Home Vermicomposting 101

Like many a landlord, the owner of the house we rent in the Ball Square area of Somerville did not take kindly to our grand schemes of uprooting his patch of grass and replacing it with unruly, delicious plants. We envisioned a lush urban oasis of edibles; he saw lawsuits and vermin. His explicit yet absolutely reasonable rules broke our neophyte city gardener hearts: No Gardening, No Planting, No Pruning, No Compost. And so, we loaded our south facing windows with kindly houseplants, thanked the benevolent gods of Renting in Somerville for our washer and dryer, and said goodbye to our dreams of urban homesteading.

Until we got worms.

A worm bin with Eisenia fetida, that is. More commonly known as red wigglers, these worms allow us to compost the copious amounts of food scraps generated by two plant-based adults. We started with 20 worms, composting 2 quarts of scraps a week. Not pounds, not even ounces, just 20 little red worms that reproduce prolifically. We purchased them from GroundWork Somerville during last year’s ArtBeat Festival in Davis Square. From our interest in local food and sustainability we had vaguely heard of vermicomposting, but did not give it serious thought until we stumbled upon the GroundWork table at the festival. We biked home to grab cash for the worms, starter soil, and informational booklet, still in disbelief that all we needed was about $10 worth of materials that we fortuitously already had. Ever since, we have been vermicomposting and sharing our knowledge, worms, and compost with others in the community via Craiglist and word of mouth. And devouring information about vermicomposting only slightly faster than our worms munch away at our kale stems and toilet paper rolls (actually, they are interested in the microorganisms that break down the stems and rolls, but that’s for vermicomposting 201).

Vermicomposting is the process of using worms to turn your food scraps and benign paper waste into dense, dark, rich compost. The process is quicker than traditional composting because the worms do all of the work, and the worm castings (poop/compost) they generate outperform typical compost in nutrient content, bioavailability to plants, and microorganism content. We keep a “worm bin” in our home, filled with worms and paper waste. Once or twice a week, we dump food scraps into the bin. Within a few months, the worms generate beautiful, heady compost that we feed to our houseplants and 5-gallon bucket garden (yes, we got around the No Gardening rules).

At this point, you may be thinking of The Top Five Reasons Misconceptions About Why I Can’t Vermicompost.

1. I can’t afford the worm bin.
On the contrary, all you need is that old blue recycling bin that the city replaced with giant garbage cans, or a 10-ish gallon Rubbermaid, plus an old cookie sheet, some wood blocks or bricks, and access to a drill. No need for the multi-tiered, pricey composting systems. Buying new materials should cost you less than $10, or you can improvise as we did.

2. It smells.
One of our favorite party tricks is having guests sniff out the worm bin… just kidding. It’s odorless! A worm bin should be virtually smell-free, as long as you are taking care of it properly. Proper care means checking on it about once a week, mixing things around if you notice a slight earthy odor, and feeding the worms the right amount and type of food scraps.

3. It attracts pests.
The worm bin is a living ecosystem, and as such there is a lot happening inside. But it should not attract pests if it is taken care of properly. Rather than attract bugs, you might end up with a few fruit flies that hatched from eggs that were already on the produce you threw into the bin. They are easy to get rid of – open your bin next to an open window and they fly right out, or set up a fruit fly trap with wine, beer, juice, or banana peel. As long as the bin does not smell, you will not attract pests.

4. I don’t have anywhere to put it.
Our bin sits in our office under a window that we can open when we want to get rid of a few fruit flies. We have friends that keep a bin in their basement. You can keep it in a closet, in the kitchen, anywhere that has some airflow and stays between 40-80 degrees. Our worm bin looks just like any other storage container, and no one notices it until we point it out.

