Thursday, July 26, 2007

Worm Bucket

I read on the internet about how 5-10% of our household waste is kitchen waste that could be composted. I found some really great internet articles about composting, and my mom sent me some information about how she composts but I have two problems: 1) We have a really small backyard, and this could lead to some potential irritation with the neighbors as composts have a distinct (I don’t personally find it horrible) smell and 2) we could buy an actual composter, but that would go against rule #1.

So, here’s my solution. I found a few articles about vermicomposting. This means you basically put a bucket of worms under your sink and throw in anything organic (even paper!) and they’ll eat it right up. Very cool, totally cheap and it doesn’t smell at all. So, I made 2 worm buckets out of a couple of buckets I had leftover from buying kitty litter (more on kitty litter later) and bought some “red wrigglers” over the internet.

Here’s the “how-to” as well as some pics. Also, here's a link where there's some sweet info, www.wormwoman.com, although I found my worms for super cheap on eBay (Search for "bait") but it's a really good starting site. The lady wrote a book called Worms Eat My Garbage: How to Set Up & Maintain a Worm Composting System, so awesome. Enjoy!

1) I started by drilling holes all around the bucket (the
worms need lots of air!) I drilled a drain hole and lots
of holes in the tops.

2) Then I took a bunch of shredded paper home from my office. I soaked it in some water and squeezed it out. This is the worms bedding.

3) Then I dropped the worms in there. They don't like the light, so I put them under the sink with a tray underneath the bucket to catch any drips from the drainage hole in the bottom. They eat pretty much anything organic. I just make sure to add another layer of paper after adding the food, or else it starts to stink. After a few months, I should be able to harvest some juicy looking soil! (I'll post these pictures when I get them!)

4 comments:

  1. This is great! I used to pick nightcrawlers for bling back in Blackduck. Not my choice. Forced child labor. Anyway, I applaud your efforts. I, by the way, have started a "green" residential and commercial cleaning company out here. Well, we've registered with the state and local agencies, so in that sense, we've started. But in another, we don't really have any customers. That aside, I'd like to be, eventually, completely off the grid with this company. But it's hard to drive to houses or run a vacuum cleaner without, uh, fossil fuels. But I'm working on it. Keep up the blog, though! I'm diggin' it!

    Pollard

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  2. Living green is great. Will you take your worm bucket with you when you move? I'm thinking about being green and taking my own bags with me to the store. Does that count?

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  3. I love your blog! You are so fricken cool!

    again, trisha, not jut.

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  4. Time for an update....

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