Stacked Worm Composting for $15

Stacked Worm Composting for Under $15

Guest | February 19th, 2010

Our Worm Factory(TM) breaks down our food scraps fast. These typically run $80 or more. Fortunately a friend gave it to us, free!

Valentines day was coming up, so I decided to get my girlfriend a worm bin to compost her kitchen scraps in her apartment–I’m a true romantic. She had been jealous of The Worm Factory given to me and Troy by a friend for a whole year now. The Worm Factory works great; it makes finished worm castings in about a month; a pound of worms can eat about a pound of food a day; it produces a nutrient rich “tea” for fertilizing indoor or outdoor plants; the compost itself is more broken down than outdoor composting and closer to soil humus; and best of all it takes up minimal space and I can compost all winter long.

I have found that the stacked style of worm composting is far superior to the single bin method. With a single bin one adds compost to one side of the bin and then the other. This method requires quite a bit digging, worm separating and care in maintaining the proper moisture levels. Its more work.

With the stacked container method as one container fills up, another is added on top. As the worms finish eating what is in the first container, they migrate up to the second and so on. Depending on worm population, which is regulated by the amount of steady feeding, the first container will have finished compost in about a month to be used in the garden or stored in another container for the winter. Excess water drops through the containers and collects in a catch on the bottom where it can be drained off with a tap.

The only problem is: these containers are expensive! The relatively economical Worm Factory will run you about $80 or more. On Google shopping I’ve seen bins as low as $43 and as high as $175.

After the ceiling sprung a leak at my office, I noticed how nicely the 5 gallon “Homer” buckets from home depot stacked leaving a cavity several inches tall between stacked buckets. “Perfect for worms!” I thought. Below, you will find instructions on how to make a functional, somewhat attractive worm bin for less than $15.

What you will need:

4 (more if you want to stack higher than three containers) 5 gallon Homer buckets from HomeDepot – $2.34 each
1 Homer lid – $1
An inexpensive valve/faucet – about $5

Optional additions:

A paper shredder – about $30 at Target
A spray bottle – recycle one from a non-toxic product or $1 a the dollar store
A kitchen compost caddy – about $15 at Marshals

Continue reading Stacked Worm Composting for $15

Inspirational resource and fab mature design

Guest | February 12th, 2010

I had the chance to attend the PASA conference last week. The schedule was pretty diverse and there were a lot of workshops on topics related to permaculture and backyard farming on property sized less than one acre. It was pretty cool to include small scale and urban ag at a farming conference. It was a great forum to share and learn about small scale agriculture projects happening in almost every kind of community. There are so many levels at which growing food is important, including small-scale. The cross pollination between ‘real’ farmers and folks who work with farmers or food in a professional way, but probably won’t ever hold title to 100 acres was really exciting.

One particular workshop stood out as a fabulous resource. It was conducted by Dr. Tonia Slawecki and Dr. Gene Basan who co-founded Neo-Terra, an organization through which they carry out their ‘Experiments in Healthy Living’. They presented the results of 13 years worth of work in backyard farming on their suburban yard of less than 1 acre. There are so many ways to garden and foster a micro-ecosystem that it can be overwhelming to identify a strategy, but that is what makes everyone’s results so interesting to share.

The owners of Neo – Terra have taken three very powerful schools of thought and married them into one beautiful and productive backyard, where 90% of their veggies for the entire year are grown. The first inspiration comes from John Jeavons’ bio-intensive mini farming method. Jeavons’ classic book, ‘How to grow more vegetables:…than you ever thought possible on less land than you can imagine’ has inspired a couple of generations of organic gardeners.

Eliot Coleman is famous for ‘farming the backside of the calendar’, growing cold hardy plants, harvesting, eating and selling vegetables from fall through spring. He has perfected a system of overwintering greens with hoop houses and row covers to allow for winter harvest, all on the Maine coast. Fascinating!

The third school of thought is that of Bill Mollison and the principles of permaculture.

These are three of my heroes, and to see the vision they have brought forth over time was hugely inspirational. In the spirit of sharing the experience, they have made available the presentation on their website. It includes loads of ideas for everything from design to cover cropping, favorite tools and forms for record keeping. If you are looking for ideas of your own or just want to see an amazing example of what is possible, check out the links for yourself.

Click here for Part 1

Click here for Part 2

-Heather

Cat Poo: 2

Troy | January 24th, 2010

A quick update to the kitty litter composting experiment:

I have continued to add newspaper and fresh kitchen scraps to ensure a healthy diet as the worms embark upon their maiden voyage.
The small bin has been host to thermophilic bacteria, resulting in higher temperatures than the ambient air. This has also resulted in evaporation and consequently condensation on the lid (this is actually how I first realized it was creating heat).
Needless to say, cat litter clumps, so it sorta became a brick in the bin, not being distributed well enough. I have since used a garden trowel to mix it up, at which point steam came out and it smelled of ammonia, undoubtedly due to the high nitrogen pee clumps. The clumping would not be as much of a concern in normal usage if this system of composting cat waste works out because I would be adding the waste clump by clump rather than all at once.
The worms themselves seem to have fared okay despite the heat; I have seen quite a number of the little white babies, the first generation raised from birth in the cat poo bin.
Smell has not been an issue except for a few minutes after I stirred it up.
No water has come from the drain holes aside from when i set the bin up and intentionally tested the drainage.

For all the cat lovers in Pittsburgh and throughout the world.

-Troy

Pittsburgh Permaculture

Stacked Worm Composting for Under $15

Inspirational resource and fab mature design

Cat Poo: 2

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