Guest article from Heather Gorringe at Wiggly Wigglers

Worm composting – is it worth the effort?

Well,  I am a bit biased! I’ve been worm composting for 21 years…

They’re great at food waste…

Each year an estimated 8.3 million tonnes of food is thrown away by households in the UK and this costs the average family with children £680 a year! Definitely time to reduce our buying habits and increase what we use ourselves before we ever let the worms get munching!

You can make your own wormery (there’s lots of information online) or buy a complete kit.

Here’s a few tips to ensure success.

•           Wormeries work best with kitchen scraps such as vegetable peelings.
•           Worms like variety. Don't give them too much of any one thing!
•           A wormery is usually too small to process large quantities of garden waste.
•           Don't add too much citrus peel, or meat and fish scraps.
•           Rabbit, dog and cat hairs all work well in your wormery.
•           Don't add more waste until the previous addition has begun to be composted.
•           Keep the waste covered to discourage fruit flies (or wrap it in a bit of newspaper).
•           Don't allow the bin to get too hot or dry out.
•           Mix in some shredded cardboard from time to time to ensure your compost is not too wet.

Using your compost and liquid feed.

Your worm casts are really rich and often referred to as black gold. Use as a fertiliser under your beans and veg, use as a  top dressing, or make your own potting compost using 25% worm casts as the base. Mix your liquid feed one part feed with ten parts water.

A worm composter does need a little TLC,  and is certainly not a waste disposal machine… - but they are much more fun to watch in my view and the World’s fastest natural composters!