Last fall (2019) I wrote about my new “breathable bucket” system approach that involved using bottle cap vents inspired by Mark Payne’s “vernmenting” method.

Over the next 6 months or so I was very impressed with how well these breathable buckets worked as worm bins – especially in comparison to other bucket bins I’ve tried in the past! I now regularly recommend them to anyone looking for a super simple, space-saving (not to mention inexpensive) way to get the ball rolling with worm composting.

Somewhere along the way, I decided to try a modified approach. Instead of installing the cap vents I just used big drill holes with old sheet fabric secured tightly over top. I made a couple of these bins, and did get one system set up – but didn’t end up testing it out quite as actively as I had hoped…

…Until Now…hopefully!
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One source of motivation at the moment is a (more…)

Yesterday, a worm customer named Willie Lapin got in touch to tell me about a wooden worm bin he had built for his new ‘herd’.

When I saw the images, it was love at first sight – and I immediately asked him if it was ok for me to share his creation with others (you can guess how he responded).

In a lot of ways the bin is very similar to a VermBin24, but looks like it would be even easier to build, and might take up less room.

Willie tells me the frame was made with Redwood, to help slow decomposition, but the rest was made with (more…)

Yep – I realize it is March! The video above was actually recorded last week – it’s just taken me a little while to get around to writing a blog post update.
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This was a very breathable (4 vent) bucket system set up early in November 2019. I won’t claim to have added heaps and heaps of kitchen scraps to this bin over the past few months – but it certainly hasn’t been completely neglected either.

Temps are always quite cool in my basement, but progress has still been quite good. The original “19 worms” (+ cocoons) population seems to have (more…)

Back at the end of October, I posted an update for my breathable bucket vermicomposting system (see “Breathable Bucket Bin – 10-31-19“) – making it very clear just how impressed I was with it.

We shall see how things look in a couple of months, but my inner optimist has me thinking this may very well end up being my new go-to DIY indoor system approach (sorry, Roughneck Totes).

In the meantime, my plan is to set up a mini fleet of these things so I can really put them to the test!
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This morning I decided to set up breathable bucket #2 using (more…)

A little over two weeks ago I set up a brand worm bin using a bucket with some handy dandy bottle-top air vents, inspired by Mark Paine’s “vernmenting” systems.

Last week I posted a video showing how the vents were installed, and the system was set-up using worm-rich material from my “comfrey and cardboard” experiment bin.

So far I have been absolutely thrilled with this system!

My workmanship with the vents wasn’t exactly world class (lol) – and I wasn’t sure if my fabric lid secured by an elastic would actually keep pests out – so I was pretty worried when (more…)

Not too long ago I wrote about Mark Paine’s “Vernmenting” method, and mentioned that one of the things that really caught my attention was his ingenious approach for making air vents with plastic bottle tops.

Last week, armed with a few plastic bottles I had managed to round up, I decided to create a new worm bin using a bucket with these vents in it (watch the video above to learn all about that).

As is often the case with DIY projects, my (more…)