Urban Gardening: Starting Vermicompost in my Kitchen!

Leading up to this Saturday I was woeful because my long-standing plans of beach and live Brazilian music were shattered when my new boss requested I work in the afternoon.

But then I saw an email from my CSA, with an invite to a free composting workshop Saturday morning, before my workday began! So Saturday morning I hopped on my bicycle and rode to this community garden in the northern tip of Manhattan. The workshop was on vermicompost, a method of composting suitable for the city dweller. The Morris Jumel Community Garden received a grant to give composting workshops from borough President Stringer’s office, so gardener Ellen Belcher has given three workshops—ones on outdoor composting, bokashi composting, and vermicomposting—with grant funding. At the workshop, attendee Pam and I worked on building a bin together. We started with a regular storage bin with a hinged top, a drill, duct tape, some plastic mesh covering, some washers, and a spigot with a back cover to add drainage.

We began by drilling nine one-inch holes all around the bucket two inches from the top. We also drilled a hole on the end, one inch from the bottom for the drainage. Next, we covered all of the top holes with mesh: a way to get air circulation without allowing for an easy escape route for the worms. We screwed the faucet into the bottom hole (we had appropriately measured and made the right hole size, first!) with some washers to prevent leakage. After…we were finished! We added loads of shredded paper, and it was time to add the worms! Red worms and not just your regular earth worm are needed; they are small, hungry and can thrive in a contained space living in newspaper and food scraps.

At the end of the workshop, Ellen gave me the bin to take home! Golly—I had not expected to walk away with a free bin! In fact, I had not even expected to begin my own compost this summer. I may only be in this apartment for a few months, and I cannot necessarily leave my roommates a box of worms as my parting gift. But what the heck; the opportunity presented itself!

I had been keeping my food scraps in the freezer and periodically carrying them to a community garden with compost, so upon returning home I gave them to the worms for their first hearty meal (I like to be a good host). I then pushed the bin snuggly under our kitchen counter (hoping my roommates do not notice until it is thriving and my ability to keep my worms under control is no longer in question)!