A worm composting bin is a great way to take care of your kitchen waste and to give you an ongoing supply of rich in nutrients compost for your tomato plants and other vegetables.
They are really simple to make and the video below is a light hearted look at exactly what you need to do to make your own cheap composting bin. Incidentally you don’t have to go and get worms from a worm farm, you can actually dig them up in the garden and add them to the composter when you have it ready.
There are a number of benefits associated with having a ready supply of well processed compost available, especially the kind that is full of nutrients and in particular nitrogen. Tomatoes love nitrogen, although you can overdose them so be careful with supplementary feeding if you have used compost that is already rich in nitrogen. Creating a mix of good quality top soil, well rotted manure and a rich compost will give your tomato plants exactly what they need to flourish and produce loads of fruit. Keep an eye on the pH levels though, a perefect range is between 6.5 to 7.0 and you can check the pH level with a simple pH test kit. You can use this link for more information on preparing soil for tomatoes.
Also don’t forget that you will naturally produce waste and it seems a shame to turn your back on this free source of nutrients, whether you are growing tomatoes or any other type of plant for that matter. All plants need nutrients and compost is a great way to provide them. With a composting bin you will be taking an environmentally friendly approach to gardening that will also help your plants to flourish.
You will know when your compost is ready to use when it becomes dark brown and crumbly, just like it is when you get it from a garden store. It shouldn’t smell of rotten eggs either, it should smell earthy a little like really good soil.
The benefits of using compost:
- Can improve soil structure and help break down clay or bind sandy soils together
- Helps to retain moisture
- Provided it is well rotted it will provide nitrogen rich nutrients (not ready and it could compete for nitrogen rather than provide it)
- Makes cultivation easier, the ground becomes easier to dig over
So hopefully by now you have been convinced of the benefits of composting. A worm composting bin is one of several ways to compost kitchen waste and is one of the quicker ways to get from waste to compost, so worth the extra little bit of effort involved. But if you haven’t got the time, then a simple compost bin that you just put your waste into is better than no compost bin at all, the end result is the same. It just takes a little longer and, believe it or not, the worms will find it and take up residence.
