Who Doesn't Love Worm Poop?

One of the first steps for good home gardening (or so I'm told)...COMPOST!  If you're thinking about setting up a garden composting is easy and fun to do and will save you loads of money while helping keep your plants healthy and happy.  And (sad for my social life as this may be) I've spent hours and hours researching various composting methods.  Following my OCD nature, I currently have three separate composting methods going.  Yes.  Three.  Compost is essentially used to mix in with your dirt or potting soil as a great fertilizer.  You should amend all garden soil with a good dose of compost before planting.  So here's my summary and pictures for you so you can decide which composting method you might want to try.

1.  Kitchen Composting.  This has to be the easiest method of composting.  It involves buying a little composting pale that comes with a filter to shove in the top, and some biodegradable compost bags.  Whenever you're chopping vegetables you just plop it right next to the cutting board and toss the discards into the countertop composter.  Coffee grinds and tea bags can also be thrown in here, but as with all composting methods NO MEATS or fats, which takes out most dinner leftovers.  Just stick to veggies and fruits.  The downside of this method is, the items you throw in there won't fully compost so you'll need a spot in your yard to let the food continue to rot and do its thing before you get actual compost.  I've had it for at least a year, and with the exception of one time I didn't change the bag and just stopped using it once it got full for a month or two, I've never had a problem with it smelling.  I do occasionally get little fruit flies, at which point I rinse off the filter top to get rid of any eggs and change the bag out.  Voila, no more flies.

2.  Yard Compost Bin.  I inherited a SoilSaver compost bin from an elderly neighbor who was nice enough to notice my attempt at veggie gardening when he went to throw his bins away.  So I got it free instead of spending $100+, which made it possible. 

You can see from the top shot that the leaves and grass cuttings I put in at the end of last season still haven't composted so I don't think there's a true benefit to having an enclosed manufactured bin as opposed to a lovely mesh one you can self mix throughout the season.  Each time I mow my lawn or rake, all the clippings go in the yard bin.  The kitchen bags also got tossed in this bad boy.  At the bottom you can see the lovely compost it created for me that I'll be throwing in all my garden projects.  Again, no meats or fats in the bin, but all soft yard waste (no sticks, they won't decompose in time) and kitchen produce scraps are fine for the outdoor bin.  I've never had a smell from it, nor bugs or animal problems.  If you notice a smell from any compost bin, reduce or eliminate fruits.  I don't know why, but experts all seem to agree they can throw the balance off and lead to some stank.

3.  WORM BIN!  This.  Is.  Awesome.  Due to the sometimes extreme blizzards and heat in the summer I decided to get the Worm Factory, which can be used indoors.  I love this sucker.  You stick it in your kitchen, get it set up with some "starter" material for the worms to eat and order some red wigglers from Uncle Jim's worm farm.  They ship them out a bit dehydrated to protect them and then one watering of the worm factory later they're plump and happy again.  So your worm bin is up and running and you drop the same things you would in your kitchen countertop composter in there.

tumbleweed blanket to keep moisture

Be more careful with fruits as this is a giant composter that is usually in your kitchen and you really don't want to experiment with lots of fruit early on and get stinky.  I haven't had problems so far.  The key is to put small scraps in, sprinkle them with some dirt on top to entice the worms to eat, and once a week flush a bucketful of water through the system (it comes out the bottom as worm juice).  The worm juice is a perfect light fertilizer water for plants so I've been using it on everything.  I've noticed the worms need a bit of time to get up and reproducing so they can eat everything you can offer them.  You order 1,000 minimum to start and eventually they'll populate the whole bin to about 12,000 worms but to start they can't eat much.  I actually just ordered 2,000 more to give my worms a breeding kickstart so I can really get composting before I need to do all my soil prep for the season.  As with everything, no rotting food smell noticed at all.  It smells kind of rainforesty (like moist clean dirt) when you open the lid, but it's actually a pleasant smell.

The mechanics.  Once your wormies fill one bin with lots of worm composty goodness, you put the other bin on top and start filling it with worm food.  The worms sense food and leave the bottom bin of compost to go eat in the top bin.  This leaves you free to remove and steal the lovely worm poop from the bottom bin once they've migrated, and leaves you with an empty bin for the next round.  If I had to pick one method, this would definitely be it.  It's fun, about as pricey as an outdoor pre-fab compost bin, and much more convenient than walking out to the bin every time you have kitchen scraps.  I'm also betting it will work faster than the outdoor compost bin.  Downside is I doubt I could fit a yard full of lawnmower scraps in here so I'll be continuing with my outdoor bin too for those.

He's so seeeeeexy.  All the ladies love him.

Alright, so hopefully that has everyone wanting to run out and save the planet by composting all their kitchen scraps!  If not, you clearly missed the discussion about fun wormies.  They're awesome.  Also, they have total sex appeal, I mean, COME ON, they reproduce in a few months from 1,000 to 12,000!?!  So much sex in your kitchen!  Or splitting in half or something.  I really know nothing of worm reproduction.  I'm sure if I ever get a reader in the sixth grade they'll be happy to fill us in.