. “When you compost, you’re speeding up what already happens in nature.”
The Bertram composting king passed on some simple tips for starting your own healthy, living soil.
HOW TO COMPOST
STEP ONE
The easiest way to compost is to buy a small compost barrel at a hardware or feed store. Most have handles that allow you to turn it in order to mix ingredients. Or, you can lean three pallets together to form a three-sided box to contain the compost.
STEP TWO
Start with a layer of carbon: leaves or shredded cardboard or newspaper. Even shredded copier paper will do. Use both green and brown leaves. You will be using four parts carbon to one part nitrogen, which are the food scraps and coffee grounds.
STEP THREE
Dump food scraps on top of the leaves. Throw in coffee grounds, including the coffee filters. Layer more leaves, food scraps, leaves. Green grass clippings are also good to add in with the food scraps.
STEP FOUR
Hose it down. Food scraps sometimes provide enough moisture, at least early in the season, but once the Texas heat turns up, you’ll need to keep your compost moist.
STEP FIVE
Mix it up. Even three days after first layering your compost, you can turn it over in the middle and see steam coming out. You’ll only need to mix it up every month or so to aerate it. You can keep adding food scraps as you go. In three months, if the core temperature stayed at about 140 degrees the whole time, you should have compost ready for your garden.
SPEED IT UP
Pour on some chicken droppings mixed with water to move the process along a little faster.
QUICKEST EVER
Leaf litter and coffee grounds are the perfect ingredients for making good soil. Mix four parts leaves to one part coffee grounds and add some moisture. Bam! You have compost.
TROUBLE SHOOTING
If it smells, Fraus said, something’s wrong. Usually, a ripe odor or flies means you’re adding too much organic material, or food scraps. Throw in some wood chips or more leaves to balance out the mixture.
suzanne@thepicayune.com
