Thanks to the rise in apartment living and smaller gardens, indoor plants are having a moment.
But for anyone gunning to take their green thumb into the outside world, food writer and television presenter, Melissa Leong (Instagram @fooderati), has a low-waste hack that combines a worm farm and a herb garden all-in-one.
It’s great for small spaces, environmentally-friendly and you can get most of the materials quite affordably from Kmart and Bunnings.
Better yet, you can smash out the project in under an hour and all you need tool-wise is a power drill.
This is what your finished planter could look like:
Speaking to Mamamia, Melissa, who you might recognise as a judge on SBS’ The Chef’s Line, said that while her creation isn’t a new, or “revolutionary” idea, it’s based on permaculture principles which are normally used in bigger spaces. However, she’s adapted the concept to suit her Melbourne apartment.
“I wanted to find a solution that was no-fuss, looked good and wasn’t exorbitantly expensive, and while doing some research about various composting methods for small spaces, I found this pot plant/worm farm combo,” she explained.
“[While] I love a DIY challenge, this also proves to people that you can do something like this on the cheap, which means there’s really very little excuse not to do it.”
Melissa says she was inspired by worm farm gardens, like those created by Aussie brand Composta, to reduce her environmental footprint. According to environmental group, Sustainability Victoria, the average Victorian household throws away nearly three litres of fresh food (produce etc.) a week, with younger households aged 18 to 24 the worst offenders, wasting 14.2 litres of food (both fresh and prepared) a week.
“As a food writer married to a chef [that’s Romeo Lane’s Joe Jones], we cook a lot at home. But even after using trimmings for stocks and sauces, there is still organic waste we discard,” she said.