5. My wife/husband/roommate/housemate/other would never go for it.
Share the above with them! Because the bin does not attract pests or smell under the extremely-easy-to-achieve-right-conditions, it should not be a problem with a landlord, either. But we wouldn’t necessarily mention it…

Aside from reducing the amount of our waste that ends up in a landfill while providing nutrient-rich fertilizer for our houseplants and container garden, our worm bin has allowed us to donate worms to local schools for classroom composting and hands-on activities to further children’s understanding of climate change, sustainability, and ecological awareness. We have given a talk about vermicomposting to Boston University’s Organic Gardening Club, have sold worms and compost to fellow composters and gardeners, and have met inspiring members of the community. Vermicomposting has furthered our connection with food, with the magical, invisible world of bugs and bacteria, and with our community.

Our worms have also connected us with My City Gardens, and we hope to bring vermicomposting to more urban gardeners throughout Somerville, Cambridge, and the Greater Boston area. For more information, complete instructions on building a $10 worm bin, worms, trades, barters, fermentation cultures, or conversation, email us at somervilleworms@gmail.com, or visit us at our website, somervilleworms.com (still in the works, stay tuned).

Happy Spring,
Carlyn Friedberg and Aaron Darrell

Come say hi to us at the Cambridge Winter Farmers Market Get Growing Fest!
http://www.cambridgewinterfarmersmarket.com/

After launching last spring we noticed that one of the largest barriers to yard sharing and urban gardening in general is creating a gardening space.  On April 6th, we're teaming up with the landscaping company Growing for Good, to get as many beds built as possible, at a low price.

For more info, pricing and to sign up go here.

I hate all these headlines about food prices going up. If you don't know what I'm talking about, and feel like stressing yourself out google ''food prices 2013".

With last summer's drought, this winter's deep freezes shifting wildly all over the place and many other factors including expanding markets abroad, inflation and the costs of fuel and water, where is the hope for anything beyond acceptance of the fact that it's going to cost more to eat? Obviously, it's a complex equation projecting a moving target.

For a person as practical as I am, breaking my head trying to understand it all or scaring myself with individual case scenarios is simply too subjective. Without being able to take some action, it just adds up to a sense of helplessness. There are probably a lot of things a person could do to address this. One obvious and excellent way is to start a garden and plant a few specimens of things you like to eat — tend it, watch it grow, and enjoy both the labor itself and its fruits in season, impeccably fresh, and you didn't even have to go to the market.

But economics is just the beginning of the reasons for gardening. Cultivating a few of your favorite foods leads to even more good things. It truly enters the realm of profound appreciation of life, an opinion shared by some of the great intellects, like Benjamin Franklin, who considered agriculture the most noble of professions (1), and George Washington who said "I had rather be on my farm than be emperor of the world (2)." Considering the many pursuits and incredible accomplishments of these mean, that's saying a lot.

But from a humbler person's point of view, through the cycle of planting, germination, foliation, flowering, fruiting and harvesting I realized how reassuring and, well, grounding it can be. To the uninitiated somehow it's also truly surprising. Despite all the world's notorious vicissitudes, given a few simple conditions, anyone can experience through their garden a world that is beautiful, amazingly generous and a source of deep connection to life at its most magical — in a word, glorious!

It just takes a little bit of earth, water and sunlight — plus a few seeds or seedlings, a little healthy sweat and some fun and interesting mucking about. It's primordial, really, and actually fascinating and reassuring when you begin to feel the forces fundamental to keeping body and soul together because of you're own participation with them.

And then you get to eat the fresh and tasty things that you've brought forth with your own hands. That is a really good thing.

So what if you were to take action toward growing some food this season? Think of the possibilities! Here at MyCityGardens.com, we're make it easier to get started by making more ground available for more people through enabling yard sharing.

1) http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_world_agriculture.html

2) http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2011/02/20/133499991/sing-out-mr-president-george-washington-down-on-the-farm

As the gardening season draws to a close and we're all busy mulching and getting next year's garlic in the ground, it's nice to take a moment to think about the year's successes at MyCityGardens. To that end, here's a very scientific-looking graphic of the descriptions that you, our gardeners and plot-owners, used to describe what you were looking for:

(thanks wordle)

Check out this interesting article by WBUR about lead concentrations in city supplied compost. It highlights the importance of getting your soil tested and growing edibles in raised beds!

By Emma-Jean Weinstein, @mycitygardens

The thought of planting your own vegetable garden probably seems overwhelming if you're not doing it yet.

