Calling all plant moms and dads! If you have a garden or tons of plants or are an aspiring gardener you will probably need to seek out a fertilizer at some point to bring your plants some life.
If you’re a plant parent who is currently tossing your food scraps in the trash, I’m going to urge you to stop, immediately. It’s a crime in shame to toss perfectly good scraps in a bin when you’ve got plants to feed!
Key Takeaways
Attention Plant Parents!
If you live in a small home or apartment or even in a large home with a spacious backyard, and you are interested in venturing into the world of composting, the task can seem daunting to take on.
I’m here to first assure you, it's not. Creating a space in your backyard to toss food waste and green waste into is one of the smartest things you can do to eliminate waste in your household and feed your garden simultaneously.
If you do however live in a smaller space and feel intimidated by the idea of dealing with a large scale compost bin, I’d like to direct you to the way of vermicomposting or composting with worms!
I worked for a vermicomposting company in Hawai’i for around five years. We traveled to elementary schools around the island, collected students' food and paper waste and built composting and vermicomposting bins all over the campuses. The end product was sold to the community and the money went back to the schools for garden programs.
My experience was incredible and I learned so much. It made me realize how ridiculously easy and necessary it is to dispose of your waste in a sustainable way and regenerative way. I’m not a firm believer in composting food scraps.
So why should you choose to start vermicomposting in the first place?
Here are some benefits:
- 1Reduces waste: You can place most of your food scraps, and any or most organic items, such as paper, old clothes and even hair in the bin! This creates a nearly zero-waste household.
- 2Improves soil quality: If you are a gardener or plant parent, using vermicast (worm poo) can create aeration in the soil and enrich the soil’s nutrient content.
- 3Manage pests: vermicast has been known to help manage common pests such as aphids and mealybugs.
- 4Cost effective: Vermicomposting is a very inexpensive way to ensure you will have a lifetime of nutrient dense plant fertilizer and reduce waste throughout the years. A little goes a long way in plants because of its rich content, unlike compost which takes much more.
Convinced? Here’s how you can get started!
How to build a Worm Compost Bin
There are many different types of worm bins. Online you can find a number of ready made and easy to use options.
Alternatively you can save some money and make your own worm bin, fast and easy.
One quick and easy way is to purchase some plastic bins at your local hardware store, drill holes at the bottom for drainage and elevate them, either on bricks or over another bin to catch the excess water.
How to Create the Right Environment for Your Worm Compost
When creating a dark and cool environment for the worms to be housed and drainage as we will regularly water our worms to assist with the breakdown of scraps. Feel free to dump the excess water known as leechate on your lawn.
Now that you have your bin made, set it up in a cool dark and shaded place. Collect bits of cardboard and egg cartons and tear them up into tiny pieces to create a bed of sorts.
This will go on the bottom of the bin. Before laying them in the bottom of your bin, give them a good soak so the worms have a nice cool bed to lay on.
Next, collect all spare pieces of paper and either hand shred them or my personal favorite, machine shred them. Keep them in a bin near your worm bin so you can constantly layer paper over the food in your bin to prevent odor.
Next, you’ll want to get the worms. These aren’t some ordinary earthworms you’re digging up in your backyard. Vermicomposting worms are worms that break down decaying material, often animal manure. Red wigglers are the most common type of vermicomposting worms and you can either get them from local animal farmers or purchase them online.
Once you have your worms, you can place a fresh layer of food on top of the cardboard followed by your handful of worms. Next you’ll take your shredded paper and cover the food so that none is sticking out.
Finally spray the top of the bed with more water, too little water and too much water can be an issue either way. We want to give the worms a shower but not a soak. You’ll want to keep your bin always damp, so check on it regularly.
Once you notice the food scraps have turned into a bit of a sludge, feel free to add another layer and repeat the steps above.
What can you feed your worms?
Unlike a compost bin not anything and everything can be chucked into a worm bin. Like I said earlier, worms can eat most organic material. However, there are a few things that you shouldn’t be feeding to your worms as it will take them ages to break it down.
Worm Do’s:
Worm Don'ts:
Harvest
I’d say on average a full cycle of regular feeding to harvest will take anywhere from 6 months to a year. Most bins are manufactured so that you can collect your dried vermicast at the bottom of the bin when the time is appropriate.
More info:
If you’re looking for more information on maintaining your worm bin I’d like to point you in the direction of my old mentor, Mindy Jaffe. She’s a worm whisperer and a wizard at maintaining worm bins. She has a website I’ll link below and I highly recommend checking out her step by step videos on Youtube. She is a wealth of knowledge and makes vermicomposting a breeze!
FINAL THOUGHTS
Vermicomposting is an amazing project to take on and I highly recommend anyone interested in the world of gardening to give it a go. Not only are you reducing your household waste and feeding your garden but vermicomposting minimizes greenhouse emissions and puts carbon back into the soil through a process of carbon sequestration. By vermicomposting not only are you helping yourself but also the environment!
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