Jumbo Garbage Garden

My dad surveys the patch of land he groomed for our garbage garden.

Just when I thought I might have to scale back my restaurant food waste vermicomposting project – due to the accumulation of excess waste, with no place to put it – my dad came to the rescue, suggesting that we start up some composting projects on his property. He has a fair amount of available garden space and a lot more privacy than I do, so it should be a great opportunity to really test out some different methods.

Our first project will simply involve converting his old vegetable garden into a ‘garbage garden‘. My hope is that with enough food waste and ‘bedding’ materials, this system will make an excellent winter home for lots of composting worms, and will become the ultimate grow bed for whatever we decide to plant in it next spring!

Putting my dad to work digging trenches, while I barked commands from behind the camera (haha)

In an effort to really take advantage of the space, I decided to start with a series of shallow composting trenches. There will likely be 6 or 7 of these, covered with a thin layer of soil. Next we will start piling up materials directly over top of the soil. It is going to be really important to add LOTS of bulky absorbent ‘browns’, such as cardboard. Aside from soaking up and holding lots of moisture, this will help to maintain aerobic conditions in the bed. I will also be adding lots of straw, and brown leaves (once available in the fall) to cover up the waste materials and create more good habitat for the composting worms (and other helpful critters).

Should be really interesting to see how this pans out! So far so good. It’s been great taking a bit of a break from adding new materials to my own trenches and beds – it’s allowed the worms to play ‘catch up’, and has helped me avoid seriously offending any of my neighbours.

Stay tuned!

[tags]composting, compost, garbage, gardening, food waste, lasagna gardening, lasagna composting, worm bed, composting worms, compost worms, red worms, red wigglers[/tags]

Written by Compost Guy on July 30th, 2008 with 7 comments.
Read more articles on Gardening and Worm Composting.