theaterquestions
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Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2011 3:16 am

Trench Composting Indoors

I am a college student living in the dorms so I do not have access to any back, side, or front yards. However I am interested in growing a herb garden on my window sill (I have a south east facing window so it's perfect!). I am also wanting to cut down on my waste by composting. Is it possible/ recommended to do a dig/drop sort of composting with the herb garden? (I'm planning on getting a long trough bed to plant the herbs in rather than individual pots).
Thanks!

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rainbowgardener
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Location: TN/GA 7b

Your window sill planter could only handle a very tiny amount of waste that way. And if you were also trying to grow something (herbs) in that planter, you would be constantly digging around their roots, disturbing them.

A better solution for indoor composting is a worm bin. Type worm bin, worm compost, vermicomposting into the Search the Forum Keyword box to find a lot written here about them, how to do it, etc.

I kept one in our basement all last winter and my honey never even knew it was there. You just need the space of one Rubbermaid container

(https://www.rubbermaid.com/Category/Pages/Category.aspx?CatName=Storage)

and it will use up as much or as little waste as you care to feed it.

toxcrusadr
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Joined: Thu Sep 09, 2010 4:50 pm
Location: MO

Hi theater and welcome to the forum.

I don't have much to add to the previous answer, but curious what school you are at. I live near a large midwestern university with an agriculture school (Univ. of MO). A couple of years back a group of students arranged a pilot project to compost kitchen waste from the dorms. It was all done by student volunteers, probably as part of class projects. Anyway it worked so well that the University took it over and is composting ALL of the kitchen waste from the campus. It's saving them an enormous amount in waste disposal cost.

I thought if you were interested in seeing this kind of thing happen, you might have a greater impact working to get something like that started than working alone. But, maybe you just want to grow a few herbs, and there's nothing wrong with that. Just be careful what 'herbs' you grown in the dorm... 8)



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