Want to learn about using this method with vermiculture?

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The easiest way to get started with composting right away! The best part about it is you can use items that people typically have laying around the house and simply turn them into a personal composting system. What do you need?

• 2-4 five-gallon buckets
• Bucket lid
• Drill with drill bit – or – Screwdriver/Hammer
• Gallon-sized washable container

1. Now put up your little quart container somewhere easily accessible in the kitchen for the quick dump of your compostable waste. I put a bottom liner of a few coffee filters to keep the bottom a little cleaner on emptying.
2. On your balcony put out your 5-gallon buckets and bring out your drill (or your hammer and screwdriver).
3. Drill holes about 3-4 inches from one another all around the bottom half of the bucket. Make sure to put about 5 or 6 holes on the bottom of the bucket for water release. To hammer holes near the middle of the bucket you will want to use one bucket inside of the other to stabilize the bending of the wall of the bucket.
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   • This allows air to come in directly into the soil
   • Also add some small holes to the top of the bucket to allow for air circulation
4. Layer the bottom of the bucket with about 2 inches of moistened carbon material such as straw or shredded newspaper.
5. Start adding kitchen scraps from your kitchen container to your balcony composter.
6. Mix in with your kitchen scraps some soil to add their beneficial microbes to the mix.
7. After 3-4 inches of kitchen scraps make sure to add another layer of carbon material
8. Empty bucket 1 into bucket 2. This flop allows for aeration of your compost allowing for the decomposition to happen quicker.

A draw back of doing your holes with a hammer and punching device is that all the plastic stays poking inwards in the bucket. You’ll notice that the protrusion left easily gets clogged with dirt, after time hardening up and no longer allowing excess water to drain. With a water log your compost takes forever to decompose, and the smell will make you never want to compost again!!

A major draw back of this technique is that if you do end up cooking a lot and having a lot of food waste, you will find that it can take a short period of time to fill up your bucket. You must be very active with making sure there is an equal balance of greens and browns, consistently moist, and properly aerated. If you have use of a state run food and waste disposal service I would use the Simple Style Composter for the best and most varied of your organic material, and let the rest go into your cities system. If you don’t have that service start out with this system, then if you have too much look to upgrade to Vermicomposting.

Here are some examples of how my simple-style composter looks:

Using this method for vermiculture

What is vermiculture?

I have used this method for worm composting inside over the winter with much success. Here’s a couple of things to keep in mind if you end up making this your compost method:

• Make sure you aerate the bucket extra well with large open holes especially on the top and sides, you want to make sure you don’t suffocate your family of worms.
• The worms will often climb up the side and near the top. If the top of the bucket is only slightly on some worms will manage there way into a small crack and some will get stuck and die. Keep the lid on tight! But make sure there is plenty of air holes because one reason the might be going to the top is for more oxygen!
• Inside with this bucket in a closet the compost was extremely soggy. It needed some good stirring, say once a week, don’t worry the worms don’t mind too much. The best situation would be to have some good holes on the bottom of the bucket and something to catch water (compost tea actually) underneath.

I found this method to be exactly what I needed over the winter! The only bad part about it is that you can’t really fit too much of your compost in the bucket, but every once in awhile they really appreciate a good snack. I kept the most variety of kitchen scraps for the worms, the egg shells for the ESCET system, and the rest for the bin outside. I sadly didn’t compost everything since I didn’t have the capacity :(.