Getting ready for spring - vermiculture
Worm composting is an easy, convenient, environmentally-friendly and efficient way of turning your waste kitchen scraps into high quality compost and spring is the best time to start.
This type of composting is particularly good if you don't have enough room in your garden for a proper garden composter. The worms, which are responsible for recycling kitchen waste in this way, are called brandlings and resemble earthworms, except they are smaller and reddish in appearance. They can frequently be found in mature compost heaps so ask neighbours if you can have a dig around in their compost to get a starter set of worms. However, if you are unable to obtain a supply of these worms from a natural source, then you can buy them by mail order. It's possible to obtain a supply of either Brandling (Tiger) worms (Eisenia foetida) or Dendrobaena (a bigger, more acid tolerant worm which can digest 30 % more material) so decide which you want and prepare your worm bin before they arrive.
Essentially you can vermin almost all your organic kitchen waste. Examples of suitable materials include: bread crumbs, cereals, pasta, any fruit and vegetable waste, teabags, coffee grounds and small amounts of old straw or leaves, but try not to add anything which is saturated in fat or contains vinegar and avoid garlic. Potato peelings need to be leavened with other material that is drier and less dense. All waste material should be broken into small scraps before being added to your worm composter and it is important to feed worms little and often, rather than giving them large quantities of food at once, as this can cause overheating which kills the worms.
Don't worry about feeding them when you go away on holiday, they will thrive without food whilst you are away, providing they are not disturbed.
Note that worm activity ceases below 3 degrees celsius and so you need to keep your container of worms where the temperature will remain above 5 degrees in winter, such as a shed, utility room or garage. The worms can be kept outside all year round if this isn't possible, but their container should be insulated, with old carpet for example, so that the worms don't freeze. Tiger worms can also be killed if the temperature goes too high - above 30 degrees C.
Worms photograph by merfam, used under a creative commons attribution licence
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