"Is there lead in my soil?" You may ask, "Should I get it tested? What about a raised bed garden? What crops do I start with?” 

One Boston-native who knows many of the answers to such questions is Jessie Banhazi, the owner and co-founder of Green City Growers, a Boston-area company that assists individuals, restaurants, businesses, schools, and even eldercare homes in growing food anywhere.

Jessie used to work in reality television in New York City, but she soon got fed up. When a friend called to describe the burgeoning urban farming business he had witnessed in Portland, OR (where else?!) they decided to start something similar on the east coast.

So, Jessie moved from reality television to planting vegetables. Typical. 

The idea behind Green City Growers is to "foster a deep connection between people and the food they eat". They also look at spaces which are considered untraditional growing areas and make them fruitful.

Jessie was earnest about the obstacles urban farmers must face. "Light is a huge issue," she said. In a city, tall buildings lead to light deprivation which stunt vegetable growth, especially if you're growing crops that need tons of light like tomatoes or zucchinis.

Also, most of the soil in urban areas is contaminated with lead (you can get yours tested by the UMass Soil Testing Facility for $10), which is why 95 percent of the vegetable gardens GCG plants are raised beds. There's also the issue of pollinating. Bees don't populate urban areas the way they do suburban and rural ones, so GCG often hand pollinates plants. "It's a really odd experience," Jessie said, "You take a male flower and kind of stick it into a female flower."

So what solutions are out there for urban gardeners? "Know what direction you're facing," Jessie says. Know how much light is in your yard and pick crops that do well in the light. Only have four to six hours of sunshine a day? That's fine! Plant radishes, root vegetables, mixed greens, leafy greens, and herbs. Jessie says they should do fine in minimal sunlight.

And… Call up Green City Growers for help! You don't necessarily need to pay for them to tackle your entire gardening project. You and your yard-sharing partner can just get a planting plan or a light analysis for the space. There's so much information out there about planting, sometimes you just need a little guidance to point you in the right direction.

What are the biggest benefits Jessie's seen from urban farming? "The quality of your food just can't compare to what you get from the grocery store," she said, "It's invaluable." 

Jessie, for instance, makes some incredible hot sauce with the veggies from her garden. If she throws together the tomatoes, garlic and jalapenos growing in her backyard, there's an accentuated flavor. The jalapenos are even hotter when homegrown!

Not only that, but it's awesome for kids who are picky eaters and avoid vegetables like the plague. They might scowl at broccoli from the supermarket but if they get to pick lettuce right from the backyard, they'll be much more eager to eat it.

So, as you begin your yard-sharing project with your neighbors, remember not to get overwhelmed, to start small, and to call up Green City Growers if you need any help!

Thank you to all who dropped by our table at the Get Growing Fair in Harvard Square, Cambridge on May 6. We really enjoyed chatting with you all and we encourage you to sign up, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and help spread the word about yardsharing in the Boston area.

We're joining other local gardening and locavore related groups at the Get Growing Festival Sunday May 6th from 12-6pm. This is part of the larger Harvard Sq May Fair. Come stop by our table to meet the MyCityGardens gang! We'll be handing out FREE materials to help you find a garden/gardener in your area.

Here is more general info about the event:

Get Growing Festival, Sunday May 6, noon to 6, in Harvard Square, Cambridge

We believe we can all grow food in small spaces, and we’re here to show you how. Come learn about nutrient density, raised beds, green roofs, hydroponics, rain barrels, beekeeping, mushrooms, herbs... Meet a chicken, help map urban fruit trees, identify good and bad weeds, buy some locally-grown seedlings, find a yard sharing partner.. and more.

We’ll have about 20 tables of skill-shares and equipment demos. It’ll be in the square on Sunday, May 6, 2012, 12-6 p.m., as part of the huge May Fair. Come to Palmer Street, the alley between Brattle and Church streets. (Rain date is May 20.)

Check out this great blog post in the New York Times emphasizing the power of exercise and growing your own food.  Get started by creating a yardsharing listing today.