my garbage into muddy stuff! Depressing as it is, a typical graduate living in New York has no compost heap. We’ve managed to reduce our waste stream by recycling a lot, but organic waste remains a guilt trip to the garbage bin.
But hurrah for red worms! Over the summer I’ve been freezing veggie waste. At regular intervals potfuls have headed over to feed these guys living in their “worm condo” in an undisclosed location nearby (I deemed them too smelly to come live in a studio apartment with me). They’ve spent the summer hols chomping down on my garbage. Slowly but surely, we’re generating soil as opposed to fill for the landfill, reducing our waste stream to something that bit closer to a trickle. Chordates and annelids win all round.
Worm condo complete with eggshells and man hand, photo courtesy of J. McClintock
Coooool!
Wooo! Good that you can do this in New York.
Actually, I got the impression that it was illegal to have soil in NYC outside of Central Park, so you’d better hope the cops don’t catch you.
Impressive! I also live in a very compost free part of town, and also feel a bit guilty about it. I’m just curious, how did you go about the freezing of the waste? You just filled your freezer with boxes of veggie-left overs? Maybe I should also dig a secret hole somewhere and fill it with worms…
Hooray for worms. We at the Maison Des Girrafes have a wormery but I fear I might have killed many of the residents by giving them too many things all at once. I must order another consignment. It’s worth noting that worms like pet hair, which we have in great abundance.
The worm tidy the ground. The vermis mysteriis. Is brilliant.
Pet hair? Really? I always say that if there was a market for cat fur, we’d be millionaires. Maybe I should invest in soil futures.
This belly is going to make me rich beyond my wildest dreams!
In a strange turnabout, I think fewer people in these parts are composting, now that there is curbside green-bin recycling. We certainly got rid of our composter. Of course, it’s still more environmentally friendly to do it yourself, but laziness, I fear, has set in. At least at my house.
Oh, and annelids are all very well, but it’s nematodes that are TEH WIN! Someone once remarked that three out of four animals on earth are nematodes, and the other one’s a beetle. They’re everywhere, even eating your
garbageraw compost matter, I suspect.Don’t forget all the prokaryotes, too. They do a great job at breaking down waste.
Sabbi, I would also like to know you freezing technique (and where to compost in the city if possible). I am interested in starting but didn’t think it was possible in the city.
@Richard is that by individual animals? beetles + their other arthropod buddies kick the butts of all other animal phyla in terms of species. Don’t emotions, and estimates, run high as to how many beetle species there even are!
But one beetle species is living in the condo, which brings me to freezing. We’re only freezing the food as the worms aren’t living here (reduces rotting and, unproven, may reduce any fly babies that think they have an invite to the feeding frenzy), but also because we have excess food. The beetles were rampant before the worms got going, but are losing out in the competition for food now- if too much were put in, other species might thrive on the excess?
@ Ken- these guys are feeling under appreciated too!
by lorek85 under license
(Meanwhile) Here kitty, kitty…
We know Henry’s wormery’s not thriving, but I agree with Cath, if there’s potential gold in them thar hills I’m all up for finding some cats and grooming them!
You can have all the cat hair that’s currently covering everything I own. There’s some on the monitor right now, and between the keys of the laptop, and on my clothes. Here, please take it.
@Sabbi – yes, by individual animals I believe. The other statement I recall is that if you took away everything else on earth but the nematodes, you would still be able to make out all of the major geographical features. They’re everywhere, I tells ya, everywhere.
How anybody knows this to be true is a mystery to me.
What kind of beetles are living in your condo?
Sabbi, we haven’t found any ‘shrooms in our compost as yet. Due to somewhat limited space, we’re using one of these.
Eva, I’m saving all the pet to send to Cath in a huge bale. Tumble dryer lint is apparently good too!
Richard, nematodes are crazy cool and C. elegans is like a mild-mannered grazing cow (well, a kinky self-fertilizing mild-mannered grazing cow) compared to some of the vicious stalking predatory nematodes that are out there.
Ken, THOSE look cool- 10 minutes a week for free soil!
A huge bale of pets?! Sweet!
Pet bale-out!
Commenting when hoofing to the subway+ fruity PDA= typos
When will I learn?
Hm, interesting. Dryer lint is one of those things we are not supposed to recycle in the green bin – I imagine because it contains a lot of synthetic fibres and dyes.
I’m still surprised by pet hair, by tumble dryer lint seems strange too (do they actively state no lint?). It suggests all types of useless things might be useful. Belly button fluff?
…which reminds me that we’re not supposed to green-bin human hair either. I guess it’s too likely to contain all kinds of nasty chemicals from hairspray and whatnot.
Yeuch, human hair. It’s only keratin, but bleuch when it comes to worms eating it.
EF (stands for extremely fabulous!)
I think my worms have recovered. I gave them some special worm kibble and some stuff that reduces acidity.
Hurrah! What’s worm kibble? Is it like kibbles and bits for cats? Mine are about to get half a bushel worth of apple peel and cores…
This stuff. Basically, it’s a worm-friendly compost accelerant.
I love my worm compost bin. Only problem is the whole binful of worms dies every summer when the temperature goes over 40 (celsius), despite being in the shade. I mourn and then get new worms, but the idea of the new worms cannibalizing the old ones is disturbing…
but the idea of the new worms cannibalizing the old ones is disturbing…
{Shudders}
Agreed. Is there a basement or somewhere they can move for the summer? Like richer-than-me New Yorkers heading out to the Hamptons in the summer. Except there’d be no beach parties. And they’d be in a basement.
@ Cobi: you could give the worms a light sprinkling of water every so often, to keep them cool.
@ Sabbi: In my country The worms returned is Spring.
@Alejandro, I wish it was spring here, again you make an excellent argument for being in Chile where the worms are currently returning!
Sabbi – If you come a Santiago, I can showing at you an tour by Santiago.