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We’ve gotten a lot of traffic for our worm towers so we thought we’d feature them on this page by themselves. Worm towers are one of many techniques that permaculturists might use but knowing when and where it is really appropriate requires a broader understanding that permaculture, it’s ethics, and principles provide. If you’re looking for the picture summary for our Hands-on Permaculture training you can find it here. |
Last year during our Hands-on Permaculture training we built worm towers with the class and installed one in Bill and Becky’s front yard. Once it’s installed all you have to do is add composting worms (red wigglers) and then occasionally add some table scraps. The worms feed on the food waste and in turn, fertilize the garden bed. No muss or fuss with kitchen scraps anymore, it is so incredibly easy to use. The only maintenance that’s needed is to clean out worm castings once a year to make room for more compost.
View inside the installed Worm Tower before it’s filled with worms, food, and bedding.
If you’d like to make your own we’ve made an instruction sheet to help you out.
How to make a worm tower in 3 simple steps.
You can download the instruction sheet by clicking on the picture or the link above.
Winter?
When we checked in on it during the first winter (a very mild winter for our region) the top was frozen but beneath that the worms were slow yet still active and going about their business. There were even fresh baby worms…!!! We’ll let you know how the worms fare through this next winter, which we expect to be colder.
Kept it full through the winter for food and insulation.
And… once spring arrives, it practically disappears in our garden bed. What is not to like?
What we like most about the worm tower is how easy it was to make and use. This is a simple and clean way to dispose of kitchen scraps while feeding our gardens at the same time.
Here is the video that got us started with our own worm towers. It’s only 2 minutes and it has some good graphics.
And by the way, is there any reason that drilling a bunch of holes in an old 5-gallon bucket and sinking that into the ground would not work as well? We think not. The lid would have to be bigger but a terracotta tray would probably work well. Then we could put a nice potted plant on top of that for looks!
Have fun!!!
I love worm towers! we are constructing a large kitchen garden in front of our house and we will SURELY incorporate several worm towers. THANK YOU for these easy-to-follow instructions!
Here is the Slow Down Farm Worm Tower I installed in my raised bed. Dale, There is a link to your site and instructions too!
-Ryan
Great article! One spelling error…( food waste and in tern, fertilize the garden bed. )tern should be turn.
Thank you for sharing!
Thanks Roxane, glad you enjoy it. It’s all fixed!
Great idea. Raised red worms in my basement for ten years and ate all my ” waste” from the kitchen during that time. Got to be to much trouble and then had to remodel basement for more room so gave the farms to my neighbor and they have kept them going for the last three years. My question is how do you remove the castings from your sunken pipe once a year as recommended in the article?
I think I will try this and get some worms back from my neighbor to get it going.
It’s pretty easy to just reach your arm in and pull the castings out. I’ve myself had a project where I’ve buried my rubbermaid worm bin in the ground for the winter, and then pull it out in the spring. It operates like a normal worm bin when it’s warmer and goes dormant when it’s cold.