Vermicomposting to the Rescue!

Now that you have found your local produce, what will you do with the kitchen scraps? The best, easiest and most fulfilling green thing to do is compost it! Vermicomposting is the process of using earthworms, or red wigglers, in a contained environment to turn organic waste into natural, nutrient-rich compost.

Vermicomposting is easy, requires very few supplies, and can be done in an apartment or house by anyone. A simple box or container makes a great worm bin and can be kept indoors or out. The system requires very little attention. In addition, red wigglers have voracious appetites and are extremely happy to spend the day eating, excreting worm castings and reproducing. A pound of happy worms in a healthy vermicompost environment can turn into a 1,000,000 worm population in one year. Did you know Hong Kong has just begun a wide-scale vermicomposting system nationwide? Check out their Reuters video! Read the full story, too! 

In case you need some inspiration, here are a few reasons why vermicomposting is so great:

• keeps valuable resources out of landfills
• great soil for houseplants and gardens
• have fun telling your friends
• feel good about recycling nutrients
• makes great gifts

One of the best resources to help you get started is Mary Appelhoff's Worms Eat My Garbage. My roommates and I used this to start our system 9 months ago. We reused an old trunk, drilled air holes for ventilation and used the 3:3 rule for our bedding:  1/3 green (peat moss, soil, grass), 1/3 brown (leaves, newspaper, cardboard) and 1/3 food (veggies scraps). Once we made a yummy, comfortable house, we added 2 lbs. red wiggler worms (you can buy at any bait shop). We discovered that 1 lb. of worms is better to get started. We slowly added our vegetables scraps to help our worms assimilate to their new environment.

Our worms were really small, about 4 inches, when we started. Now they are huge! I'd say at least 8 inches and big around! And they have multiplied! We are so happy they are fat and happy! We discovered that using only vegetable material, no meat or bones and no dairy products helps keep our system thriving with no odor. We started in our hallway and during this last part of summer, we moved our worm system outside next to our potted plants making it easier to harvest the compost, or Black Gold.

If you have questions about getting started, feel free to email me. Also check out these two websites:  Journey to Forever and All Things Organic. Mary Appelhoff writes about a man that got so into composting inside his home, that he turned coffee tables and kitchen benches into vermicomposting systems and got such a big thrill out of showing his friends that worms were eating his garbage in his living room. And one last thing! We have reduced our weekly garbage by 75% percent because we compost, eat vegetarian, buy in bulk, recycle and reuse. If we can do it, so can you. It's easy and fun!

Comments

[Al]

Shannon,

Thanks for the link to the Reuters video embedded on my blog.

The correct link to the post is now
http://www.bokashiman.com/2007/09/reuters-vermiculture-in-hong-kong/

The original story is here
http://www.reuters.com/news/video/videoStory?videoId=66121

and includes an embed link which you can add to your blog.

Cheers,

Al

[Shannon]

Thanks very much Al for your comment and sending the new links. I updated the post: http://greenpride.typepad.com/greenpride_celebrating_be/2007/10/vermicomposting.html
Great story! Take care!

[Bentley]

Hmmmm...that image with the egg cartons looks strangely familiar! LoL

Great post, Shannon! I'm always excited when I read about someone else getting the vermicomposting bug!

I'd definitely be interested to know what kind of worms you are using! At 10-12 inches there is no way they can be common red wigglers. European Nightcrawlers (bigger cousin of the red worm) perhaps?

Cheers

Bentley

[Shannon]

Hi Bently,
What a nice surprise to see your post this morning! Thanks for letting me "borrow" your cardboard picture :-). You're right 10-12 inches is stretching it - I just harvested last week at Christmas time and I'd the biggest daddies were probably 8 -9 inches. I got the worms at the local bait store and the elderly gentleman said they were red wrigglers. We gave 3 boxes of worms away to friends ready to start composting! My roommates and I are very excited about the new converts! Hope you have a great New Year 2008 and your sites are great references! I'll be putting up more links to both sites today. Thanks so much for being such a great spokesperson for composting!
Take care,
Shannon
greenPRIDE