You could, but likely the earthworms in your yard will be slow to compost and slow to reproduce. Red Wigglers, and other worms bred for composting, are very motivated to eat, breed and poop. This makes them ideal and efficient composters. 

As with any pursuit, there is a wide price range for entry into vermicomposting. At its most basic, you need worms, bedding, worm food and a container. Occasionally, you also need to sprinkle some finely ground "grit" material to allow the worms' gizzards to digest food. As long as you've got composting worms, the other components can often be sourced for free or limited cost. Inexpensive systems often become more time-consuming to maintain and harvest. Once you find that worm composting nourishes both your soul and your soil (Like what I did there?), worm enthusiasts often look for an upgraded bin for convenient feeding and harvesting and/or a larger space for worms and castings production. 

The smaller the particle size, the faster the materials will break down. This allows the worms to more quickly eat, digest and leave it behind. This is an important distinction with both food and bedding for your bin.

Here's a basic list of what you can use for bedding in your worm bin: 

• Peat moss (pH often buffered with a sprinkle of Garden Lime)

• Coconut coir (rinsed well)

• Torn or shredded cardboard pieces

• Torn or shredded newspaper or paper

• Aged compost

• Aged cow, horse, or rabbit manure (pre-rinse rabbit manure to reduce ammonia/salts)

• Straw

• Hay

• Fall leaves (dried and shredded are best)

• Wood chips or pine shavings

Different beddings will result in a different texture, appearance, and nutrient composition of castings. How this impacts your vermicomposting practices will depend on your goals--whether you're more interested in high-quality castings or you're just trying to recycle everything you possibly can.

If your worm bin is indoors, consider that outdoor materials like leaves will bring in "friends" from the outdoor ecosystem (pill bugs, earwigs, and other critters). They don't harm the bin, but you may not be eager to see them. For more information on other insects in the worm bin, the Urban Worm Company has a great reference.

Worms will eat the microbes (bacteria, fungi, etc.) that grow on your food scraps and bedding. Through the action of decomposition and worms ingesting the material, eventually they'll turn both foods and bedding into worm castings.

Here's a basic list of what you can feed your worms: 

• Fruit and vegetable scraps (minus those in “NO” List)

• Small amounts of bread, pasta or rice

• Dead flower bouquets

• Coffee grounds/Tea bags

• Egg shells (rinse, microwave for 2 minutes, and grind with blender or coffee grinder)

• Manure of plant-eating pets (rabbit, guinea pig, hamster, etc.)

• Finely ground birdseed

• Small amounts of aged bokashi compost

• Crushed or powdered old dog or cat kibble

Here's the "No" list of what should typically be avoided:

• Citrus

• Onions/Garlic

• Spicy (chili peppers) or salty foods

• Meat or Dairy

• Fats, oils, salad dressing

Here's a cool fact: Worm castings will vary in nutrient composition and appearance depending on what you feed the worms. In large-scale operations, worms are often fed pre-composted, fairly finished thermophilic compost. Often they're fed manures (horse, cow, rabbit).

The same goes for bedding. How this impacts your vermicomposting practices will really depend on your goals--whether you're more interested in high-quality castings or you're more interested in using your worm bin to recycle everything you possibly can.

Worm castings

• Improve aeration of compacted soils

• Improve both soil drainage and moisture retention

• Contain humic and fulvic acids, which help soil minerals to be more plant-available

Check out this blog post for more cool information on what worm castings can do!

Worm castings

• Contain hormones that speed up plant germination (sprouting)

• Help plants to grow faster

• Increase root mass

• Improve stress tolerance of plant roots

• Help decrease transplant shock

• Improve plant health and yields

Check out this blog post for more cool information on what worm castings can do!

It typically takes 3-6 months for your worm castings to be finished and ready for harvest (obviously, this varies based on the number of worms you've got eating and pooping in your bin!).

When the castings look well-decomposed and no longer resemble the bedding materials (sometimes difficult to sort out if you start with coconut coir or peat moss), you can begin harvesting and using them.

Check out this YouTube video from The Worm Whisperer's channel that covers this question.

There are a few common methods for harvesting worm castings (and separating castings from worms):

• Remove castings from your bin and pick the worms out!

• Remove castings, put them in a pile, slowly remove the top layer of castings every few minutes, and set aside. The worms continually burrow deeper to escape the light. Eventually, you'll have castings in one place and the worms (from the bottom of the pile) in the other.

• Use a sieve or sifting screen (1/4" to 1/8") to separate the crumbly, fine castings from worms and "overs," or larger particles. Sifters can take many forms, including spinning trommel-style devices and sieves made with hardware cloth. Even wire trays and baskets for storage/office use can make great sifters. To sift/sieve the castings, they need to be dry enough to be a little crumbly (or they will quickly clog your sifter)

Check out a YouTube video from the Hey It's a Good Life channel that covers this question (At the 4:11 mark of the video, she shows her simple sieve for sifting castings).

The Urban Worm Company has compiled and published an amazing web reference called "The Big Book of Worm Bin Pests & Problems"  that answers this question better than I could! Check it out!

Consider the following:

Did you add food that is stinky when it decomposes (cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli)? (Cover with a layer of bedding)

Did you add too much food? (Add bedding)

Is your bin too wet? (Add more bedding)

Are your worms OK? (Make sure that you're finding the amount of healthy worms you'd expect. If your worms are dying and contributing to the smell, you may need to rescue remaining worms and re-start your bin).

This is another topic for which "The Big Book of Worm Bin Pests & Problems"  is a very helpful resource.

Since worms breathe through their skin, having enough moisture in the worm bin is important. We aim for the moisture level of a "wrung-out sponge."

Here are a few tips for improving a dry bin:

1. Sometimes the bottom of the bin can be a lot moister than the top. Mix the bin contents and even out any moisture variation between the top and bottom of the bin.

2. If you're about to feed them, consider that the food might add enough moisture (especially if it was frozen, blended, or just juicy stuff!)

3. Add dechlorinated water (tap water allowed to sit out for 24 hours +), ideally with a spray bottle or pump sprayer. Pouring water into the bin will create pockets that can get too wet and become anaerobic. If you pour, you'll need to mix/fluff your bin to ensure things are mixed well and air can get throughout the bin.

4. If you have a bin with a spigot at the bottom to let extra moisture drip out (Like the Vermihut or Worm Factory), leave a cup underneath it and always leave the spigot open. This will help you monitor the overall moisture level. If your stacking tray system is dry in the top tray and really wet in the bottom tray, you can rearrange the trays to put the moist one on top.

5. Try putting a sheet of bubble wrap on the top of the bin to reduce moisture loss.

Our products are currently only available for local pickup in Vancouver, Washington.

If you don't live in NW Oregon or SW Washington and you're interested in having worms shipped to you (United States), I'd encourage you to check out Meme's Worms.  This is a great nationwide supplier with great customer service and big, healthy composting worms!