h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: A Garden Wormery - A13686302
Author: BigAl- Patron Saint of Left Handers. Keeper of mnemonics. Saboteur of boring and banal conversation. - U723247

Just spent a pleasant hour or so 'maintaining' my wormery this afternoon, and thought I'd submit an Entry.

Interesting Entry BigAl

I used to know couple, they were vegans, one bought the other a wormery for their birthday, I never saw it in use as they moved to Birmingham shortly afterwards.

Emmily

So, not a mine of useful infomation for you there from Emilyeh Big A?
Nother

>"So, not a mine of useful infomation for you there from Emily"

No, but then I'm Emmily -- not the brightest spark in the pack or to put it another way - the wheel's going round, but the hamster's missing

At least it let BigAl know someone had taken an interest and read his Entry but if it's nitpicking you want, hey, I aim to please

Under 'Background' header

Estimateed ~> estimated

local authorites ~> local authorities

Under 'Setting up' Header

I think "leafmould" should be two words, but not sure

"bedding,together" needs a space after the comma

"The lid should be left open for 10 minutes or so so that the light will encourage the worms"

Maybe change a little so it doesn't read 'so so'

And you’ve got numbers under 10 that ought to be written.


Emmily

BigAl, just realised I should really have done it like this

Under 'Background' header

Estimateed ~> estimated

local authorites ~> local authorities

Under 'Setting up' Header

I think "leafmould" should be two words, but not sure

"bedding,together" needs a space after the comma

"The lid should be left open for 10 minutes or so so that the light will encourage the worms"

Maybe change a little so it doesn't read 'so so'

And you’ve got numbers under 10 that ought to be written.

That's better

Emmily

Estimateed ~> estimated

local authorites ~> local authoritie

I think "leafmould" should be two words, but not sure (I'm not sure either, but I've written it as two)

"bedding,together" needs a space after the comma

"The lid should be left open for 10 minutes or so so that the light will encourage the worms"

Maybe change a little so it doesn't read 'so so' (Put a comma between the 'so's')

And you’ve got numbers under 10 that ought to be written.

Nice entry

I've heard that these worms do not survive our winter too well. Is there anything that should be done to keep them alive during the colder weather? Or is it a case of replacing them each year?

Well, I haven't had a problem with my worms. I just make sure that my wormery is reasonably full by the time winter starts. Then the natural heat generated by decomposition keeps it warm enough. That's why I've emptied my wormery this weekend - it will be reasonably full again by the time winter starts. The woms tend to accumulate in a layer just below the surface, so I find these and put them into a bucket before spreading the compost onto the garden. I then set up a new wormery as described and replace the worms.

I've added a section about overwintering.

I find this fascinating. I've never considered having a worm farm, i'm not that keen on touching them. Also i don't have alot of household scraps to compost, its all garden stuff that goes in my bin. I really like the idea though.

Don't you have potato peeling, carrot peelings, cabbage leaves etc? These can all be composted. Then you need to put in crushhed eggshells from time to time to prevent it from becomning too acidic.

Not everyday. I live alone, so don't have much waste.

I see from your PS that you work in a garden centre. Do garden centres tend to stock composting worms? None of my local ones do. Also, last week I tried to buy some new blades for my Black&Decker mower. B&Q had 6 different types, excluding the correct type for my mower. I then went to two garden centres, including the largest in my town who said they didn't stock them because they were too specialised an item! Ended up having to buy them from a tool hirte shop which also stocks B&D products.

No, we don't stock worms either, but we do have mail order cards for a place called 'Just green' which people can order through us.
We don't stock mower blades either, only because its and independant and there is'nt room. We do have a facility to order in goods like that, it takes just a few days. Not always an option if you're desperate for them though.

This is really good, I've always wanted a wormery.

How many worms do we need for a wormery of this size? If I decide to make one, I can get tiger worms from my current compost heap, but how many will I need?

Also just a query on the peat - isn't peat an 'endagered species'? I did a bit of a search about sedge peat but didn't find anything concrete. If it is, then perhaps it should be left out of the entry if you're going to push the 'environmentally-friendly' angle.

Oh, one thing. You can put dog poo in the wormery, as long as they haven't just been wormed. If the dog is well cared for it's not going to have any parasites.

EW

'I did a bit of a search about sedge peat but didn't find anything concrete'.

I've added a bit about the number of worms required - about 1000 when first setting up a 1m3 wormery (But in practice I try to recover the whole lot and put them back in.)

Apparantly, use of sedge peat is less damaging to the environment that moss peat, and I've added a link for this. (There wasn't a lot, so it's a response to a Q. on 'Gardeners Q. Time'.)

PS I agree that you can put dog poo into a wormery. I just prefer not to (irrational sensibility, I know

That's why I use the terms:

'However, in common with normal composting, it's BEST TO AVOID the following':

...Dog or cat excrement, as this CAN contain human parasites.

Excellent entry BigAl I wish I'd invested in one of these rather my normal compost bin!

One ickle typo:

Under Setting Up

>for a convention compost heap< -->conventional (your name on the end )

MW. Corrected