Start a worm farm with your kids

Worm farming  

Starting a worm farm will divert waste from landfill and provide a constant supply of free, high-quality fertiliser for your garden.    

Choose a container

1. You can buy a ready-made plastic worm farm from the hardware store or your local council - or reuse old materials for even more recycling!

2. Polystyrene veggie boxes are a perfect solution. Ask at your local fruit and veggie shop or market. Most places will be happy to give you a couple.  

3. Punch some holes in the bottom of one of the boxes with a screwdriver. This will become the top box in the worm farm.  Line the inside base of this box with mesh or insect screening, to stop the worms falling through the holes.

4. In the box without holes (this will become the bottom box), punch a hole and put a small length of hose or a tap as close to the base as possible. You raise your box with bricks to make this a bit easier. This is to collect the precious worm wee. Place the top box (the one with all the holes in the base) onto the bottom box.

5.  Add bedding material (shredded newspaper and aged compost or manure) into the top box and spray with water to lightly dampen the contents. The box should be about ¼ full of the bedding material.

6. Time to get some worms!  Ordinary garden worms or earthworms are not suitable for worm farms and will die. You will need to buy composting worms which are readily available. Pop the worms in the top box, they will soon wriggle down into the bedding.

7. Cover the worm bed with newspaper or a piece of hessian to help maintain a nice constant temperature and moisture level in the bedding material. Place the lid of the box on the top.

8. Let the worms settle for a couple of days, then add some food scraps to the top box, under the hessian. Cut food into small pieces - this makes it easier for the worms to eat.

Food scraps can include:

• Fruit and veggie scraps (apart from citrus and onions)
• Grass clippings (lightly sprinkled)
• Autumn leaves (small amounts)
• Moist paper and cardboard
• Tea leaves and coffee grounds
• Crushed eggshells (these are excellent to help maintain the pH of the bedding)  

Avoid

• Citrus fruits
• Chilli
• Oily foods
• Meat, poultry, fish
• Dairy foods
• Vinegar or salad dressings
• Plants from the onion family (onions, garlic, shallots, leek)

Things to remember:  

• Worm farms should be positioned in a cool, dry space but not in the hot afternoon sun.   
• Raise your worm farm off ground with bricks or on a stand to avoid any moisture causing damage to the floor and easy access for rodents.
• Each day a worm will consume approximately it’s body weight in food. This means you can feed your worm farm a few handfuls every few days. Once it’s established and the worms are breeding, you can try feeding them more food.
• Worm farms process less food than a compost bin, so make sure you’re not overfeeding your worms. Uneaten food will begin to smell and attract unwanted pests.

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