How to start a worm farm | DIY Garden Projects | Gardening Australia

If you’ve dreamed of farm life but are a city dweller, don’t worry – Costa has some productive friends that can be farmed in the smallest of gardens: worms! Subscribe 🔔 http://ab.co/GA-subscribe
Worms are a vital part of any healthy garden. They turn our scraps and waste into high-quality food for plants so we can grow more.
There are different ways to harness this superpower and it all starts with a good garden set-up.

Set-up: You can buy purpose-made sets featuring rectangular plastic tubs that fit into a tower, circular versions and wheelie bins, or you can upcycle a couple of polystyrene boxes – or do as Costa has on his verge and repurpose an old bath.

Position: The main consideration is keeping them out of direct sunlight or strong prevailing winds, which will kill the worms.

Worms: The species used in farms typically live in the top layers of soil or in leaf litter, not deep underground, so you need to use the right worms, and reproduce these conditions.

Conditions: Worms need ample moisture and oxygen because they breathe through their skins. The top layer of your worm farm should be moist but not wet – the consistency of a moist sponge.

Food: diversity is the key. Can you include citrus? yes but not too much. You can also put the citrus into the freezer first, then when it’s defrosted for use in the farm, the cells will have broken down and made it easier for the worms to eat. But it’s best to avoid meat, dairy and other high-fat foods. Including some carbon – in the form of paper, or dry leaves – will help retain air pockets and stop the farm from getting too acidic.

Don’t overload your worms with food that will go off if not eaten – put out a small amount, check when it’s been all eaten and add more until you get an idea of how much your worms can eat.

Worms can eat half their body weight each day! But they have small mouths, so the smaller scraps are chopped, the easier it is for worms to eat, and the quicker they will eat it.

Worms actually grind the food in their stomachs, so including a bit of soil in your farm occasionally will help them grind it.

Warning signs: flies are a natural part of decomposition, but if you have too many it might be a sign there’s too much food for the worms. Covering the top with hessian can stop flies from laying eggs in the scraps. Spiders will be hunting the flies and could be a sign the pile is too dry. Ants will also be deterred by a moist farm.

Harvest: When your farm is full, you can harvest off the castings to use on your garden. Costa shows how to do this safely without hurting the worms.

1. Get your gloves on and lay some newspaper down on a table or a tarp on the ground 

2. Empty a tray or grab a pile of worms and castings on a table or flat surface, building it into a mound. The worms will instinctively want to escape the light and burrow down as deep as possible.  

3. Give them a few minutes and then take the leftover mix from the top without disturbing too many worms. 

4. Pop the worms back in the worm farm.

5. There are two ways to use castings – create a liquid application by making a slurry in a bucket of water or watering can (but take off the nozzle so bits don’t get stuck) and water your garden bed and pots. Or dig castings into a bed or pots you are preparing for planting. It’s worth noting, that this is not a complete fertiliser i.e. it doesn’t have high amounts of required nutrients, but generally has more than compost, so you don’t want to overuse it. 

 Worm wee: As food breaks down it also creates a nutrient-rich liquid. This leachate will collect along with water running through the system, under the worm farm or you might have one with a tap system. Dilute this to the colour of a weak tea and water into garden beds. This liquid can contain pathogens, so avoid applying it to edible or young plants. 

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