Composting 101 Posted by administrator

Composters unite!  

Want to turn food waste into fertilizer gold? Well in this blog I will walk you through every step and let you know what it takes to become a vermicomposting champion! Here are a couple of easy steps to start your very own compost! First off start saving a couple of newspapers, if you are like myself and don’t have a subscription pop into a local coffee shop around closing time and tell them you are starting a compost bin and they will most likely offer you all of their newspaper! Now on to the second step, take yourself to a local Target, Goodwill or whatever is closest and most convenient for you and purchase 2 plastic storage bins. You will only need one top, so just take the top off and leave it there. The third ingredient is the most important… WORMS! Now was you want is vigorous, healthy, squirmy little things.  The typical composting worm is a Red Worm. You can start with about 15-20 worms. You will need to cut holes in one of your bins -two 3 inch diameter on each side of the bin and 6 holes on the bottom to aerate the bin (do this only to one bin). Take the bin that has no holes in it and pour about 2 inches of water in the bin. Take a Tupperware container and place in the middle of the bin. Now take your bin with holes in it and place on top of the Tupperware container.  You will now need to take the newspaper and tear it into long strips fill about one third of the bin. Place worms on the paper with no soil. Pour some water on the newspaper to keep it moist.  Take a piece of paper and unfold it and place over torn shreds of paper as a “cover”.  Put lid on a wait for about two weeks, just permanent marker and write on the bin the start date and no citrus/meat/dairy. Congratulations, you have just made your very own composting bin!

If you are overwhelmed, which I would be you can purchase this whole set and get a list of what to compost from the lovely students who started a community garden at UCSD for ONLY $17 and $6 of every compost set sold goes to the garden!! If you are interested please contact ncgarden@ucsd.edu and see when you can stop by, take a tour and become a proud composter!  

Cheers,

Erin Lannon