Why not start your own worm farm this Easter break?
It’s relatively easy - they eat your scraps and produce liquid fertiliser as well as a supply of worm castings that your vegetable plants will thrive off.
There are a few important things to know about worm farms:
1. We live in a warm climate and you can bake worms, so make sure they are in a shady position. Soil temperatures over 26 degrees may see loss of worm life.
2. Worms need water - a dry worm farm will die - so keep it moist but not wet.
3. Be careful not to over feed your worms - you only need to feed them once or twice a week. Only add more food once the last batch has been consumed. My hint: Blend, chop finely or shred your scraps before giving them to your worms.
4. You only need a small amount of worms to get started, as they populate easily.
Indian Blues are a good option for the Whitsundays, they cope with our warm climate better than some other species.
The three most important things to do when making your own worm farm:
1. When choosing your worm bin, make sure it has a large surface area. You’ll offer more oxygen and room to be active and feed with a wider tub. You can even use a polystyrene box.
2. Make sure you drill holes into the sides of your tub but remember to put mesh over the holes, so worms don’t fall out.
3. Three tubs are ideal - the bottom one to collect your worm tea (obviously no breathing holes in this tub!)
How to use it:
Worm tea is diluted to part to ten and then poured over your vegetable plants - put a tap in this layer or a hole with a bucket underneath it.
The middle layer is where you’ll put your worms - I use shredded paper in this layer that has been wet through and then squeezed out along with Coir (coconut fibre).
Add your worms, then cover them with a layer of damp hessian or paper.
The top layer is where your worms move into when the second layer is full - once they have moved home, you can use the second layers castings in your veggie garden.
Did you know:
Worms can live up to 20 years! A worm breathes through its skin. A worm has no eyes but it does have five hearts and a brain.
