One of the permaculture principles is produce no waste and so composting is an important part of that but I really struggled with working out how I was going to compost on a balcony.
When you grow food in contains and pots, the soil gets depleted pretty quickly. A lot of the books I read on growing veggies in pots all talked about throwing out the soil each year. This was too wasteful for me and not in line with permaculture principles. I was use to 'no dig' gardening/soil from when I used to own land but on a balcony, there is no ground to nourish and soil to replenish. I looked at various articles on the web also on YouTube to find a solution to no avail, a common theme for me it seems!
So once again, I had to find a solution that worked on an apartment balcony. I tried Bokashi composting which I have used in the past with success. Bokashi once complete, needs to be buried as it is fermented. Once burred, it breaks down in to a lovely compost but I quickly discovered that while I could use the Bokashi juice as a tonic for my pot plants, there was nowhere for me to bury the fermented compost, so I gave up on that.
I also tried 'garden variety' composting. I tried to re-engineer normal composts designs that I could use on the balcony. Once again, there is no earth for the water to run off into. I tried a few designs without success. It also attracted bugs which my partner wasn't happy with, so it was back to the drawing board!
I thought about it and I knew I had to find some kind of solution for my organic 'waste'. I had tried worm farms in the past but they always died due to the heat of western Sydney, often the hottest place in the world in summer.
I had seen some ' in ground' worm farm designs like worm towers over at Under the Choko Tree and others like in ground compost systems, so the thought hit me, why don't I try 'in container' worm farms!
I researched and saw some commercial designs but they were all massive and would not fit into my containers and pots. So, I designed a DYI solution was needed
My balcony worm farms
I've made a few different 'in container' worm farms, partly because of resources I had around and mostly to suit the size of the pot/container. Having a few small worm farms allows me to 'rotate' which ones I fill up with kitchen straps, which ones I leave to allow to fully compost and which ones I harvest. This is important as you shouldn't overfill worm farms.
The 'in container' worm farms I designed allow the worms to move freely between the soil and the worm farm. When it is too hot or too cold, they can do deeper into the soil and can come and go through the holes in the sides of the worm farm. They also spread around some of the compost and their castings into the soil as they move around which is a great boon to the plants I am growing in those containers/pots. This is a good solution for me as I never had success with standalone worm farms as they died from the heat.
I am lucky that I had a fellow gardening friend close by who gave me some composting worms from her worm farm to get me going. You can buy composting worms from online stores, garden shops or home improvement stores if you don't have a friend with worms.
Small sized soda bottle worm farm
This worm farm is made from a soda drink bottle. I drilled holes all over the bottle to allow the worms to move freely inside the soil in container and into the worm farm. I then cut the top off and used a plastic container lid to cover it and place a large rock over it. I knew with this design that it would be too hard to get the worm castings out, so I didn't cut the bottom off it so I could pull it out whole to remove the castings as needed.
This one is in a small container that has alpine strawberries, climbing spinach and sorrel growing in it near the sliding door, this area only receives some morning sun.
Medium sized protein power container worm farm
I made one of my 'in container' worm farms out of an old protein power container I had as pictured here. I drilled many holes on the sides and this was in one of my larger planters I cut the bottom off. This was my first 'in container' worm farm I made. The opening is a little small but not a major issue. I would likely make future 'in container' worm farms out of an old pot as per the larger sized containers.
Here is the 'in container' worm farm in action! As you can see it is working well and the worms love it! They especially love the apples my housemate never got around to eating!
I placed a river rock on top and you would never know there was a worm farm there unless you lifted up the rock. See if you can spot it in the picture!
Large sized old pots contain worm farm
I made two larger 'in container' worm farms out of old plastic pots from plants I bought from the garden store. I had some spare pot plant water saucers so I used them as the lid.
Just like the other sized 'in container' worm farms, I drilled holes all other the pots. One I cut the bottom off and the other I just left as the holes on the bottom were already large and plentiful. I wanted to see which option was better in the long run for harvesting the castings.
Both are going great! One is in the tall large planter which has ornamental plants in to (lavender, dichondra and pennyroyal) and the other is in the other large planter which has a mixture of bee attracting plants and herbs (mostly salvias and society garlic).
Other options
I am lucky to have reasonable space on my balcony that I can have planters/containers. If you only have a small balcony, I would recommend my small sized soda bottle option in a tall or wide planter pot.
You could also try something like the Composta Worm Farm Planter Pot which is available from Bunnings, gardening supplies shop or home improvement store in your country. You will need to keep it out of direct sun though.
I like this $57 Kmart DIY hack by Melissa Leong from Master Chef Australia which is cheaper than the Composta worm farm and looks fabulous!
You could also try setting up communal composting in a common area of your apartment block if your neighbours and strata/body corporate are amenable. They will likely cover the cost of setting it up however the maintenance will likely fall on you unless you have a fellow neighbour willing to pitch in. Other issues may be that the slightest sign of pests will likely turn neighbours off it. It is well worth the effort though as it will help your neighbours also reduce their waste and direct it from landfill. Setting up a communal composting in our common area courtyard is a longer term goal for me.
If you have access to a community garden, there may also be an option to compost there, you will need to hold onto your scraps and work out when and how to access the community garden though which may become too difficult so it will take a lot of intention to make happen.
As I said previously, I had no success with standalone worm farms but if you want to give it a try, you can buy standalone worm farms from garden shops or home improvement stores such as Bunnings here in Australia. You may also be eligible to get a reduced cost worm farm subsidised through your city council. We have a good program here in Australia for subsidised composting called Compost Revolution. I got a cheap Bokashi compost bin through Compost Revolution which i have re-purposed into a compost tea bin (future blog article to come on this!). They also have a short online tutorials on each of the composting methods which are great.
Feeding the worms
What you can add to the worm farm
I most put in tea leaves and tea bags, fruit and veggie scraps, coffee grounds, eggshells small amounts leaves from cut flowers or salads leftovers gone soggy. You can only put in very small amounts of cooked foods. You can even put in hair from your hairbrush and nail clippings.
You also need to put in some carbon like shredded newspaper and dried old leaves. I put in paper towel used to clean up the kitchen (as long as it couldn’t have chemicals on it from kitchen sprays etc.) and tissues. If you like, you can put in some maple tree leaves around your city into the farm if you don't use paper towels or tissues.
It’s best to chop up the scraps into small bits. The smaller the bits, the quicker the worms will process them. I chop them up as I am preparing a meal and put them into a container.
I keep on old protein power container under the skin to put all my kitchen scraps into. There is no need to buy specialised compost caddies, use whatever you have. An ice cream container works just fine. Make sure it seals well though to avoid attracting pests.
What you can’t put into the worm farm
You can’t put in citrus, onion, ginger, garlic, dairy, bones or chili. Avoid large amounts of green leaves or grass clippings.
Let me know how you went
I hope you enjoyed reading this article. Let me know how you went if you tried out my solutions to help you with the Permaculture Principle of produce no waste, or if you have ideas or suggestions for composting in an apartment.
Happy worm farming!
Shout me a packet of seeds
If you liked this blog article and have some spare coins to share in line with the permaculture principles of Fair Share/Redistribute Surplus, please shout me a packet of seeds or some garden supplies.
This will also help me to buy garden supplies and cover the costs to host the site, currently costing me hundreds of dollars per year form my own pocket.
With much gratitude.
Thanks for all the great tips. I tried burying Bokashi precompost in several pots and layering up with soil and that did work. I just sow seeds on top. I am about to get a worm farm and researching if I can feed them from the Bokashi compost.