Skip to main content

Vermicomposter How-to

Here it is! The moment you've all been waiting for: how to make a vermicomposter out of an old dresser drawer. 


The dresser drawers
I had painted the drawers because I had planned to plant in them.  But I realized that this would be the perfect for some worms: small (I have a low amount of waste), easy to drill holes in, easy to move/keep inside.  



The drill was all I needed to get started.  Thanks Megan for sharing the cost of the drill!




Above you can see the drawer side, I drilled quarter inch holes every few inches along the sides with even more on the bottom-about one every inch.  


I popped the bottom out of one of the other drawers to use as a lid.  Originally I had bought hinges but it actually leaves a gap that is great for air flow so I think instead I'm going to find some sort of latch for the sides...just in case my kitty gets curious.  



A few copies of the Wilmington News Journal soaked in water made beds for my new friends to sleep in and an apple core and an old potato to eat plus a scoop of dirt and other random things out of my compost and voila...worm bedding.  


And there are the worms!  I'm afraid the picture is blurry but they're happily living in their bin now...hopefully making worm castings for my plants!  

I'll keep you updated on their status.  

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Vermicomposting

Vermicomposting is exactly what is sounds like: composting with vermis, which is the Latin for worms.   I first became acquainted with vermicomposting when I started at Grow Food, Grow Hope in November 2009.  One of my coworkers was attempting to vermicompost in a container he kept in his desk and usually the 1st thing he said to you after "hello" was "want to see my worms?"  However, the worms jumped ship, were all over the office, and then were banned permanently.   Since that day I had a small adventure into composting with worms.  In my ignorance in the nature of compost I assumed that worms were always necessary for compost and therefore dug up worms from the backyard to add to my porch compost bin (an 18-gallon Rubbermaid tub I drilled holes in and added my food scraps to).  These worms of course were never seen again as they were cooked in my compost bin.   And then the research began.    Now tha...

Husked Tomato

My Husked Tomato plant I first became acquainted with Husked Tomatoes last year at Wilmington's Tomadah Paradah event.  The plants are more low growing and shrub-like than your ordinary tomato and the fruits are surrounded by husks such as those you would find on a tomatillo.   According to Trade Wind Fruits they are,  "Small orange fruit similar in size and shape to a cherry tomato. The fruit is covered in papery husk. Flavor is a pleasant, unique tomato /pineapple like blend. The ground cherry is very similar to the cape gooseberry, both having similar, but unique flavors." I would definitely agree that they have a unique flavor I wouldn't have said pineapple but reading it that's not a completely inaccurate description.   The fruit In the above picture you can see the husks that form around the fruit.   The fruit are quite a bit smaller than a normal cherry tomato would be (even smaller than most grape tomatoes I think) and are m...

FINALLY

After more time than I ever intended on dedicated to creating the list, blog, and ticker that has accompanied this 101 in 1001 I am finally finished. As you have seen, the bolded items are the categories, and the items that are NOT pink (in this case I believe we'll let them all be purple, because its a nice match, are the items that are finished. Today's one and only item (and the motivation for FINALLY getting this up) is Emma, a great book. I watched the movie with Megan before leaving for France so I knew what was going to happen. Now I'm sitting here dreaming of my own Mr. Knightley, but where I will find him I have no idea. Let me know if you find any men as perfect, graceful, handsome, and amazing as Mr. Knightley for me.