Build Something New: Compost Bin

Spoiler Alert: My learn something new for year 32 was learning to garden (which I will post on shortly!), but ever since we got the garden project started I've really, really wanted to have a compost bin with the wiggly little worms inside.  This weekend, I finally got everything together to create a compost bin for the shed on my back porch.  Here's what happened.

Today when I got home from running errands, this box had landed at my front porch.  I had a love/hate thing going with this box because I was very excited about this project, but also, it was a box of worms.  Gross. Vomit.

I gingerly picked it and carried it around to the back porch.  The errands I was running included a trip to Target for a big Rubbermaid bin and then to Home Depot for some bricks to elevate the bin once it was finished.  Here are the initial supplies as I prepare to get started.

The first step is to poke airholes in the bin for circulation and so that the worms can breath.  I did about 20 on the top and then about 20 around the sides.

I just used a screwdriver and it was pretty easy to pop it through to get the holes.  I also popped 2 holes on the bottom of one of the narrow sides to serve as a drain for composting juice (eww).

The next step was to make some bedding for the little worms.  I went the cardboard route.  I just ripped up an old packing box.  At first I was cutting it, but that was killing my hand.  And ripping it gave each piece a little more texture which creates a fluffier (more circulation) bed.

Next I found some leaves from the back porch to add.  Not required, just an option since I needed to sweep the back porch anyway.

Then, I added one scoop of dirt.  You don't want a lot of dirt (according to blogs/videos online), but a little helps with the little wormy digestion.

Next up is scrap food.  Basically just a vegetarian diet with some paper product supplements.  I had some fruits and vegetables that were about to go bad or were scraps.  I did add a little citrus (part of a lime in the fridge), but you don't want to use too much citrus/onions.  Also, only a small amount of carbs.  So I didn't add the leftover rice from the fridge.  I'll wait until my worm colony is more established to add things like that.  I did have a toilet paper roll and some paper towels that I added.

I added a little more ripped up cardboard in between layers of food.  This was recommended on one demo although my friend's that I'm basing mine on didn't have that.

Next it's time to add the worms.  Apparently, it's recommended that you let the compost bin sit as is (all prepared) for 1-2 before adding the worms to create a better environment, but you don't have to and since my worms had already arrived, I needed to do something with them before they died.

  

So I'm dumped them in.

They came in a lot of dirt.  The demo I watched said to only use a little dirt, but I wasn't about to go picking out 1000 red wrigglers from this pile of dirt, so I'm just going to have a fair amount of dirt in my compost bin to start with.  They'll have great digestion.

I let them sit out in the sun for awhile so that they would move around.  They don't like light and dig away from it, so this got them moving and hopefully they started heading down to start chomping on my leftovers.

I added one more layer of "bedding" to the top. My friend had used paper shred for hers, but I still had half a box so I just used that.  I made the pieces bigger so they'd be easier to move when I need to add more fruits & veggies to the bin.  This part isn't for composting so much as it is just for cover and insulation.

Here's my bin all tucked away in the shed.  I need to add little bowls to the front to collect the juice that trickles out (gag), but other than that, it's ready to go!