Composting

A worm bin turns your vegetable scraps into the best fertilizer money can’t buy. Worm castings are richer in nutrients than regular compost, loaded with beneficial microbes that plant roots love, and impossible to over-apply the way chemical fertilizers burn plants. The problem is finding a bin that doesn’t smell, doesn’t attract fruit flies, and doesn’t make you feel like you’re running a garbage hotel. We tested 6 worm composting systems, from basic stackable tray bins to continuous flow-through designs that let you harvest castings without sorting worms. We ran each bin for 8 weeks, feeding them a standard kitchen scrap diet, monitoring moisture, temperature, and the great escape rate (how many worms try to leave). ...

Composting is one of those things nearly every gardener knows they should do, but actually doing it is where the gap opens. A pile in the corner of the yard requires turning with a pitchfork, balancing greens and browns, waiting 6–12 months, and dealing with whatever lives in it. A compost tumbler solves most of these problems: you load from the top, spin it every few days, and get finished compost in as little as 3–8 weeks. No pitchfork, no pile, no smell (when done right), and rodents can’t get in. ...

Composting is one of those things that sounds like more work than it is. You throw kitchen scraps and yard waste into a bin, wait, and get free garden soil out the other end. The hard part is choosing the right system for your space — a worm bin is perfect for a balcony but won’t handle the volume a 5,000 square foot garden produces. A three-bin stationary system handles big yards but takes up permanent space. ...