How to Build a Compost Pile
Kitchen scraps and yard waste make great garden fertilizer after they decompose into organic matter. Building a compost pile is as easy as layering the right materials, watering, and stirring. This video shows you how to cook up your own compost pile.
Duration : 0:3:17
Organic Gardening – How to Make Worm Compost Fertilizer
Vermiculture is the fancy word for worm excretion which is worm compost. Heres how to do your own worm composting.
Choose the Proper Container
You will need a container at least 8 to 12 inches deep. Wood is better as it absorbs moisture and insulates the worms. A rectangular plastic container is often used, but the compost tends to be soggy.
Aerate the bottom
Drill holes at least 2 inches apart all along the container bottom. Plastic containers may need more holes. Raise the bin off the ground with bricks. This provides air flow to the worms and prevents the materials from rotting. Keep a tray underneath the bin to catch excess moisture that can then be used for liquid fertilizer. If your compost comes out too wet, simply drill more holes.
Line with Newspaper
To line the bottom of the container, simply shred newspaper into one inch wide strips and spray with water from a spray bottle until damp. Once this is completed, you will need to add about one cup of sand to the container. The sand assists the worms with their digestion.
Collect Kitchen Scraps
Just as you would save leftovers for your home composting, you will need to save your kitchen scraps for your worm compost. This should be started at least one week prior to purchasing your worms. The best foods are egg shells, used tea bags, coffee grounds and raw fruit and vegetable leftovers. The foods you want to avoid are meat, bones, cheese, milk or mayonnaise and salad dressings.
Purchase Your Worms
Red worms or red wigglers are best in a compost bin because they thrive off of organic material like rotting vegetables. You will need two pounds of worms for one day each of food waste, this is around 2,000 worms.
Put a Cover on the Container
When placing your container outside, a wooden board works best as it keeps the worms in darkness just as they like it while keeping the soil moist. In addition, it also prevents predators from getting in. If your container is indoors, a simple plastic lid cover will suffice.
Collect Castings from Worms
After two to four weeks, the bedding in the container will start to appear darker. By two to three months, nothing of the original bedding will be left. At this point, you can then harvest your worm castings or compost. First, simply pour the container out in piles on a tarp or old shower curtain liner. Then, shine a bright light over the piles to ensure all the worms move to the bottom. Now you can begin collecting. Scoop away all the compost until all that is left are worms. Finally, re-line the container with new bedding, add worms and some of their castings and begin again.
Rhonda Abrons is a keen organic gardening enthusiast and featured writer on Clivir.com where she shares her gardening knowledge about Organic Gardening Tips and How to Worm Compost.
Compost Kitchen Scraps
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Duration : 0:3:19
Worm Bin
So I have had these bins now for over a year, it seemed like a good time to check in and see about harvesting the compost out of them.
I feed the worms about once a month, but you can probably do do it more often than that depending on how many you have, they will eat the waste in direct proportion to how densely population they are.
The compost is deemed black gold by garden enthusiasts and is rich mixture of worm castings and organic matter that I don’t even consider using as application for individual plants. I prefer to use the vermicompost for actively aerated compost tea which is a process I will cover once I’ve finished harvesting the compost. The worm compost is ideal for this process because it is rich in microbial life that nourishes the plants and provides them with the symbiotic relationship necessary to imilate nutrients from the soil and in turn, nourishing whomever consumes the plant.
Today, I took the contents from one bin and put them into the other, having emptied it and refilled the empty bin with bedding and new food scraps. This will attract the worms from the lower bin filled with the compost into the upper bin since they are hungry and I will be able to use the compost without worrying about the little wormies..
It is a good experiment for little kids, and is a fun and interesting way to get rid of your kitchen waste. At least for someone like me, I’m sure people can think of better hobbies.
Duration : 0:6:3
Creating Your Own Compost Bin
Do you want to make sure that your garden thrives? Do you hate the idea of using chemical fertilizers? Do you like the all natural way of doing things? You may just find that the natural choice will be the better one. Have you thought of doing composting? Great, because there are many options that will be open to you. If you are going to get started with composing, know that it is a very easy process. You are going to have to think about how rich compost will be able to keep your garden green and growing by leaps and bounds. I remember when my grandmother always had a compost pile. We would even help her by throwing things into her compost heap. A good way to learn about the art of composting would be to visit your library or even go on the Internet. There is lots of valuable information in these two places. It takes very little to make a compost pile. So if you are looking to have to make a large investment, relax! There is very little money involved with making a compost pile.
First, select an area of your lawn or your garden. While putting your compost on in a bit can be more tidy and add a cleaner look to your lawn, you’ll find that you can also use some simple wire fencing to keep your compost in. If you wish, you can also just make it into a heap in the corner of your yard. Consider the fact that you need both green and brown elements to make up a good compost heap. Green compost materials will include things like grass clippings and old annuals, while brown debris includes things like dry leaves; the former is high in nitrogen while the later are high in carbon. To make sure that your compost is healthy, keep things like diseased plants, oils, and and any plants that have had herbicides used on them away from it.
