If you'd like to know more about the benefits of using a wormery, our quick guide is a handy place to start.
What is a wormery?
Wormeries are a simple, effective way of home composting, using specially selected earthworms to turn food waste into a nutritious food for soil and plants. They're also known as worm farms.
What are the benefits of a wormery?
· Ideal for small spaces.
· Can be used indoors.
· Year-round composting.
· Makes a fascinating project for children.
· Worm castings (poo!) make the best quality nutritious compost (vermicompost).
Using a wormery
· Create the worms’ bedding – many wormeries include coconut peat for this. Soak the coconut peat in water, line the tray with 2-3 sheets of wet newspaper, then add the wet coconut peat.
· Add your worms – leave them a week before feeding food scraps so they settle in.
· Cover worms with a worm ‘blanket’ – any natural fabric, such as hessian, or several sheets of newspaper or cardboard. Cover with the lid and place in a cool, dry area away from sun and rain.
· After a week, start to add food scraps cut in small pieces – about a handful every few days, in different sections each time. Cover with some of the bedding or compost from a compost bin
· If using a system with multiple trays, add the second tray when the first tray is full. When two working trays are being used, the worms will travel through the holes in the bottom of the next tray to find new food scraps. When the second tray is full, the first will be full of castings to use on your plants.
· The liquid collected at the bottom of the wormery can be diluted and used as plant feed.
TOP TIP:
Feed your worms on a varied diet of food they love:
YES:
Fruit and veg scraps, non-plastic teabags, coffee grounds, crushed eggshells, moist cardboard, small amounts of bread, cooked rice or pasta.
NO:
Onion, garlic, chilli, dairy, uncooked potato skins, citrus, meat, bones, fish, oils or grease.
The wonder of worms
• Wormeries make great projects for children because they introduce a subject that can grow in complexity as a child grows; they are a simple activity for pre-schoolers but also gradually take in chemistry, biology, ecology, the food cycle and carbon cycle as well as gardening and growing your own food.
• Children will develop respect for these humble but mighty creatures. Through tunnelling, worms aerate and improve the soil, providing nutrients for plants to flourish. Without them the earth would become cold, hard and sterile.
• Studies have shown that the simple act of introducing worms to degraded soil in poor regions of the world has increased plant yields by 280%.
Check out our range of wormeries here.
We got a wormery! Find out how two children got on when they received a wormery as a gift - read here.