Selfsufficientish.com

Howdy,

Gardening was on my mind a lot over the weekend (it finally quit raining long enough to get some done), and while I was feeding my worms, I started wondering if any of ya also compost with worms.

So, do any of ya compost with worms? It occurred to me that with this allotment thing, it might be easier for keeping a little worm bin under the sink and tossing the veggie waste in there then hauling the casings over once a month or so rather than hauling the scraps over more frequently. So maybe it's a common thing?

-Charles

I vermicompost - though it has nothing to do with carrying stuff to an allotment (which I don't have. I have a backyard garden)

I started because I was living in a townhouse with no other option for composting... and because it's fun. Cute little wormies.

Mandyz wrote:I started because I was living in a townhouse with no other option for composting... and because it's fun. Cute little wormies.

Uh, yeah, cute. I have to confess that I'm hoping the worms'll end up being multi-purpose (feed for chickens and fish). I must be cold hearted.

Do you know the type of worm you use? Here I think we use a localized version of the red wriggler.

-Charles

We just have regular compost bins in the garden but they are always full of red worms. Does anyone know where they come from because I have never come across this kind of worm in the soil when I am gardening!

I found this excellent page yesterday http://www.troubleatmill.com/wormbin.htm all about making your own wormery and it is from easily obtainable bits.
Im going to give it a go at some point.

The red worms in compost are called Brandling worms.You can get them in fishing shops.

albert onglebod wrote:I found this excellent page yesterday http://www.troubleatmill.com/wormbin.htm all about making your own wormery and it is from easily obtainable bits.
Im going to give it a go at some point.

The red worms in compost are called Brandling worms.You can get them in fishing shops.

A friend of mine has followed these instructions and has made a wormery herself and it works really very well. I'll see if I can get her to come and join in here.

Millymollymandy wrote:We just have regular compost bins in the garden but they are always full of red worms. Does anyone know where they come from because I have never come across this kind of worm in the soil when I am gardening!

They're worms with a big appetite. I don't know if they're a different kind of worm or just flushed with the riches of the compost bin but I take the presence of lots of them as a good sign.

Wulf

albert onglebod wrote:I found this excellent page yesterday http://www.troubleatmill.com/wormbin.htm all about making your own wormery and it is from easily obtainable bits.
Im going to give it a go at some point.

That's essentially the same system that I'm using, except that instead of using wire mesh in the bottom I used a 1/8" bit to drill holes in the bottoms of the upper containers, and added a few in the sides of the boxes for extra ventilation.

Here's a link to a paper written locally on the bennies of vermicomposting:
http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/HG-45.pdf

I don't use the chunk of carpet as a lid, I use wet, crumpled up newspaper, which supposedly provides an egg-laying medium for the worms. And instead of a tap on the base container, I just lift off the other containers and poor the "worm tea" directly into my raised beds.

It's pretty easy, and not much maintenance.

If I understand correctly, the red worms are "composting worms", and only live in the top couple of inches of soil.

http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/ is another great source of information for wormerys, worms, and other stuff.

I went to visit when we lived in Herefordshire.. it's a very good set up.

have a look here too-

(a new forum for smallholders but a lot about worms!)

http://michaellock.forumup.co.uk/viewto ... ichaellock