An HOA Compliant Compost Bin

You might remember that at our condo, I made a small vermicompost bucket for the balcony. While we didn't have enough space there to take care of all of our compostable waste, those worms definitely made a good dent in our garbage and they gave us a decent amount of great worm castings in return.

In our HOA, compost bins are required to be approved. The idea is that they can be unsightly or smelly, but if you're doing it right they really shouldn't be! But, because so much of our yard is visible from the road or open space (great views of the mountains for us, great views into our yard for everyone else) we decided to play by the book and submit a plan for a compost bin.

The location that seemed the best for us, and our neighbors, unfortunately was also the most visible from the road. My solution: hid the bin with fencing, and then plant some shade perennials in front. Since this area was just mulch and weeds before, I knew that they wouldn't say "no" to something that would actually make the area MORE attractive from the street.

And I was right! The Architectural Committee approved my plans, so then Sean and I just had to wait for a non-rainy weekend to actually get out there and install the bin, fencing and perennials. We did just that this past weekend.

I wanted some taller, flowering perennials as well as some lower green. This area is in shade all day during the winter, and most of the day during the summer, so the plants couldn't require more than a couple hours of direct sunlight. At our local nursery we found one climbing hydrangea, two Camelot foxgloves, and a couple varieties of hosta. I filled in the front with some periwinkle ground cover.

A view that only people on our property will ever see: the actual compost bin. That window well isn't actually big enough to be a proper egress, so we weren't worried about putting the bin a couple feet away from it.

Pretty foxgloves helping to hide the compost!

We're definitely looking forward to being able to use this compost bin to reduce our waste, and in future years we will reduce the amount of money we need to spend on amending the soil. It's a win-win!

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Waste Not Want Not Wednesday

#WasteNot 30 Day Challenge: Day 1

While I was gone for a wedding in NYC this last weekend, my awesome friend Ali started posting pictures of steps she takes towards a zero waste lifestyle on Facebook. She was tagging them with #wastenot, but since I was relying purely on my phone for internet it wasn't until today that I got to actually find out about the 30 day challenge she was doing, sponsored by Travel Well Magazine. That's a challenge I can get on board with! The official rules for the contest require a Facebook, Twitter or Instagram post, but I wanted to share on the blog as well. So, for the next 30 days I'll be sharing different ways I work to reduce my trash and make my footprint on the earth that much smaller.

To start off with, here's an exciting piece of mail we received:

Yep, we have approval to put in a compost bin! 

Our HOA is pretty lenient compared to most, and I did get a little designer-nerdy and draw up very detailed VectorWorks plans of exactly what I plan to do. Since the best location for the compost bin is on the side of the house that faces the street, my proposal includes using lattice fencing to block it and then planting perennial shade-lovers in front. So hopefully in just a few short weekends of work we will have a compost bin and lattice up, and I will be able to toss almost all of our food scraps in there instead of in the garbage. Plus, by next summer (if not sooner) I'll have "free" compost instead of spending money on bags and bags of it at the store in order to amend our very sandy soil.

Do you compost? How else do you reduce waste? Join the 30 Day Challenge and post in the comments!

We Have Compost! Worm Update

I think it's time for an update on our super cheap DIY worm bin, don't you?

Despite some hiccups as we got the hang of maintaining the correct moisture level in the bins, we have had success! A couple months ago the first bin was getting pretty full, so we decided to rest it (that's when you stop adding new material so you force the worms to finish off everything that is in there and turn it into nice compost). I made a second worm bin (same method as my first) and transferred about two dozen worms in there so that we could keep composting our kitchen scraps while the first bin rested. I continued to turn the compost so that it didn't get too damp or packed down, but otherwise tried to leave the resting bin alone. And this past weekend, it looked done!

To sort out the useable compost and get the worms back into a worm bin to do more composting for us, I dumped the finished bucket into a large empty planter pot. Then, handful by handful, I put good stuff into another pot, things that need more time back into a worm bin, apricot pits that somehow made it in went to another pail (the worms can't eat them so they just take up space) and worms themselves got tossed back into the two worm bins.

Here's a nice fat worm:

And here is some good compost being sorted:

Now we're letting the second bin rest, while we continue to feed worms in the first once again. 

I'm very happy with how this experiment has been working out. I wish we had room for a larger worm bin, since especially on big canning days the worms can't handle all of our scraps. But it's certainly better than nothing, and these little guys divert the majority of our kitchen waste from the garbage, instead turning it into wonderful food for our veggie plants. And on a normal (non-canning) week, we really only need to take the kitchen garbage out if there's packaging from raw meat in there! I think this means that when either our complex gets green waste pickup, or we get a house with large compost capabilities, we will definitely be able to bring kitchen waste close to zero. Yay!

I'd love to hear from anyone who has experience with worm bins -- any great advice or stories? Please share!

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Introducing our Worms

At long last, we have a way to dispose of our kitchen scraps that is NOT throwing them down the garbage chute! It's hard to reduce waste while living in a third floor condo - our county has a decent green waste program for single family homes, but it's not yet implemented for multi-family housing such as apartments or condo complexes. Until now, we've begrudgingly tossed our kitchen scraps into the garbage. But since nearly all of our garbage could be composted, it bothered me every time I tossed a bag down the garbage chute.

But then Sean and I learned about vermicompost. Worms (specifically, red wrigglers) will eat almost any kitchen scraps, as well as shredded newspaper and cardboard. Worm castings are some of the best all natural plant fertilizers around. Best of all, they don't take up very much space, making them an ideal solution for apartment or condo dwellers!

Before bringing the worms home, we had to get their bin set up. After doing some research on worm bins, we decided to keep costs down at the beginning and reuse an old cat litter bucket. Some vermicompost experts aren't fond of plastic as a home, but at this point we just don't have the resources or physical space to build anything out of wood. Maybe later down the road we'll upgrade the worm home. But we feel this is a good start, and an easy DIY project.

Here's the cat litter bucket we started with:

As you can see, we have a small collection of litter buckets on the balcony! They're useful for storing extra dirt, gardening tools, and even serving as planters as we slowly get nicer terra cotta pots. Part of the balcony has a solid wooden wall, and part has metal bars. We keep the pretty pots where the public can see them, and the functional but less attractive bins where they can't be seen.

First, I drilled some holes in the bottom for drainage. If you don't drill holes in the bottom, you can even keep worm bins indoors, but as we are doing this outside we decided to make sure there is good drainage.

Next, two rows of air holes at the top:

After the holes were drilled, I added shredded newspaper for the bedding. It needs to be damp for the worms, so I wet it using a spray bottle of water.

Then we added some small pieces of corrugated cardboard (about 3" x 3") and some dirt to act as grit.

Finally, we got to add the worms!
 

Getting settled into their new home! We can't wait to watch them turn our scraps into that amazing "black gold"!

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