I'm a total compost newbie living in a small apartment. I want to compost, but I don't know if either vermicomposting or bokashi will be practical on such a small scare. Say I do either... what do I do with the resulting compost? What about the worms? Red wrigglers are nonnative and can be destructive if released with the compost, but I don't feel comfortable freezing and killing them (and that won't change--sorry). What benefit does bokashi have when you factor in the commercial production and transportation of the stuff and the packaging? I don't have a yard and I don't want to stink up the place too badly. Is there any hope?

A superb idea! I think I'm going to use that, as I do a lot of gardening and it seems self-defeating to garden and then go out and buy compost from the store.

I hope this one wins!

We did this inside for awhile but it got too messy, and the worms started escaping.

So we put them outside in a hole, and added veggies and cooked food scraps on top. The worms multiplied and really helped break things down. And they servived the winter in Toronto -- I just made sure to put lots of leaves on top of the compost pit to keep them warm.

I've been worm composting in my apartment in Washington DC for a year now, and it is wonderful. Given, I'm not afraid of squiggly worms (actually kind of like them).

My girlfriend made our composter out of two tupperware containers (top one has lots of aeration holes, bottom one catches any soil or moisture that comes through).

We simply save up our food scraps (I even save my teabags from the office and bring those home), then pop them in the composter, which we keep in a pantry closet in the kitchen.

The key is to keep the surface covered with moist strips of newspaper--these will keep any mold from growing, maintain right moisture, and encourage aeration.

We haven't had any problem with escapees. And now we have lots of wonderful worm castings/dirt to donate to the local community garden or use in house plants!

Hey- this looks great! But... I am wondering how to compost/vermicompost in the FREEZING temps up in very northern New England. It is usually below 0F at night here (sometimes WAY lower). I don't suppose anything can break down at that temp... any tips?

Thanks!

S - collect native worms from gardens around you for your farm. It means you won't be able to start off big with those 5000 worm packs you can buy, but it's better for the environment to use local worms. With a bit of wormlove they'll multiply fairly fast anyway : ).

Keep your worms at home and out of the woods!

Amazingly, in a good deal of northern North America earthworms are an invasive exotic species. The ice ages swept them away eons ago, and they were more recently brought in from Europe.

When they get out into nature they rapidly destablize the carbon and nitrogen balance, for the worse. They devour leaf mulch leaving bare ground. This puts carbon into the atmosphere that might otherwise be sequestered.

Their eating leaf mulch causes the movement of beneficial nitrogen out of the soil column and into the air and water where its a pollutant. This contributes to the nitrogen overload of rivers, lakes, and estuaries.

They negatively change the environment that native plants have evolved to survive in. This altered ecology can lead to invasions from exotic plants well adapted to these new conditions.

Yes they can be good for gardens, Robins, and compost bins but please do keep them at home where they belong.

SLeckie, do you have any pics of your setup that you can post? Do you use a 50-gal drum like the video? Do you insulate the sides of the drum? I live in Vermont and am concerned about the cold in the winter. Thanks.