![]() Maintaining this elegant solution to sustainable fertilization is simple. Cover the tower with your flower pot or similar. ![]() These should be compost worms, the little red super-squirmy guys.Ħ. Add manure until your pipe is half full-the amount will vary depending on the size of the pipe, of course.Ĥ. Choose a spot that will be convenient for you to access, as you’ll want to pop by to add organic goodies frequently.ģ. You’ll need to bury the pipe, standing upright, deeply enough so that it’s completely stable (pack soil around the pipe, not in it at this point). While this isn’t strictly necessary, it can help to make sure your soil is getting a great dose of all the compost, wormy goodness from your tower.Ģ. If you chose a food grade PVC pipe and you have a drill, go ahead and drill a few holes in what will be the bottom half of your worm tower. Your end result is going to look a little something like this:ġ. Something to cover the top of the tower-a flower pot works great for this.Organic material to compost-fruit and veggie scraps, yard clippings, etc.A two to four foot PVC (food grade only) or concrete pipe, five or more inches in diameter.The only real question to ask yourself is Why don’t I already have one? They’re extremely low cost to get started, exceptionally simple to make, and nearly effortless to maintain. Chemical fertilizers can also help, but why spend money on a chemical product when there’s a sustainable, efficient way to feed your garden? Especially when it’s also a great way to create and use compost and very little effort on your part? That’s where creating a worm tower comes in.Ī worm tower is, essentially, a mini worm farm that you plant in your garden, that continually feeds your garden and provides you with a rich, ongoing source of fertilizer. Crop rotation can help, but it’s a method that’s simply not always practical or possible. Human beings learned long ago that constantly growing crops (especially the same crop) on the same plot of land would diminish the soil’s ability to nurture plants. Plants need rich, fertile, living soil to truly thrive. It’s something that nurtures us and every other form of life on the planet in some sense. The soil isn’t just something we walk on or that plants anchor in. Anyone who has a garden (or even a house plant!) has seen a microcosm of this in action. I hadn't heard the term Hot Spots, but I had heard of pit composting, especially in areas where you plan to plant potatoes, squash, or other hearty crops.Building a worm tower is a simple, enjoyable, sustainable way to nurture your garden so that it can continue to nurture you.Įarth-the stuff on the ground, not the planet-is essential for life. Alternatively, you could probably build worm towers for the summer, then harvest the worms to bring in for the winter. I suspect you're right, though, that it's too cold in zone 4b to use worm towers through the winter, but you might have luck with one of the large-scale worm bins that I've been posting about this week (if you can find enough food for them.) The heat of decomposition will keep your worms active all winter if you fill your bin with enough mass. J - The worm towers are meant to house red wrigglers, although I wouldn't be too surprised if common earthworms came up and visited now and then. So far, we'd been held back by lack of copious food scraps, but if we can get cafeteria waste, we'll definitely start experimenting with them and post all about it! I'm curious to hear where you're located? She dig up the worm tower to get to those rotting hamburgers?ĭavid - We've been very interested in black soldier flies for a while, and I think we're far enough south that we might have good luck with them. I guess the sticking point would be Lucy - would Idea and am suddenly envisioning a worm tower in each of our gardenīeds, fed each week with cafeteria scraps and paper waste from the Much more able to deal with outdoor winter temperatures than the The worms can migrate down into theīelow-ground portion of the worm tower when cold weather strikes, which That the plant roots and microorganisms in the surrounding soil canĪlso interact with the worm bin, sucking up worm tea and eatingĬastings as they appear. Your food scraps and extra bedding just as you could in a normal worm Upturned flower pot) to protect the worms from the sun and then toss in Long, 6" diameter PVC pipe, drill a bunch of holes around it forĪeration, bury it a foot deep in the soil of your garden, and fill it Worms and their nutrients to interact directly with the surrounding Worm tower is an in-garden worm farm that allows the Way of integrating small-scale worm bins into your garden.
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