Composting suggestions?

[Your Chef Victor]

When we were looking for a compost solution I found the Urban Worm Girl. Her website is: urbanwormgirl.com. I found her very knowledgeable and helpful. Cheers!

[TheGreenestDollar]

Hi Zach,

I'm starting to compost this year myself, and think I'm going to go with a 3-sided wooden box. Seems easy to make, and way cheaper than buying one of those plastic turning bins.

I recently researched and wrote an article on How To Start Composting, if you're interested. Thanks, and good luck!

[Isabella]

A year on....

I just noticed, it's already a year since you were thinking about starting composting. Since I started growing my own vegetables I have turned into an avid composter. But I don't want to go into much detail if you're already into the swing of things now.

As gludeman says, simple is often best. The reason you have a bin is mainly to keep it all tidy. But a heap would generally do just as well. There's no real need to turn it regularly, but it must get some air.

To stop it from stinking, as others have said already, don't put in meat, fish, dairy products, human or pet excrement. (I don't suppose you have chickens, but chicken manure would be great to put in. Hamster and guinea pig bedding will be fine too.) Important is to get a balance roughly right, i.e. not too wet and not too dry. Too many coffee grounds, teabags, fruit and vegetable peelings, and you'll end up with a soggy mess. Too much newspaper and cardboard, and it'll just sit there and do nothing.

I have never tried worm composting. I am tempted to try it AS WELL AS normal composting. Have read a lot about it, but not taken the plunge yet. I would not recommend to use it instead of ordinary composting, because worms can only eat a certain amount of food. If you overfeed them, especially with wet material, they are likely to drown. And if you have a lot of material to compost, it's very easy to be tempted to overfeed them.

Sorry to go on and on... it's one of my pet subjects. Would be interested in an update from you.

Isabella

[zach]

Hi Isabella,

I actually ordered a worm composter from Urban Worm Girl - Worms eat your garbage! Begin your adventures in worm composting.. They are here in Chicago and coming in a couple weeks to deliver it.

I'm probably going to set it up in my basement so I can compost year round.

Zach

[gludeman]

For the Earth Day, Greener People posting contest, I won a prize (thanks Zach), which turned out to be the worm composting kit from Urban Worm Girl. I have to say that I'm very happy with it so far. First I received a nice booklet will lots of great information about the worms and composting. About a week later, the worm bins arrived with instructions for setup. The setup was super simple. Then 2 days later the box of live worms arrived. I've had them now for about two weeks and so far the worms have been seriously chowing down on the kitchen waste I've put in their for them. There is almost no smell and what smell there is I find nice, like a greenhouse, very organic. According to the booklet, I should have some really nice compost in about 2-6 more weeks. I'll keep posting as it goes. But I have to say that so far this is a great gift idea and the Urban Worm Girl did an awesome job.

[FruGalGreen]

We have an outdoor compost system, and live in an area that sees winter weather for 7 months out of the year (no kidding). Our compost bin survives the winter weather just fine, and we "start it up" every spring for our garden needs. Composting is a great way to reduce your veggies and fruit, coffee grounds and egg shells to viable food for gardens. The indoor worm vermiculture, although a good concept, may be introducing an invasive earthworm species with your kit. It varies from bin to bin.... so, you need to watch out for the skinny red wiggler worms. Instead, opt for a kit that includes native earthworm species.

See this article for more information about what can happen to local ecosystems when those invasive red wiggler worms are released from a worm composting bin: Brooklyn Botanic Garden: Brooklyn Botanic Garden: How Exotic Earthworms Are Wreaking Havoc in North American Forests

[gludeman]

Originally Posted by FruGalGreen

The indoor worm vermiculture, although a good concept, may be introducing an invasive earthworm species with your kit.

I agree that there is the possibility of receiving worms in a kit that could be considered invasive for the area you live. However, you do not have to purchase worms in a kit to take advantage of worm composting. Worms collected from your back yard or within your neighborhood can be used to start your own indoor worm bins. If these worms are returned back outside in the compost, they are the same as those already found outside.

[zach]

My understanding, at least in my area, is that the red wiggler worms are warm climate worms and do not survive the midwest winters. If that's not the case then I've seen it suggested that you just freeze the soil for a few days to kill off any missed worms.

[wormcompostingnewbie]

I saw this article about making a bin out of a used plactic trash can. Are there any disadvantages when using this technique? Is it ok to use this for worm composting or do I need to drill larger holes? any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Homemade Compost Bins

[zach]

Originally Posted by wormcompostingnewbie

I saw this article about making a bin out of a used plactic trash can. Are there any disadvantages when using this technique? Is it ok to use this for worm composting or do I need to drill larger holes? any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Homemade Compost Bins

I don't think the holes have to be very big. If you are using the method where you stack multiple bins then you want to make it easy for the worms to work their way up to the next level.

Pretty much any plastic, glass or metal container will work for worm composting. I found the stacking bin method to work very well. You can rotate the bins from top to bottom. When the bottom bin is completely composted you can remove the soil and move it to the top of the stack to start a new bin.