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Wormery composters
What wonderful creatures composting worms are. I first set up my wormery compost container about 15 years ago, and it has been converting kitchen waste into compost ever since.
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Gardeners' World Web User
30/11/2009 at 20:13
Funny this post came up today. We are having unseasonably warm weather, and decided to clean out the worm composter we made this spring. We used an old garbage can that had the bottom broken. We cut the bottom out, drilled a few holes around the bottom edge so we could "pin" the can to the ground and just started adding food waste - and we use cooked food waste (no meats or fat though) too. After a few months, we could tell that there wasn't much worm action (and the can was about half full of ook), so I posted to Craigslist looking for someone who had some worms to spare and a nice couple let me come to their rabbit farm and take as many as I could shovel (and each shovel had hundreds of worms!). We only took about half of a 5g bucket worth and added it. After a few months we could tell that stuff was happening as we had finally filled the garbage can, but each time we needed to empty the kitchen can, there was always room. Anyway, today we took a look to see what was happening and we had a garbage can full of "vermipeat". We forked it over to the open compost bin (made from pallets) and now this spring we will have some nice fertile loamy stuff to add to our beds! I LOVE worms!!!
Gardeners' World Web User
01/12/2009 at 11:15
Me too! I have had my wormery for many years and compost my kitchen waste and that of my neighbours. My worms don't care for onion skins or citrus fruit but process everything else and I crumble up eggshells to give them some grit. I feed them and the birds before myself. The productivity in my garden is amazing and all due to vermipeat and worm wee!
Gardeners' World Web User
03/12/2009 at 15:29
On the subject of egg shells. I put them in an old plastic container with a few golf balls and shake. Produces nicely ground egg shells which I add to my wormery.
Gardeners' World Web User
03/12/2009 at 18:42
I have a conventional green compost bin with a lid and little sliding door at the base. I added a few worms when starting out a couple of years ago and now keep two bins on the go, rotating waste between them as the levels drop. I occasionally turn the compost with a fork and it now resembles spaghetti under the surface with thousands of worms which seem to live and feed happily under this environment. It is really rewarding and encouraging to see this wonderful compost being made for free!! Love it.
Gardeners' World Web User
03/12/2009 at 20:12
I would so love to keep worms going but I have failed miserably. I am coming to the conclusion that they do ned to be kept in a shed over the Winter - a protected place outdoors is insufficient (in our part of Wiltshire anyway). They became another mouth to feed and we were always surprised at how little waste they can deal with. The three bin tower is brilliant for making comfrey fertiliser though!
Gardeners' World Web User
04/12/2009 at 06:40
I bought a "wheelie bin"-type worm composter about 15 years ago. According to the leaflet that came with it you could even "keep it in your kitchen"-as it was odourless". As I'd bought it in winter I decided to start it off in my garage. The worms wouldn't stay in the bin. Every day the floor around the bin was littered with dead worms. Lord knows what my kitchen would have been like if I had kept it in there! When I eventually put it outside, the lid fitted so badly that every time it rained, it filled with water and drowned the worms. I gave up in the end.
Gardeners' World Web User
04/12/2009 at 11:32
I purchased the original bin wormery many years ago now. The problem with a wormery of this type is that you can forget to drain the liquid off regularly (I have no experience of the tray wormery)and once the compost gets too wet it can lead to problems such as flies and ultimately your worms may die - lost my original worms this year! I have now connected a hose from the drain tap to a collection vessel and leave the tap open at all times to avoid the above problems.
Gardeners' World Web User
04/12/2009 at 11:45
I have just read through previous comments. I purchased an insulation coat for my bin wormery from the supplier and leave my wormery outside the backdoor 12 months of the year. I have no problems with escaping worms or smell. I agree about keeping citrus peelings and onions out of the bin - they go in my garden compost bin.
