It’s been about a week since I started a worm compost bin in my kitchen. When I checked in on it, the newspaper was very damp and there weren’t many worms in sight. I dug some more and finally found some worms, but they weren’t very lively at all. Not to point fingers (but I will), my roommate threw in some coffee grinds in there without adding additional newspaper to dry it out. The result seems to be a worm bin that is too wet. It’s not leaking or runny and there is no smell though, which is a plus. All didn’t...
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I finally manned up and started the worm compost bin in my kitchen. It’s filled with newspaper, red worms and my food scraps. I’m hoping that in doing this that I’ll be able to use more of my food scraps. I haven’t been able to add too many of my scraps to the aerobic compost bin that I have set up because it’s too small. My hesitation in setting up the worm bin is putting in too much food and having the stink that I did back in the spring. I plan on taking it slow at first and see how the worms handle the...
I was at my Grandmother’s one day and talking to one of her friends about gardening. We got talking about compost, so I mentioned the indoor composting set up in my kitchen. She said that she’d blend up the food scraps and put them in her composting bin when she kept one. That’s a great idea and not sure why I never thought of it. Especially since my composting mistake. By putting the food scraps in a blender or food processor, it helps to break the it down. Then when it’s put in the compost bin, it’s closer...
After using all of the indoor compost to plant on my fire escape, I started a second batch. This went much smoother and I expect it to continue that way. Here are some of the lessons that I learned from my first go around: Don’t put too many greens in the compost When putting in the newspaper make sure it’s not in chunks. Separate the pieces. Don’t fill it up too much. It’ll make turning a chore With that in mind, I set up my indoor kitchen compost. Put down a layer of newspaper. Topped it with some soil. Covered...
It’s been two days since I attempted to get rid of the smell of the indoor compost pile. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsxvgPNor-w There is no more leakage out of the bottom and the smell gone. The takeaway from this is not to take it easy on the food scraps. Now I can take that and use it when building and maintaining my home composting bins at my parents and grandmothers. They’d be less willing to deal with the smell than my roommate. ...
On Tuesday when I turned the compost all was well and there was no smell. Two days later not so much. It stank and it stank bad. The batteries on my video camera died, so there is no video, but that has nothing to do with the smell. I had a feeling that the last pile of composting greens were too much. Just got too over zealous. Instead of scrapping the bin all together, I am attempting to remedy the situation. The bin was leaking through the holes in the bottom and the smell was awful. My plan was to remove a lot of what was in the...
It’s been a about a week since the last layer of food scraps were added to my < a href="/category/composting/indoor/">indoor compost bin, so I figured it was time to give it a turn. To turn it I use a broomstick to poke around and loosen everything up, then I take a small shovel to mix it. It’s been taking me about 10 minutes each time I turn it. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwyFFpE-yYg It’s pretty full at this point. The last batch that I put on was a lot on top of what was already there, but no smell and nothing...
It’s about a week since the compost pile was first turned. When I first opened up the can the lid was sweating. That is supposedly a good thing because the compost is supposed to heat up, so it can do it’s thing. I took the broomstick and shovel to it again to get the air circulating and to mix up the browns and greens. It seems to progressing nicely, so I threw a big heaping pile of fresh food scraps onto the pile and layered the browns on that. My guess is that I should have compost to use pretty soon. ...
The following instructions on how to make a compost bin can be scaled up or down based on the space that you have. Since I was dealing with the small space of my kitchen, I used a smaller 10 gallon garbage can. If you have more space, you can use a bigger can. The same concepts apply. Making your own compost is a great way to cut into your out of pocket costs when starting a vegetable garden. The tools and materials to build an indoor compost bin: Tools Drill with 1/4″ bit Materials 10 gallon metal garbage can Black and white...
