Aquaponics & Vermiculture
hey all…here’s me and pete tearing up damp newspaper and cardboard for our new vermiculture bins. we ordered 2000 redworms from Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm, and they arrived in great condition! essentially what we did was take two 10 gallon rubbermaid tubs with lids, punch a lot of holes in the sides, bottom and lid, and fill the bottom with damp newspaper and cardboard.
we added a few handfuls of peat moss to give the worms grit to help them digest our food waste, and then added about a quarter pound of food to start. hopefully they’ll get into breeding and we’ll be able to feed them more…1000 worms are supposed to be able to do a pound a week. i’m a little worried about the heat; we’re keeping the worms in the shipping container where it’s nice and cool, but we’ll see how it goes.
so, there’s that! the worms seem pretty happy so far…
Well done!
a newfound respect for Burger King
Wow, that is indeed very cool. I hope they choose to put these in every store
Finally Composting!!
I decided that I had to give worm composting a try.
I called my sister countless times to make sure I got it all right. How many worms did you start with? What kind of bin do I need? Are my drainage holes too big? Are my worms too small? How do I know if I’m feeding them too much? I’m sure that all of the answers could have been found on the internet, but I was taking a big step and needed the kind of hand-holding that only she could provide. All the way from Boston, she talked me through what turned out to be a pretty painless process.
It was so simple, it can be pretty much wrapped up in the pics…
Starter Bin w/Ventilation and Drainage Holes
Worm-Ready Bin w/Newspaper and Soil
My Lil’ Wigglas… Awaiting Their Big Move
Welcome home boys and girls!
Hope you guys like green beans!!!
G’Night… Now go make Mama some of that Black Gold
And here’s Stella… reminding us that, as always, she helped
So I guess now all there is to do is wait… Thanks again, Meg!
xo
Well done! Looks just like the bin we have here in our office
A good read. Much of that I already knew, but I didn’t know that walnut shells have a chemical toxic to some plants.
And I think you are fine to compost bread, pasta, and rice, but do so sparingly.
Watering the garden. It’s a late season planting: squash, basil, okra, and cup from Yola that’s made of corn. Watch this space- if that cup’s really compostable I’ll find out!
My understanding is that these corn-based PLA cups take quite a while to compost. Like, years.
Indoor composting system for apartment dwellers like myself. Still not sure if it would fit in our tiny apartment kitchen, but it’s got me thinking about possible options for composting in small spaces. The Forest City has not adopted “green bins, so it’s one more hurtle to overcome living in an apartment and trying to live a wastefree lifestyle.
Compost & Grow Food Indoors With “Parasite Farm” By Charlotte Dieckmann & Nils Ferber : TreeHugger
New compost, old compost, ready to go compost.
This is a great system. I only have an indoor worm bin at the moment, but when I have a house and yard I will have a nice big outdoor bin just like this one!
8/21/11: The pail of kitchen scraps grew to house some watermelon rinds and some salad cast off. I put the finishing saw dust and baking soda in the hopper to close out and lighten up the compost load. I hope to transfer this to the finishing bin tomorrow or the next day and then start the next load with this pail of kitchen scraps. I did put some coffee gounds in the composter because there was a little extra room.
Beautiful!
