Worm Bin versus Compost Tumbler

When we did the Start Composting challenge a few months ago, I decided to put my worm bin out of service for awhile and try a different composting method. I'd been eying a compost tumbler at Home Depot (Lowes?) for $100, but then decided to try Craigslist, where I found this bad boy:


It's twice as big as the one from Home Depot (Lowes?) and cost half as much, though perhaps it's not quite as quality. I'm pretty sure the people I bought it from made it themselves, and after we got it home, we had to do some minor repair work to the frame. All in all though, I've been satisfied with the purchase.

So now that I've tried both methods, which do I like better? To be honest, both have their downsides:

• The compost tumbler takes up a huge amount of space. It's as big as our trash can, but with the frame, sits much farther out from the wall.
• The compost tumbler stinks. I don't remember ever noticing a stench coming from the worm bin, but if I did, it definitely wasn't as strong as the tumbler. Luckily, the smell is mostly contained inside the tumbler and is only really strong when I open it up to add food scraps.
  
• Because it's so large and stinky, the tumbler sits way over on the side of the house by the trash cans - not nearly as convenient as the porch where the worm bin was.
• Food takes much longer to decompose in the tumbler.
• The worm bin leaked! And attracted fruit flies!
  

The Verdict: I hate composting!

I've heard so many people wax poetic about the joy of watching their waste turn into useful compost that I really expected to like it. But the truth is that I really really wish my city would start collecting food scraps, turn it into compost for me, and sell it back for a cheap amount. They already compost yard waste - why not food scraps?

In the meantime, our plan is to continue using the tumbler until it's full, and then go back to using the worm bin while the compost in the tumbler finishes. According to Pragmatic Environmentalism, we could solve our fruit fly problem with the worm bin by freezing the food scraps before putting them in the bin. And I've also read that we could solve our leaking problem by putting the bin up on bricks with an extra lid underneath to catch the dripping worm tea.

The compost in our worm bin is coming along nicely:

And here's a bonus picture of our garden:

How is your composting going?

____________________

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Make Your Own: Worm Bin

We set up our worm bin today! I'm not sure who was more excited - me or the boys!


The following are the steps I followed to set up my worm bin, and I'm too excited to wait to share them, but I'm adding a warning that you should probably wait to see if I kill off all my worms before trying this yourself.

STEP 1: Read Worms Eat My Garbage.

STEP 2: Obtain a container. I used an 18 gallon plastic container with a lid, but Mary Appelhof (author of Worms Eat My Garbage) says that a shallow container would be better. The size of container you will need depends on how much food waste your family produces a day. Appelhof recommends that you "plan on one square foot of surface for each pound of garbage per week."

STEP 3: Drill ventilation holes in the sides and lid. A friend of mine put this container together for me as part of a class for the Raleigh Community Gardens Meetup Group, and she used special grommets to fill in the holes, but you could also just use some wire mesh.

STEP 4: Obtain worms. You need red wigglers, which are available at bait shops. The goal is a worm to garbage ration of 2:1 (2 pounds of worms for every pound of food waste your household produces a day), but because worms multiply, you can start with less if the worms seem too pricey. We bought a pound of worms for $17. The sales clerk asked us if we were setting up a compost bin "because fishermen never ask for worms by the pound."

STEP 5: Prepare bedding. We used eight pounds of shredded newspaper for our size of container. You need three pounds of bedding per cubic foot volume of the bin. Appelhof implied that newspaper was the best type of bedding, though you could also use a mixture of newspaper, leaves, manure, and wood chips. Avoid newspaper with colored print.

STEP 6: Wet the bedding. For plastic containers, you need to add water equal to two times the weight of the bedding. So for our container, we added 16 pounds of water. If your container is made of another material besides plastic, add water equal to three times the weight of the bedding. (Plastic bins tend to accumulate more water over time.)

STEP 7: Add one or two handfuls of soil. Mix well.

STEP 8: Add the worms on top of the bedding. Leave the lights on in the room, and the worms will move into the bedding within an hour. If any are left on the surface, remove them.

STEP 9: Feed your worms by digging a hole big enough for the amount of food you're going to add. Put the food in the hole and cover with bedding. If you're using a plastic container, add dry shredded bedding to the surface every two or three weeks.

What can you feed your worms?

• vegetables
• fruits
• coffee grinds
• tea leaves
• pulvarized egg shells

Do not feed them too much citrus, meat, bones, feces, and preferably no dairy.


Cost: $10 for the bin + $17 for the worms + FREE newspaper obtained from friends = $27


I'm thinking we're going to need another bin or two for the amount of food waste we produce, but I'm going to experiment with this one for now and see how it goes. Wish us luck!


