For Christmas I asked for and got a worm farm ( or as it is called on the packaging a Worm Cafe ). We didn't have any old sink or bath suitable so R got me a Tumbleweed Worm Cafe. The photo shows it with the stage one layer and lid. It has 3 more trays or stories to add as it fills up. The legs are supposed to be ant proof.
This is what it looks like inside before the first worms and their bedding were introduced.The island in the middle is so they can never drown and have somewhere to climb up on and at the front is the drainage hole with tap underneath for letting the extra water and leach-ate and tea drain out.
This morning we had time to visit a neighbour who kindly gave us some starter worms. In this case an ice cream container full. Where are they? Hiding underneath away from the light.
This is when I have just spread them out across the soaked coir bedding block that came with the cafe. I have then added 2 sheets of wet newspaper and for a blanket I have provided a soaked partly worn out cotton hand towel which was just the right size.
I now have a designated small bucket to put things worms like in especially my daily coffee grinds. I know not to put in citrus peel or onion skins ( too acidic ) or dairy or meat . I have read the instruction booklet from cover to cover and taken advice from the neighbour who supplied the worms. She has 2 lots ( farms ) one get all their food scraps minced and so produces a much quicker and finer lot of castings. That is what she recommended.
There are plenty of dos and don'ts.
If you have a worm farm ( Leanne ) and have any hints or encouragement I would be grateful to hear.
We will continue to make compost as we have always done. This will I hope give us an additional and more readily available to plants, product ( liquid and castings ) to use in our garden and on pot plants. To make enough for orchard use we would need a huge set up.
Note ; there are 2 main categories of worms - earth workers or composters. These are composters. but are they Tigers, Reds or Dendras?
4 comments:
Not fair! I have a stiff neck and it hurts to laugh! I've heard of all kinds of Christmas presents but this takes the cake....The Bean has talked about this kind of thing, and oldest son has actually dabbled, but wow---you make it all sound so scientific!
Ant proof?? I'm convinced the buggers are immune to whatever we use against them. I'll be really impressed if that claim is true!
Love it - our 10 year old has had hers running for a year now(Christmas gift request last year) and we have had a lot of goodies for the garden. I'm not sure which sort of worm you have there, but ours aren't as orange as yours, ours look more pink/red than that. My worm farmer has been giving some worm wee away to people, they asked if they could buy some off her but she insisted it was to be free! Perhaps I need to pay her for it to ensure it ends up in my garden :-)
Sorry about the neck Molly. See it must be a Kiwi thing.... ( kiwis Like worms you see ) But asking my bloke for something specific he understands makes getting a gift much more likely. It will be really useful and I knew the chickens I have been requesting for 45 years now, just wasn't a goer in 2012.
I got a worm farm for Christmas four years ago, they did not survive the first winter, not sure what it was. But the replacement ones have thrived since and though I did get put in a top layer of carpet that covers the new scraps, thought they might have got too cold.
Mine like their broccoli stalks chopped, hate onion and citrus peels, don't mind tea bags but hate coffee grinds. They chomp through gray curly hair when my partner cuts his hair, and the amount does not seem to worry them, it disappears very quickly.
I had not had ants or any bugs until I moved the farm two months ago to my new home close to the sea, the farm has now been invaded by earwigs, they infest everything I plant too. My next challenge.
I do hope you enjoy your worms as much I enjoy mine!
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