Gardeners' World Web User
07/12/2009 at 15:19
Can you help me I would like to start a wormery as my husband go fishing regularly, Is this possible as the cost of worms are expensive. What would I need to do to get one started, would they produce enough to warrent the initial out lay. Please advise. Josie
Gardeners' World Web User
07/12/2009 at 15:59
Reply to Josie: I've never bought worms for angling, so don't know how much they would cost, or how many would be needed. Anyway, the worms used by anglers are exactly the same worms that we use for composting. Provided you can supply regular kitchen waste like potato and carrot peelings, banana skins, uncooked veg waste, crushed egg shells, etc (you'll get full instructions with any bin you buy), then why not invest in a worm bin. However, by regularly taking out worms you'll gradually reduce the worm population in your bin. Provided you aren't too greedy you should be OK. Do let fellow bloggers know how you get on.
Gardeners' World Web User
10/12/2009 at 20:46
Sadly my husband has developed Alzheimers and has recently been provided with equipment to make life a little easier - especially useful is his bedside commode. His nightly pee is now next morning added to our compost bin with spectacular improvement to a previously slow and dry process. He thinks this is highly amusing and it brightens his mornings considerably to think he still has a useful purpose in life.
Gardeners' World Web User
11/12/2009 at 08:01
For the last three years I have had tomato blight, I am giving up hope of ever growing tomatoes, I have tried the grow bags. a friend told me I might have to leave the ground for 7 years before I can grow tomatoes again, is this true Cheers Desperate to grow tomatoes of Devizes
Gardeners' World Web User
11/12/2009 at 08:16
hello I met you at the Garden Museum for the recording of GQT. Thanks for taking the time to have a chat with me. I felt quite honoured to be there for the recording. I have seen your comments on the wormery. I am just waiting for you to have it in the Gardeners World Mag on special. i do have 2 compost bins which are full all the time and full of worms.
Gardeners' World Web User
11/12/2009 at 16:34
Thanks Santosh. Very pleased to meet you at the recording of Gardeners' Question Time where I was invited on the programme as a guest. The programme will be broadcast on Sunday 27th December at 2.00pm. Yes, I've been taking photographs of setting-up this new wormery for a feature in BBC Gardeners' World magazine next year. We'll hopefully develop a special offer for one at the same time.
Gardeners' World Web User
12/04/2010 at 11:22
I have recently started composting, and got lots of information through various web sites. Having filled up two compost bins and adding Garotta as instructed to the layers,I then added some worms which I took from a patch of ground I was digging as I thought this might help. Unfortunately when I looked in the bins several days later, I found all the worms dead on the surface where I had put them. Obviously I made a boob, but why did this happen?.
Gardeners' World Web User
30/05/2010 at 14:24
Hi, I live in southern Spain and would love to have a wormery, can anyone give me some advice on the best type to get. I will buy it over the internet (I have not seen them here in Spain) so it is important I get the right one. Any other advice would be welcome as well
Gardeners' World Web User
26/10/2010 at 13:58
My compost bin has a good number of brandling worms but my garden has very few earthworms, possibly due to New Zealand flatworms. If brandling worms are put onto the garden amongst the compost do they survive and will they improve the soil?
Gardeners' World Web User
01/11/2010 at 12:42
Thanks for your query Callander girl. Firstly, I haven't heard much about New Zealand flatworm for some time. In which part of the country do you live, and how much of a problem are they? Brandling worms can live in leaf litter and compost, but do not burrow down into the ground like earthworms. I really don't think they would survive for long on the surface of most soils. The blackbirds would love the meal, too!
Gardeners' World Web User
09/11/2010 at 22:18
I live in Callander, Perthshire,in Central Scotland. When we moved here 3 years ago very little of the garden had been dug over. It was mainly mossy lawn, heavy clay soil and quite a lot of paving slabs. We found the flatworms and their eggs under slabs and rocks. Having squashed all we found we now just find a few in undisturbed areas. Having put in field drains, dug a lot of 'council' and garden compost, the soil is much better but I still see very few earthworms when digging/planting so I'm not sure whether the flatworms are still at work.
Gardeners' World Web User
11/03/2011 at 16:14
If you want to turn your old fruits and vegetables into compost but your space is limited, then build a wormery. A very informative one!
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