We probably could use a thread about "garden composting systems". In March, I began doing it again after we stopped buying 25-lb bags of oranges for juice about 4 years ago. The kitchen waste didn't seem enough to make a regular practice of it, and so I lost my vast legion of red worms descended from some that I'd bought 15 years ago for about $40. So as I said, in March, I purchased a pound of red worms for about $68. I shouldn't need to buy worms again if I just keep my composting system active. Your worms with their poop is like a sourdough starter for making bread. Some families had kept their sourdough starters going for nearly a century, so as long as you feed your worms regularly, you will always have them in a bed of their own poop.
There are "bins" and kits that you can buy for vermi-composting, but with the citrus-peel accumulations, those were never enough for my needs. I had three vinyl garbage cans that seemed less suitable for garbage, so I cut the bottoms off them evenly, and bought some plywood discs from Home Depot and enameled them for lids. The purpose for cutting off the bottoms: I could flip the garbage cans upside down on a layer of newspapers, and completely empty them by simply pulling the can off the worm poop inside.
My biggest problems were always the flies. I need to let the citrus peel rot before the worms get it. If you get maggots in the rotting bin, you have flies. About 5 years ago, we had quite an infestation of soldier flies -- harmless creatures that like fruit and fruit peels -- but they look like black wasps. At one time, I found a bee-hive that had been established in one of my bins.
So for my rotting bin, I keep the rot in large garbage bags and keep them closed inside the bin. This year, there's been no problem with flies. But the rotting process takes longer. I use a compost "starter" such as this one --
Jobe's Organic Compost Starter. It's a pelletized formulation with a consistency like your typical soil amendment. It mostly just promotes the rotting process. The worms are the key to everything.
As for separating your worms from their poop, there are many tricks people use, but the easiest and equally effective is the crudest and simplest. You pile the compost on a table with the worms in it, giving it indirect daytime light. Worms don't like light, so they migrate to the interior of the pile as you scrap off worm poop from the top. You just keep working it that way, until eventually all the worms are in a ball at the center.
Also, I keep a bag of steer manure -- and if I can get it, horse apples -- to start the worm bin and provide an initial bed for my slimy pets. Then I successively layer the kitchen vegetable waste (particularly the rotted citrus peel) on top, and sprinkle some dry manure over it, followed by a little water spray.
I'm always attentive to any advice on the topic of worm composting. Worm poop and pee are the best things to use in your garden. You wouldn't need any pelletized plant food or soil amendments other than worm castings soaked in worm urine.
Another thing about composting -- I had always been fanatical about reducing waste from spoilage in the refrigerator. But with a garden, you would care a bit less. And you would care even less if you simply recycled the spoiled vegetable matter into your composting system. so i don't mind throwing away an over-ripe banana or a tomato that's grown too soft, or lettuce that is growing limp and rotty . . .
But back to the original topic posed here -- coffee grounds. Sure -- they're really good for the garden, but even better for the composting bin. Maybe the caffeine will enliven your worms -- I can't say. But the solution to all the mold and fungus growing on your kitchen waste -- is the lowly earthworm -- your composting worms. You then wouldn't need to worry about contaminating your garden with fungus and mold, because the worms convert it into prized poop. THEN! THEN! you can put it into your garden.
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