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Book Review: Worms Eat My Garbage

Worms Eat My Garbage
by Mary Appelhof

Rating: *****

Synopsis:

Appelhof's classic guide to vermicomposting is the definitive resource for anyone interested in starting a worm bin. Short and easy to read with clever illustrations, Worms Eat My Garbage includes information on what kind of container and worms to use, how to set up a worm bin, how to feed your worms, and how to harvest your compost. As a bonus, Appelhof also includes frequently asked questions about worms, including how they eat, poop, and reproduce. This is definitely the only book about vermicomposting you will ever need.

Here's just a sampling of the information in this book:

Why choose a worm bin?

• Because of the worms' high rate of digestion, a worm bin can be much smaller than a regular compost bin, and you can keep it indoors, enabling you to compost year round. Composting allows you to turn your kitchen food waste into valuable fertilizer for your garden rather than adding it to a landfill. You can also save energy and water through composting by avoiding use of a garbage disposal.

What size container should I use?

• "Plan on one square foot of surface for each pound of garbage per week."

How many worms do I need?

• Appelhof recommends a 2:1 ratio of worms to garbage. In other words, you need 2 pounds of worms for every pound of garbage you produce a day.

What can I put in my worm bin?

• Yes!....vegetables, fruits, coffee grinds, tea leaves, pulvarized egg shells
• No!...too much citrus, meat, bones, feces, preferably no dairy (stinky and attracts flies, mice, ants, and rats)

How do I use my compost?

• top dressing
• transplants (sprinkle in the bottom of each hole)
• seed beds (spread in a row)
• potting soil (mix with peat moss, perlite, and sand or garden soil)

Note that this is just a tiny example of the information in Worms Eat My Garbage. I strongly recommend reading this book yourself if you are interested in worm bins.


My Opinion

This book was even better than I expected. It's a perfect introduction and guide to vermicomposting, and I now feel ready to get my worm bin started. Right now, the thing holding us back is the amount of newspaper we need. We don't subscribe to the local paper, so it's a matter of saving up the bits of junk newspaper that come in the mail. Appelhof says you can use regular printer paper but that newspaper works better, and since I've read of others who failed at vermicomposting, I want to make sure I do it right from the start. Would it be worth subscribing to the newspaper just to get paper for my worm bin? Or does anyone else know of a good source of newspaper?


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Profiles of the Green and Frugal: Megalos Gardens

A year before we moved to the Triangle, we drove down to see how we would like it. When we got home, friends asked what we thought, and the best thing I could think to say was, "There are a lot of trees."

I've lived on the eastern side of the Mississippi most of my life. I'm used to trees, and if I ever had to move West, it's one of the the things I would miss the most. But I've never seen a city with so many trees - and I'm not talking Bradford Pears. These are grand old oaks, pines, and maples growing densely together as if the houses sprouted up in the middle of the woods, rather than the trees growing up around the houses. Standing in my husband's office in one of the skyscrapers in downtown Raleigh, I look out and see a great sea of green - instead of the usual urban expanse of concrete and pavement.

The trees are one of the aspects of this area that I love the most. They are beautiful but also valuable for their shade and carbon storage. But there is a downside to having so many trees - you can't have a garden without lots of sun.


One Cary resident has found a unique solution to the problem of a shady yard. Betsy Megalos has been gardening her whole life, receiving a BS in Horticulture from Pennsylvania State University and an MS in Horticultural Science from NC State. But when she and her husband bought a house in Cary over 15 years ago, they found that their backyard was too shady for a garden. So they looked to the front yard.


Over the years, Betsy removed a few trees in her front yard, creating an open sunny place for vegetables and herbs. She also added several terraced levels since her house is situated at the top of a small hill. She has tried to keep the costs of her large garden to a minimum by using recycled or borrowed materials, such as bamboo from a friend's yard to create a trellis for beans and squash.

Betsy suggests that beginning gardeners start with an herb or container garden, which can be situated close to the house. She explains that herbs are generally hardier and therefore easier for inexperienced gardeners to grow.

Betsy has also put in a children's garden with her next-door neighbor. She loves to plant sunflowers in gardens for children, although she says that she has had a problem this year with the squirrels making off with the sunflowers. "One of the problems of gardening in the suburbs," she says. "There aren't any predators to keep the squirrels in line."



Although Betsy tries to use organic methods in her garden, she focuses more on sustainable gardening and building a balance in the natural wildlife. She explains, "Some 'organic' methods that can kill your pests also end up killing your beneficial insects." Betsy mixes flowers with her vegetables, both for aesthetics and also to encourage pollination. She also loves to see lizards lurking in her terrace walls.


Betsy teaches horticulture at Wake Tech Community College but is also available for workshops and private instruction at her home. You can learn more about Betsy and her classes by visiting her website.


