How To Build A Kitchen Composter.
March 14th, 2008
Here is how I built a composter for less than half the price of those pricey mail order ones.
Step 1: Purchase a plant tray that will accept a 5 gallon bucket with room to spare.
Step 2: Drill several holes around the bottom of the 5 gallon bucket.
Step 3: Fill half way with some compost from your local garden center.
Step4: Add your red wigglers. They are the best worm for effective, speedy composting.
I bought these online and they arrived in about 2 days. 1,000 should get you moving along nicely.
Step 4: Thoroughly wet your mixture and store in a cool place out of direct sun. The sun will fry those little composting worms, so keep them wet and out of the sun. Begin adding your organic contents from your kitchen and within a few weeks you will have your own home grown “black gold”. I bought a lid for my bucket, so that “little” hands will stay clear of it, and to make sure it does not dry out. There is no smell. This is a small mini version of what agricultural missionaries are doing around the world. Helping move people towards sustainable living at the same time creating cleaner, healthier living conditions.
From time to time, water your compost and the “tea” that seeps through will drain into the surronding pan. This is what you will use to fertilize your plants both inside and out.
We live in a small town house planned community and have no yard. I plan to put the compost in my potted plants and a small window box garden. Once my worms have multiplied, I will drop a few of them in and around the soil surrounding our town-home. The boys, I am sure, will use a few for fishing, and of course, I can share the wealth with any of my local friends who want to start their own composters.
The kids are having fun with this one! It is a great learning tool! So what are you waiting for people?Get Composting!
Entry Filed under: Nature Study, Homeschool, housekeeping
8 Comments
Add your own1. Betsy | March 14th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
What a great idea! We will have to try this! I was proud of myself last week when I decided to give our fish all of our outdated dry goods rather than just tossing them! They love whatever we give them…even better than the fish food:)
What’s the site for the worms?
2. admin | March 14th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
I just added the link in the text as well. Dry goods to fish, that sounds great:-) Do you mean in your pond or the tank in the house?
The kids are loving it. They are learning the food chain, the life cycle, gardening and recycling all in one little 5 gallon bucket:-)
Here is the link. http://www.unclejimswormfarm.com/
3. Vicki | March 14th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Thank you so much, Amber!! Andrew and I were just talking about composting the other day. This is going to be a lot easier than I even thought.
4. Kiva, Southern Girl Musings | March 14th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
Thanks for sharing this as I am looking to have a garden this year and have always wanted to compost especially with all of my egg shells and coffee grinds.
5. admin | March 15th, 2008 at 9:31 am
So Happy to help you ladies:-) It is fun and in about 30 days our worms will multiply! Send me pics of yours once they get going!
Many Blessings to you all!
Amber
6. Jeff Morgan | March 16th, 2008 at 12:55 am
Amber,
Great article. I’m proud of y’all and for y’all.
Keep us updated on the good, the bad and the ugly of composting. In a few weeks you’ll about have enough new worms to seed a worm toilet. Oh…the black rabbit is in fact a girl…we have 4 new baby rabbits in Lima! Today I started the hutch for them.
in HIS service,
Jeff
7. admin | March 16th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Well, Jeff. Looks like you are getting the hang of commenting:-) Now you see how the whole blogging thing works.
How exciting to have baby bunnies soon. The kids will want to see pictures. So far the composting is moving along. We are slowing down on what we put in to it until the worms multiply. I think I will put the lid on it and roll it around a bit to get it mixed up. But the worms seem to be happy and eating away nicely.
I am not sure we need a composting toilet here in Jupiter:-) but we will be happy to give some worms away to others who want some. I may throw an add up on CraigsList because really, how many worms does one family need.
Put the pics on your blog and comment a link:-)
Peace to you!
8. tonia | April 24th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
wonderful!
my sister just started one of these too. i’m letting her learn all the ins and outs before i try it myself.
thanks for stopping by my place the other day.
God bless,
tonia
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed