Laura - That's a great idea to split the compost pile in half with hardware cloth!
I don't have a compost bin anywhere on the ground. I am using the red wrigglers which probably wouldn't survive in my ground soil being mostly sandy. I do plan to move the plastic bins outside into a shady area this Spring and I am worried about them escaping. The worm bins are in my garage currently. I leave the lights on since some of the worms in one bin will try to escape if the lights are off. Which means that may happen should I move them outside and it gets dark unless I can keep a spotlight on the bins at night. Not sure yet what I will do about that....
