One of the most beneficial things I discovered about patio gardening was the value of compost to improve plant vigor and fight disease. Composting is used in a lot of gardening and seems like a good way to recycle instead of discard. I read on the internet about kitchen composting bins small enough and clean enough to keep on the kitchen counter. It turns out these pails are carbon lined buckets used for temporarily holding waste for the large outdoor compost pile. The solution seemed to be in worm composting bins.
In the begining of November, I ordered some composting worms from a farm in Albuquerque. After a couple of weeks they showed up. I made a worm bin out of two rubbermaid bins; one plain and one I modified. These are the pictures of the worm bin construction. The worms arrived in a cotton cloth bag with some bedding. Looking back, I can see they were exhausted and stressed. I bought a newspaper and shredded it for bedding, put it in the bin, and watered it till the first rubbermaid bin leaked into the second. The refrigerator contained some green peppers I had never got around to dicing. I added that and the opened bag of worms. The next day I dumped out the bag. For the first few days the worms didn’t like it. Many, many of them were crawling up the sides. At first the smell was somewhat chemical like acetone, but that settled out.
The bin has been going a month. The worms have done very well making the environment to their suiting. Most of the original newspaper has been eaten. All the original food has vanished. Replaced by what looks and smalled like fresh soil. This is the most striking aspect. Given a week or two the item disappears. The worms are very active and there are a lot of them.
I had/have a wierd reaction to them. Afraid to touch or get very close. There’s no problem watching them. The worms are very photoreactive and move quickly out of the light, most of the time. Other times the worms lie there in a clump or singly unmoving. I wonder if the worms sleep or rest at these times. At full size all the worms have a light colored band, where they make eggs. The worms are very quick and are usually entangled in half finished compost, other worms, bedding, and composting item. It seems there are many more worms now, than when the bin started.
It takes three months for the bin to setup and mature. Which is timed with the early spring planting season. I anticipate a few pounds of compost by that time. It’s been a very positive experience. It will be interesting to see where this goes.
http://www.savvygardener.com/Features/worm_composting.html
http://www.cityfarmer.org/
http://www.wormwoman.com/
http://www.wormdigest.org/