I just hit 50 pounds of finished compost from my little balcony bin

I started my worm bin last fall, just a plain plastic tub with some red wigglers. I never weighed the scraps going in, but I keep a small kitchen scale by the bin for the finished stuff. When I emptied it this weekend, I added it all up from my notes. Fifty pounds. That's a full bag of potting soil, but I made it from my own coffee grounds, eggshells, and veggie peels. It hit me that all that stuff would have just gone to the dumpster down the hall. Now it's dark, crumbly soil sitting in buckets on my balcony, ready for my plants. How much finished compost do other people usually get from a small setup like mine in a year?

2 comments

2 Comments

barbara_kim1mo ago

Weigh my finished compost and I'd probably find a single pound of dirt and three pounds of shame for all the times I forgot to feed the worms. That's amazing you got fifty.

david1231mo agoTop Commenter

My first compost bin was a total fail, just like that. I had a fancy tumbler in my backyard and maybe got two pounds of actual dirt after a whole year. Then my neighbor showed me her simple pile system with leaves and kitchen scraps. She got a whole wheelbarrow full of dark soil in just a few months. It made me realize I was overcomplicating it. What method did you try that gave you fifty pounds?