In the picture posted you will see the author is portraying a popular meme image with their own words to support worm farming or vermicomposting. The author of this meme Paul Piccirillo has written books on gardening, has a free worm farming guide, a YouTube channel, has published other memes, and has a website where all this can be accessed. 

The intended audience for this is people who garden or those who grow produce. The author of this image is arguing that with the help of worm farming that you, just like them, can grow big produce. They have used many affective tactics to grab the readers attention. Some of the tactics the author of this meme used was the color of the words, the size of the words, a picture that is well known, and a large red bell pepper to back up the claim that with the help of worm farming that you can have big produce. I will go over in more depth the tactics this author of this meme used. The first thing I noticed was that this writer used red writing in all caps for the word "big". Another tactic he used was that he also put "wait" in all red letters to capture the attention of the reader, in hopes that you would notice the importance of the word wait. This author used a popular meme image and meme text to also try to grab attention of a broader audience, this meme was very popular for it's use of the text "I don't always but when I do". The idea behind using a popular image is important because this could pop up in a google search of the meme, which leads to more people seeing it and can then cause a ripple effect. The last thing I noticed about this meme was that the author has the man hold a large red bell pepper that is larger than his hand to back up the evidence that worm farming can lead to big produce. Using this image by itself simply would not have been enough, using the proof in the picture will make the picture much more powerful.

Priccilo, P. (n.d.). Worm farming revealed. WormFarmingRevealed.com. Retrieved February 24, 2022, from https://www.wormfarmingrevealed.com/

 What is red worm gardening? What is the purpose? How can I do it or how can it help my garden? Where did the worms come from? Why would I want to do this? These are all questions most of you would probably be asking and to be honest before I did the research these are questions I asked myself. So we will start with the what and go from there!

What is red worm gardening and what is the purpose? According to USU's Yard and Garden extension: "Vermicomposting, or worm composting as it is more commonly known, is the process of using worms to break down discarded food and other organic wastes and convert them into compost and liquid fertilizers."  (Utah State University Yard and Garden Extension, 2021) What is the purpose? The general purpose of worm gardening is to enhance your soil. It adds to the fertilizer and makes the soil much more suitable for use in your garden. 

Why would you want to do this? There is one big reason and that is it can improve your local community's environment by reducing the waste. "Worms will reduce your waste production by reusing food scraps and recycling nutrients. The U.S. generates more than 34 million tons of food waste each year (EPA 2011). Prevent this unnecessary waste from ending up in landfills." (Utah State University Yard and Garden Extension, 2021). 

Where do the worms come from? How can I do it and how can it help my garden? "Composting worms, such as red wigglers, are a non-native species preferred for composting; they process large amounts of organic waste daily, can handle disturbances and thrive in confinement, whereas earth workers do not." (Utah State University Yard and Garden Extension, 2021). There are some specific worms that you could buy that would be beneficial and those are the eisenia fetida and the eisenia andrei. These worms can be purchased from worm farms in person or you can even order them off of Amazon! Then once you get the worms what do you do next? The first item you are going to need a place for the worms to be in so grab a container, something that is clean and free from anything that could kill the worms. Then you're going to need something for them to be on- things such as newspaper scraps will work. Now this one is vital you are going to need water. When do you most often see worms crawling around on the cement? After a rain storm! So you are going to need water to keep them alive, but not too much or they'll drown! Grab some dirt and grab some old food scraps such as banana peels, potato peels, the ends of tomatoes, egg shells, old coffee grounds. 

Then you're set! You should be ready to start your worm garden!

University, U. S. (2021, October 21). Vermicomposting. USU. Retrieved February 10, 2022, from https://extension.usu.edu/yardandgarden/research/vermicomposting