I was recently digging through past posts on the RWC Facebook page (trying to find something I had remembered posting, and wanted to review) when I stumbled across another really interesting posting from a few years ago. It was a link for an article on “The Guardian” website entitled: California winery hires earthworms to clean up its wastewater, and I’m sure it must be the most “liked” and “shared” posting on the RWC FB page.

I can definitely see why!

The article describes the advanced bio-filtration process adopted by Fetzer Winery in California to handle their wastewater – one that relies on the use of a gigantic vermicomposting bed. According to the author, 14 gallons of water are used to produce a single glass of wine (most of it used for cleaning purposes)! The usual way of dealing with all this nutrient-rich effluent is to (more…)

I first “met” Curtis Windsor via his involvement in the new (as I type this) VermiGardening Facebook group.

Not long ago I came across a post he had put up about a pretty serious vermicomposting trench project he had launched.

Based on the description and the images shared, I was totally intrigued and I approached Curtis about the possibility of us putting something together for the blog. Thankfully, he was very enthusiastic about the idea, so here we are. 🙂

Below you will find a Q&A session Curtis and I had (in bits and pieces) via email, along with some (more…)

It’s been a “sitting windrow” this past winter, but this baby is nearly ready to start walking again!

Back at the end of August (2018) I started what is easily my largest, most ambitious vermicomposting project to date. At the beginning of July, I had connected with the owner of a 100 acre country property not far from where I live, and he encouraged me to use some of his land to set up worm beds.

As exciting as the idea was – I suspected I would have my work cut out for me (spoiler alert – I DID)!

One of the main goals was to have a large supply of worm castings available for the 2019 growing season. They do a lot of gardening on the property, so I wanted to make sure they were getting something valuable from the arrangement. I knew it would be important to get the ball rolling…and to keep it rolling (at least slowly) during the cold months of winter.

I found a great site for the bed – one that was (more…)

Back at the beginning of September I celebrated the 10th anniversary of using vermicomposting trenches, and mentioned an exciting new project I had recently started on a nearby country property.

Little did I realize that the project would basically become an all-consuming passion over the next few months. Probably helps to explain why there were so few blog posts during this time!
😯

The BIG goal was (and still is) to create a system that could produce an ongoing, large supply of vermicompost (ideally, starting in May 2019) for the property owner. This is why I wanted to get a jumpstart on things during the fall (rather than simply getting started next spring), and why I was a little “over-the-top” with my bed design. I’ll come back to that in a minute, but let’s start with a few stats about the project site:

Location: Waterloo Region, Ontario Canada – USDA plant-hardiness zone 5a
General Climate: Fairly moderate by Canadian standards – with winters that are less severe than a good chunk of the country. We have quite a bit of snow, and sub-freezing temps that last about 3-4 months. Summers can get hot, but extended periods over 30 C (86 F) are considered “heat waves”.

To provide some perspective here… (more…)

If anyone asked me to come up with ONE method/development that has had the greatest positive impact on my vermicomposting journey, without even missing a beat I would say (perhaps even yell – haha) “vermicomposting trenches”!

The funny irony is that it all started with a scary “problem” – a very serious predicament I got myself into in the spring of 2008 due to unbounded optimism, over-confidence in my worm composting prowess…and well, just plain stupidity.

But before we get to that I think it’s important to (more…)

Back in November I was contacted by Will Milliken, the person in charge of some composting toilets at an aquatic research center. He seemed pretty passionate about what he was doing (and excited by the results from using composting worms), so I asked about the possibility of sharing his experience here on the blog.

Here’s what he had to say:

My name is Will. I got a “real job” in 2000 as a Facilities Technician – Maintenance Mechanic at Stroud Water Research Center. It is an Aquatic Environmental Research Campus located in Avondale, Pennsylvania.

Being an environmentally conscious organization, they had installed a BioSun composting toilet system prior to my hiring date. The previous maintenance man put in the required mulch/wood chips of the time and then let it go.

When I started working here, it was brought to my attention that (more…)