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Profiles of the Green and Frugal: Advocates for Health in Action

They call themselves AHA, as if they're saying, "Aha, I've got it!" And what they've got is certainly important - an organization that encourages Wake County to eat healthier and increase physical activity.

Since its inception in 2007 by WakeMed and the John Rex Endowment, thirty-five organizations in the area have gotten involved in the Advocates for Health in Action, including Alliance Medical Ministry, City of Raleigh Planning Department, the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, Marbles Kids Museum, and Wake County Public Schools.

Says Laura Aiken, the organization's director, "We saw a need for our community to have an organized and unified response to the policy and environmental issues that negatively impact the ability to eat healthy and be physically active."

What Do They Do?

AHA has focused their efforts on the following four categories: community gardens; access and environment; engagement and inclusion; and public relations and communications.

According to Aiken, the organization is taking action in these categories through the following goals:

• "Increase the number of informed, engaged and involved public that support healthy eating and physical activity.

• "Increase visibility of community assets – showcase and celebrate existing people, places and programs that increase access to healthful foods and physical activity opportunities.

• "Identify and recommend locally supported approaches to increasing the number of families that eat healthy and get recommended amounts of physical activity.

• "Identify and recommend community improvements that will enable equal access (affordable and available) to healthy foods and physical activity environments (parks, playgrounds, trails, greenways).

• "Maintain and increase the number of organizations actively participating in AHA work groups.

• "Increase the number of community leaders that champion healthy eating and physical activity as a way of life and actively support policies that make these options more available within Wake County.

• "Establish a youth advisory council and advocacy group – Youth Advocates for Health in Action (YAHA).

• "Work with youth serving organizations to shape policy that creates a healthy food and physical activity environment."

What Have They Done?

You might be familiar with one of AHA's initiatives through Marbles Kids Museum: the Power2Play exhibit, where kids can swim in peas and carrots, play hockey in their socks, and climb a rock wall.

One of AHA's best resources is the community gardens page of their website, which includes information on area gardens, farmer's markets, pick-your-own farms, and CSAs. The organization is also putting together a map "with all healthy food and physical activity resources highlighted for advocacy and community use," according to Aiken.

AHA has also organized interactive workshops with area PTAs called "Brains and Bodies: How the community can influence the health and academic success of children." Attendees of these workshops disccuss methods for reducing childhood obesity and encorporating health and physical activity into Wake County schools.

In addition, Aiken states that "work has initiated to increase access to affordable local, fresh foods to citizens of Wake County," "to promote ideas and provide resources for children to walk to school safely," and "to facilitate the conversion of unused land to community gardens."

How Do I Get Involved?

Anyone can get involved with the Advocates for Health in Action through the contact page of their website. You can also use the contact page to sign up for the ListServ.

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Spotlight on Raleigh: Community Gardens, Just Getting Started

My mom loves to get her hands in the dirt. Until I was a teenager, she always kept a big backyard garden, from which we preserved jars and jars of fruits and vegetables for year-round consumption. I have bountiful memories of hoeing and planting and weeding. Tomatoes straight off the vine, peas fresh from the pod, and bright cheery sunflowers watching over it all.

When I was in college and people would ask how my boring summer job at a factory was going, I would reply, "It's kind of like snapping beans." If you've ever snapped beans, you know just what I mean...

Gardening is in my genes, so I've always intended to have a garden. But in my adult life, I have lived in one dorm, one house, one townhouse, and four apartments. Six out of seven of those have been rental properties, and only the house had a yard. I dream about the day when I'll have my very own yard, but I don't know how near in the future it's going to happen, and I'm tired of waiting.

Thus began my search for a community garden...

Unlike other points on the Triangle (which is really more of a deformed hexagon), Raleigh seems to be sadly lacking in the community garden category. Durham has Durham SEEDS. Carrboro has their Community Garden Coalition. Chapel Hill has the Northside Community Garden and the Carolina Garden Co-op. But not Raleigh...

Six Google searches over six months finally led me to the "Raleigh Community Gardens Meetup Group." So far, the group is still in an organizational stage, but I've been impressed at the quality and quantity of start-up gardens being planned in the area. There's buzz about various gardens in the planning phase all over Raleigh.

Through the meetup group, I also discovered an organization called Advocates for Health in Action, "a group of diverse organizations and community members who are shaping the environment throughout Wake County so healthful eating and physical activity are the way of life." They are developing a page on community gardens as part of their site that will include a map of all the community gardens, CSAs, farmer's markets, and pick-your-own farms in the area.

Stay tuned for more information about community gardens planned for the Raleigh area. In the meantime, if you're in the middle of starting up a community garden in Raleigh, be sure to join the meetup and send your needs to Katherine, who's compiling a list, or send the info to the Advocates for Health in Action to be included on their page.

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