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Now for something different!
Have you ever-considered worm composting? I
popped onto the stand of Wiggly Wigglers and
received some enthusiastic advice from David
Pitman. 
Did you know?
In the next 12 months an average kitchen will
produce somewhere in the region of 200 kilos
of organic waste. The average garden will produce
very much more.
What
to compost
Where
to compost
Why
worms?
What
sort of worm?
Why should I compost?
Organic waste is in reality a valuable raw material
that can be turned into a prime quality compost.
Composting is the best way to deal with organic
waste. It returns valuable organic matter to
the place it does the most good, the soil, in
the form, which it is best able to handle, compost.
Compost, as all gardeners know, brings fertility
to the earth—it improves structure, holds water
yet improves drainage, breaks up clays yet binds
sands; it is one of the essential building blocks
of good soil.
Some 30% of all household waste is organic and
can be recycled. If you just ‘throw away’ this
waste you are adding to the millions of tonnes
per year that is simply left to rot in landfill—and
paying your council for the privilege of transporting
too.
As this organic waste decomposes its potential
value is lost forever—whilst pollutants escape
into the air and seep into the water. Back
to top
What
should I compost?
Anything that has lived and died can be composted,
including kitchen waste such as vegetable peelings,
cooked food, garden waste such as lawn clippings,
animal waste such as horse manure, even dust
from your vacuum and packaging waste such as
cardboard! Back to top
Where
should I compost?
Different places for different wastes. An efficient
wormeries by the kitchen door will take care
of the household waste while a conventional
outdoor compost heap will handle the garden
waste.
The outdoor heap can also be enriched with composting
worms to turbo-charge its performance. Back
to top
Why
should I compost with worms?
Worms compost quickly - in fact they are the
fastest natural composters by far and can eat
half their own body weight in waste everyday.
Worms can compost very effectively in a very
small space (even indoors).
Worms stop smells - they compost the waste as
you add it and this prevents odours from building.
Worm casts are the "black gold" of compost.
They make a high quality fertiliser which is
rich, dark, friable and pleasant to handle.
Worms reduce the volume of your waste. In fact
8 bins of waste will probably be reduced to
1 bin of compost (and lots of liquid feed).
Worms are safe, hygienic and completely natural.
Worm composting produces two valuable products
- the compost itself and a liquid feed which
can be used all over your garden and houseplants.
Worms can compost types of waste not normally
used, such as cooked leftovers, wood shavings,
paper, dog hair and eggshells. (in the past
elephant dung has even been composted!)
Back to top
What sort of worms
do I need to compost?
There are many different types of animals with
the name worms, such as flatworms and mealworms,
but all the useful composting and garden worms
are earthworms, which are members of the phylum
Annelida.
There are more than 2000 species of earthworms
worldwide but, thankfully, you don’t need them
all! You will need several different earthworm
species for various applications but the find
the best for composting organic waste are ‘dendras’
(Dendrabaena veneta) and ‘reds’ (Eisenia andreii).
Around the world these composting worms are
also referred to as tiger worms, brandlings,
wigglers or surface litter worms.
The same composting worm species, reds and dendras,
are equally at home composting both kitchen
waste and garden waste. The other earthworm
species available the familiar garden worm Lumbricus
terrestris, familiarly known as the ‘lob’ worm.
Back to top
Who else is using worms
for composting?
The world! Worms are used to help compost all
sorts of waste in all sorts of locations. In
rural India worms are used in composting toilets,
making them much more hygenic. In Australia
4% of households are already worm composting
their kitchen waste at home.
Back to top
Hosta
hints
Passion
for peonies
Growing
Cymbidium orchids
Growing
Phalaenopsis orchids
Making
the most of clematis
Succeed
with Primula auricula
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