What friend of the garden is skinny and wiggly?

Earthworms, of course. It hard not to smile when you see them slithering in the dirt because you know they are working for you by aerating the soil, providing nutrients to plants through their castings and working to bring organic material on top of the soil down to the root zones where it can do the most good.

If you want more of a good thing, you might join the ranks of those who buy hungry worms to eat food scraps and make a rich compost in the process.

All you need to get started is a bin, a pound or so of red wiggler worms, some shredded newspaper and a little uneaten food from your table.

You can use a plastic container meant to hold a sweater with a tight fitting lid, said Sherri McCalla, a n employee of the Memphis Botanic Garden who gave a program in worm composting. Keep in mind that red wiggler worms like the top 6 inches of soil so a shallow container is better than a deep one.

Shred newspapers into thin strips and moisten with water. Do not use slick advertising sheets. The paper should not be dripping wet. A handful or two of crushed dried leaves can also be added.

Bury some chopped or small bits of food scraps in the newspaper.

Sherri said: Do not use meat or dairy products, salty foods such as chips or olives and no chemically preserved wood products.

You may also avoid strong smelling foods such as cabbage and broccoli. Citrus are too acidic for the worms.

Poke lots of small air hole in the lid for the box.

Buy a box of red wiggler worms from a bait shop and add them to the bin and let the worm work begin.

As a general rule you will need two pounds of worms for every pound of garbage you put in the bin.

From time to time, lift the lid and check on the worms. When it looks like most of the food scraps have been eaten, add some more. You can also add more strips of newspaper.

If there is a bad odor in the box, add some newspaper and stop feeding for a few days.

When the castings are just about filling the bin, it’s time to separate it from the worms.

McCalla does it by dumping the contents of the bin onto a sheet of plastic. Then she shines a bright light on the pile. The worms will dig in deeper to get away from the light. As this happens scoop off the castings.

Sherri said: When you get toward the bottom the worms will wind themselves into a solid ball that you pick up and put back in the bin.

Start the process again with more newspapers and food scraps.

Add the castings to potting soils or use as a top dressing for plants in the garden. You can also put the castings in a bucket and add water to them. In a day or so you will a tea that can be sprayed on plants to treat or prevent fungal and other diseases and to feed the plant.

Red wigglers, which are not native worms, like temperatures between 59 and 77 degrees. Some sources caution against introducing them to the soil because they may displace native earthworm populations.

There are numerous Internet sites providing information on vermicomposting, the technical name for worm composting: wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermicompost, wormwoman.com and wormdigest.org