If you want to speed up the breakdown so that you will quickly have fertile compost for your garden, you should have two parts of brown materials to one part of green materials. If you have a pitchfork or even a hoe, begin layering the material into the heap or bin in this way. In order to have a good pile that will heat up fast and will end up breaking down the materials more effectively, work with a compost pile that measures approximately three cubic feet. When this heap is in place, you may wish to throw a shovelful of garden soil or finished compost to act as a starter.
Routinely touch your compost to make sure that it is damp enough. A compost heap with a good water content will feel a lot like a damp sponge, not a dripping wet one. If the compost heap is too wet, you’ll find that it will delay the important break down and too little water will slow down the rate of decomposition. You may find that depending on your climate, you might need to build a roof for your compost or that you might need to water it!
At least once a week, go out and turn your compost. This will allow the decomposition to keep going and it will prevent material from getting so compacted that you are going to have a problem with decomposition. Just grab a shovel and turn it. It will only take a few minutes. If you have the proper type of bin, you can simply spin it!
You want to weigh all of the pros and cons and, in the end, you will see how compost will help your garden. There are many things that a compost pile can do for you, so you will want to get started right away.
How to Make a Worm Compost Bin – Cheap and Easy
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Obtain a worm bin.
* These can be purchased from many online vendors or your local gardening or farm supply store.
* You can build your own. Use rubber storage totes, galvanized tubs, wood, or plastic.
Material: Rubber is cheap, easy to use and durable. Galvanized tubs are somewhat costly but will last forever. Wood will eventually be eaten, and plastic cracks easily, but either will do in a pinch.
Drilling holes to ventilate a rubber tub.
Ventilation: Your bin should be well-ventilated, with several 1/8 inch (3mm) holes 4 inches (100mm) from the bottom (otherwise the worms will stay at the bottom of the bin and you may drown your worms). For example, you can build a worm bin out of a large plastic tub with several dozen small holes drilled out on the bottom and sides.
o Size: The larger you make the container, the more worms it can sustain. Estimate 1 pound (0.45kg) of worms (1,200) for every square foot of surface area. The maximum productive depth for your bin is 24 inches (61cm) deep because composting worms will not go further down than that.
o Cover: The bin should have a cover to prevent light from getting in and to prevent the compost from drying out. Choose or make a lid that can be removed if your compost is too wet. Use a canvas tarp, doubled over and bungee-corded on, or kept in place with wood. Burlap sacks also work well, and can be watered directly.
* Use 4 old car tires: To make a four-tire wormery, create a base from old bricks or flagstones (must be flat and with as few cracks as possible). Place a layer of heavy newspaper on top of the bricks. Stuff four old tires with newspapers. Pile the tires on top of each other, with the first tire on the Sunday newspaper. Put some scrunched up paper or cardboard in the bottom to soak up any excess liquid. Fill the tire wormery with organic material (semi-composted is best). Add the composting worms (tiger or brandling species are best). Use a piece of board weighed down with bricks as a lid. The lid must be big enough to stop rain getting in. Harvest a tire’s worth of fertilizer roughly every 8 weeks (during warm months).
Shredded newspaper for worm bedding.
Prepare the box for worms. Fill your bin with thin strips of unbleached corrugated cardboard or shredded newspaper, straw, dry grass, or some similar material. This provides a source of fiber to the worms and keeps the bin well-ventilated. Sprinkle a handful of dirt on top, and thoroughly moisten. Allow the water to soak in for at least a day before adding worms. You can also use Canadian peat moss, which is more expensive but yields a loamier vermicompost.
Worms arrive.
Get worms. There are several varieties of worms that that are bred and sold commercially for vermicomposting; just digging up earthworms from your backyard is not recommended. The Internet or local gardening club is your best bet for finding a worm vendor near you. The worms most often used, Eisenia foetida (Red Wigglers), are about 4 inches long, mainly red along the body with a yellow tail. Another variety to consider are Eisenia hortensis, known as “European Night crawlers.” They do not reproduce quite as fast as the red wigglers, but grow to be larger, eat courser paper and cardboard better, and seem to be heartier. They are also better fishing worms when they do reach full size. However, with any non-native species, it is important not to allow them to reach the wild. Their voracious appetites and reproductive rates (especially among the red wigglers) have been known to upset the delicate balance of the hardwood forests by consuming the leaf litter too quickly. This event leaves too little leaf letter to slowly incubate the hard shelled nuts and leads to excessive erosion as well as negatively affecting the pH of the soil. So, do your best to keep them confined!
Feed your worms fruit and vegetable scraps and refresh the bedding as necessary.
Duration : 0:4:2
In Depth Guide to Home Composting (Part 3 of 3)
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Duration : 0:4:10
In Depth Guide to Home Composting (Part 1 of 3)
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Duration : 0:7:39
In Depth Guide to Home Composting (Part 2 of 3)
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Duration : 0:9:5
Stainless Steel Compost Pail
http://www.cleanairgardening.com/pail.html This stainless steel compost pail (or compost crock as they are often known), is an excellent way to take food scraps from your kitchen and hold them over for a few days until it is time to take them to the compost bin, compost pile, or compost heap in the backyard. In addition, this compost pail has dual carbon filters to contain the smell, and will look great in any setting – from granite countertops and stainless steel kitchenware, to a sheik …
Duration : 0:1:39