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Wormeries
Cole Park Allotments, Twickenham Road, Isleworth
Wormeries
 A wormery is a small self contained unit that will compost
soft organic/kitchen waste such as vegetable peelings, coffee
grounds and stale bread.
As it is small it can be kept anywhere. The wormery will
produce compost for pot plants and a liquid plant food. A wormery can be used to compost kitchen waste. Worms eat
the waste and produce a fine compost and a liquid rich in
nutrients that can be used as a plant food. Wormeries are
easy to maintain, don't cause nasty smells if used properly
and are fun and educational as well.
There are several types
of wormery available on the market, or you can make your
own. They sell them at Richmond/Kew
Amenity centre including worms.
Escaping worms!
When you put new worms in a wormery, they like to explore
their new home. If you don't ensure the lid is firmly closed,
they might escape! We suggest you keep the wormery outside
in
a sheltered shady place, just in case!
Feeding your worms
Worms will eat most vegetable and fruit
scraps, as well as small amounts of meat scraps. What can I feed to a wormery?
feed this to your
worms
* Fruit and veg peelings
* Banana peel
* Coffee grounds and filters
* Tea bags
* Small amounts of newspaper and cardboard
* Small amounts of bread
* Small amounts of meat scraps occasionally
* Small amounts of citrus fruit peel
* Small amounts of onion or garlic
* Leaves from houseplants |
don't feed this
to your worms
* Garden waste (cuttings, grass etc - better on a compost heap)
* Too much strong food such as onion, chillie, garlic and citrus peel
* Dairy products
* Large amounts of meat
* Fish
* Animal droppings
* Vacuum cleaner dust
They don't like lots of strong food such as onion,
garlic, chillies or citrus peel. This is especially
true in the first few weeks after
setting up a new wormery. If you need to give them a boost, you can add 'worm
treat' which is a mix of worm friendly food. They will also happily munch through
small amounts of cardboard and newspaper too. |
If you are feeling creative you can make your own wormery
using old tyres:
Make your own wormery
This tier based wormery is made out of four old tyres.
Create
a base from old bricks or flagstones (must be flat and with
as few cracks as possible).
Place a heavy sunday
newspaper on top of the bricks
Stuff four old tyres with newspapers.
Pile the tyres
on top of each other, with the first tyre on the
sunday newspaper
Put some scrunched up paper or cardboard in the
bottom to soak up any excess liquid
Fill the tyre wormery with organic material (semi-composted
is best)
Only use kitchen waste if the unit is properly
sealed (no gaps or cracks)
Add worms (tiger or brandling)
Use a piece of board weighed down with bricks
as a lid. The lid must be big enough to stop
rain
getting in
Harvest a tyres worth of fertilizer roughly every
6-8 weeks (during warm months)
Comments and
suggestions
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