Making a Wormery
HOW TO MAKE ORGANIC LIQUID FERTILISER IN A WORM BIN
and how to make a wormery
What is a wormery or worm bin
Worm composting is a great way of recycling vegetable scraps, banana skins and tea bags from your kitchen. A worm bin is a container housing a colony of special worms, known as brandlings, tiger worms or redworms. Worm bins are ideal for households with small or no gardens, as they produce a limited quantity of compost and a liquid, which forms a concentrated plant food.
A wormery composts waste using special worms known as brandlings, tiger worms or redworms and can be kept indoors but is probably best kept outside, near to your kitchen door.or in a shed or garage in the winter. Even if you haven't got a garden, its just the job if you want to compost vegetable scraps, and tea bags and lots of other stuff ,instead of sending it off to fill up the landfill sites. You will produce a small amount of compost and a liquid, which forms a concentrated plant food and is great for using in pots and containers. You will be recycling about half of the waste that would otherwise end up in a landfill site (we are running out of sites) Saving money and reducing the use of chemical fertilisers and using organic liquid fertiliser instead, how eco friendly is that.
YOU WILL NEED.
About 400 + worms, bag off gritty sand, a couple of bin bags and shredded newspaper. Worms seem to like comics like the Sun.
A bin, the larger the capacity the more worms and kitchen waste you can put into it and the more compost you will get out. If you are living alone 25 litres will do, small family about 50 litres large family up to 100 litres. If you intend composting a lot of kitchen waste, its not the depth that is important, its the surface area, so you may be better off constructing a rectangular shaped wormery using wood.
A tap to fix into the bin to draw of surplus liquid. This is the homemade organic liquid fertiliser.
YOU NEED TO
Drill tiny breathing holes around the top of the bin (not in the lid of the bin, this could let the rain in).
Fill the bottom of the bin with 3" of gritty gravel for drainage and lay bin bags over the gravel.
Lay 4 inches of damp shredded Sun comic over the bin bags .
Drill the tap into the bin just above the gravel. Its a good idea to place the wormery bin on blocks to give enough space to place a container under the tap.
Now make a small hollow in the shredded newspaper and place the worms inside.
THE BEST BIT NEXT
You can start feeding food scraps.to your new pets make sure the scraps are chopped up well and placed no more than about 2" deep across the shredded newspaper. Cover the waste with a couple of sheets of damp newspaper to keep the whole thing moist.
You can add more scraps when the last lot.has been eaten. This will depend on how many worms you have. Practice will make perfect so don't be put of if it gets a bit smelly, just reduce the kitchen waste, or on the other hand if they send Oliver worm to ask for more, increase the food.
KITCHEN WASTE TO MAKE GOOD SAFE LIQUID COMPOST INCLUDES.
Egg shells, coffee grounds, tea bags, cereals, fruit, annual weeds (not in seed ), bread, any green leaves, all chopped up vegetable and fruit, potato peelings and chopped up hedge trimmings etc.
KITCHEN WASTE YOU SHOULD NOT TO FEED TO YOUR WORMS
Meat and fish, Grass, Weed seeds, Diseased plants, Rice or pasta, Baked beans, Cheese, Onions, Cooked potatoes and Cat or dog muck.
Its not rocket science and these tips will help.
After about 4 weeks you will probably be able to draw off some liquid fertiliser (thru the tap) for your plants and depending on the heat* generated in the bin (indoors or out) compost may be ready to use after a couple of months.
*Never overheat the worm bin thinking you will speed up the composting process, the food will start to rot.
When you use the compost, just pop the worms back in the bin to start all over again.
If it gets to soggy, check that the liquid is being drawn off often enough, add a little less green stuff and a bit more dry stuff.
If it looks a bit dry sprinkle a few drops of water over the waste and maybe add a bit more green stuff. You will soon get the balance right and in a few months you will be showing your neighbor's how to make compost in a worm bin
A few flies and a bit of mould inside the worm bin are normal.
Happy worms breed, so expect some small white baby ones from time to time.
Don't leave your worms without food for longer than a month.
If the top layer isn't ready when you want to use your home made compost, scoop it out onto a newspaper, remove the stuff that's ready and put the top layer back into your worm bin, worms and all.
Give the surplus home made compost and liquid to friends and family.
Important tip, KEEP THE LID ON TIGHT !!!
Its easy so give it a go and reduce landfill, reduce the use of chemical fertiliser, eat safer and better tasting fruit and vedge. How eco friendly is that !! and you save money how good is that !!.
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