Tag Archives: gardening in small spaces

Vermiculture: 1 Woman + 1,000 Worms = Smart Composting

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Of all the animals, the worm has played the most important part in the world’s history.–Charles Darwin

Ever since learning that food scraps in landfills turn into methane gas–one of the leading pollutants responsible for global warming–I’ve been on a tear to figure out how to compost in my apartment.

My research pointed to one answer, and a most unfortunate new word: vermicomposting. I was pretty grossed out even saying it. For me, it evoked images of voracious rats chomping through fetid food waste.

In reality, it’s the process by which worms eat garbage and transform it into rich fertilizer, which can then be returned to the Earth.

Okay, that’s beautiful. But still, the idea of hundreds of slimy, dirty worms noshing my food scraps in my own home gave me the creeps.

Yet the more I researched, the more it made sense. Worm bins are compact (16 x 23 x 19 inches), so they’re a perfect choice for small-space living. Also, worms turn garbage into compost in three months, as opposed to a year with garden composting. Worm castings (or poop) and tea (worm pee) are a rich source of nitrogen, making them an excellent organic fertilizer. Properly maintained, the worm bin won’t smell. (If it starts to stink, then you’ve got a problem: either it’s too wet, too dry or too full.)

Here’s how to start your own worm ranch:

Find a home for the worms. The City of Santa Monica, Calif., where I live, subsidizes composting containers. So, for $33, I picked up my cute lil’ worm bin, which even had a name: Wriggly Wranch. Check with your municipality for a similar deal.

With a sleek, black modernist architectural design, the Wranch offers Red Wrigglers the finest in contemporary living.  It fits perfectly on my tiny back porch. The worms can tolerate temperatures between 50-90 degrees F. If it gets colder or hotter, they’ll have to be inside. Keep your worm bin out of direct sunlight.

Round up some worms. There are several species, but one of the only kind that will work in the bin are called Red Wrigglers. Several companies will airmail Red Wrigglers to your door for about $25 a pound. Leaving such a huge carbon footprint in my effort to recycle seemed absurd, so I put an ad up on Freecycle and got immediately got seven or eight responses. Worm farmers are a supportive bunch, it turns out. You can also buy them from your local nursery.

It takes about 1,000 worms (1 pound) to get started. You could start with fewer, but it will take patience to let the little guys multiply into a population big enough to handle large quantities of food scraps.

Make the bed. To create the bedding for the worms, the Wranch provides a block of coconut coir.  We spread the coir in the bin and then dumped our little recyclers in.  I’ve never been so excited to open a can of worms.  (Sorry, had to make that joke.)

Feed them properly. Worms thrive on a diet of fruit and vegetable scraps (except citrus rinds), coffee grounds, crushed egg shells, nut shells and even stale bread. They don’t like any animal products (meat or dairy), fats (including vegetable oil) or rotting food.

It took a week or two for our worms to really start eating.  After a couple months, the population was big enough that they could handle a pound of food a day! The trick is to put food scraps in the food processor so that they’re already broken down for the worms.

I eat the food, they eat my garbage and then it all goes back to the earth.  Nature’s perfect, closed-looped systems never cease to amaze me!

Evangeline Heath is a freelance writer based in Santa Monica. She documents her adventures in yard-sharing and urban homesteading in her blog FarmApartment. Her last post for NOURISH Evolution was about yard-sharing.

No yard? No Problem … Container Gardens to the Rescue

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By Alison Ashton

These days, home is a second-story condo with no yard. Instead, we have a sunny, south-facing balcony and a sizable deck, which means our urban farming must be done in containers. Which is all right by me. Even when I lived in houses with yards, I was still more inclined to garden in containers because I’m horticulturally challenged and lazy. Overseeing a few containers just seemed…easier. And it is; even I’ve managed to cultivate pots of vigorous herbs and sweet cherry tomatoes.

container-melangeYou can grow anything, from herbs to apple trees, in containers, says C. Darren Butler, a Los Angeles-based University of California Master Gardener, arborist, and landscape designer who teaches small-space gardening workshops and other horticultural classes. “The only thing I’d caution people that they shouldn’t try in a container is corn,” he says.

Here’s all you need to get started:

Location. “You need sun–five to six hours a day,” says Butler. “That’s the number one thing.” But that sun can be on a patio, balcony, deck, or stairway. If horizontal space is limited, a sun-drenched wall is ripe for vertical gardening.

Choose a container. “I don’t think there’s any one perfect container,” says Butler. Size and water retention are the main considerations. He recommends sustainably harvested wood, UV-treated recycled plastic, or simply reusing 5-gallon plastic nursery buckets. Glazed clay pots retain water well, Butler notes, but they can be expensive and breakable. Avoid terra cotta, he cautions, which tends to wick moisture away from plants.

Evangeline Heath Rubin, who documents her horticultural adventures in the blog Farm Apartment, got her apartment garden started with a self-watering EarthBox ($59.95), in which she grows a variety of salad greens. EarthBox kits come with a container, watering system, potting mix, and casters.

The depth of the container depends on the plant’s root system. Most plants need at least 8 to 12 inches, though baby lettuces, radishes and arugula can thrive in as little as 4 to 6 inches. Tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant and the like need a bit more depth–14 to 20 inches. You can even grow a lemon tree in a 5-gallon pot; you’ll just need to prune the roots every few years when the plant is dormant.

Soil. Butler recommends a mix of one-third coarse builder’s sand or washed plaster sand, one-third organic matter (compost or organic potting soil for vegetables), and one-third native soil (ask a neighbor to lend you some).

You’ll want to feed container plants to replenish nutrients that are washed away every time you water, says Heath Rubin. Compost or worm castings are ideal. Her solution for small-space composting has been vermiculture–using worms to compost kitchen scraps–in a compact Wriggly Ranch worm bin. “I give them the gourmet treatment,” boasts Heath Rubin, who purees vegetable scraps for her colony of red wigglers. “I think of them as my pets.”

Plants. “Don’t be afraid to start from seed,” says Heath Rubin. Butler recommends compact container varieties, which are available for just about any kind of fruit or vegetable. Organizations like Seed Savers Exchange and companies like Seeds of Change sell seeds for everything from bush cucumbers to cherry tomatoes to baby eggplant.

Hmm, with sun, decent soil, a hospitable container, and seeds even I can turn my concrete jungle into a verdant urban farm.

alison-thumbA longtime editor, writer, and recipe developer, Alison Ashton is a Cordon Bleu-trained chef and the Editorial Director for NOURISH Evolution. She has worked as a features editor for a national wire service and as senior food editor for a top food magazine. Her work has appeared in Cooking Light, Vegetarian Times, and Natural Health as well as on her blog, Eat Cheap, Eat Well, Eat Up.