August Feature: Worm Bins are for Everyone

Here's a way to boost your compost into high gear, equally convenient for the apartment-dweller as for the homeowner. It's compact, odor-free and low-maintenance. It's a worm bin, and it generates some of the most fertile soil your plants could hope for.

Get 2 plastic stacking storage tubs; a drill; some clean, non-glossy paper; and red wiggler worms. Drill a border of holes (1/8") around the top of each tub, and all over one of the lids. Then drill holes all over the base of each tub (1/2").

Place the hole-free lid on the floor to catch drips. Stack your tubs together, and set them on top of it. Create a bed of damp, shredded paper inside, add the red wigglers with a few handfuls of dirt, and cover with more damp paper. Cap it off with the perforated lid, and you're all set up.

Whenever you have scraps (no meat, dairy or oils!), open the lid, place a handful in a corner, cover it with damp paper to prevent odors, and replace the lid. Start small at first: your worms need time to multiply. Once you notice the scraps steadily disappearing, try adding more at a time. Keep this up till the tub is full.

Now, the transition: how to remove all that rich, dark soil - without removing the worms?

Unstack the tubs. Set the empty one on top of the full one, with nothing between it and the dirt, and start adding scraps and paper just as before. Because there are holes in the base, the worms can travel up from the full tub to the empty one, where the food is. After 1 or 2 months, pull the full tub out from underneath, dump it outdoors, and stack it under the tub now being filled.

Once you get the hang of it, this a super-easy way to transform kitchen "waste" into some of the richest soil you've ever seen.


<< Back to the Newsletter