WORM BED: Make your sheet-mulched bed into a worm-producing bed for ultra-fast composting and extra nutrient-rich worm-castings. Get the worms working for you! Worms need a moist, dark, warm environment. Make sure the top layer of your sheet-mulched bed is uniformly moist. Worms love kitchen waste, and wet shredded newspaper, so add these to your top layer.
Then, cover the sheet-mulched bed with a material that will keep the bed dark & moist. For our dry & windy Colorado climate layers of carpet work well—wool carpet with jute backing, if you can find it. Old blankets or sheets can work. Carboard can work here, but will tend to dry out. Plastic sheeting for this layer is better for containing the moisture the worms need. Even covering with used plastic trash bags, held down with landscaping pins will work.
Then add an insulation layer with 6-8” of straw or leaves and cover again to keep the leaves from blowing away in the spring winds. This covering could be: Reemay row-cover, carpet (preferably wool—although the carpet-backing in most modern-made carpet is toxic, most toxins are released in the outgassing process in the first few weeks of the carpet’s life.
Still, you may want to set it out on the ground in an area where you would like to control the weeds for several months to insure leaching of toxins). If your site is not too windy, garden netting may work fine.
The red worms will multiply like crazy in this environment, and will accelerate the composting process.
This process will provide worm-rich beds. For more information on the benefits of worm-friendly gardening, see www.COwormman.com Worm-production can continue through the growing season, with adaptations to provide cooling for the worms in the hot months.