Reboot!

Last time I mentioned that the wormery had become anaerobic and I tried to resolve the situation by adding new material and mixing thoroughly. Well, as I suspected, the worm colony remained in bad shape so I've resorted to more drastic action. Last week I emptied out the entire contents onto a plastic sheet and hosed out the wormery. There was a thick, soggy and evil smelling layer at the bottom. Many of the mature worms had died and it became clear that the environment was far too wet. I recognised material that I'd added many months ago that hadn't even started to compost, including some egg shells that I put in last May. Anyway, I sifted out about a dozen small worms that appeared to be alive and well, added fresh bedding material and waste, some lime mix and shredded newspaper; in short, I started again. I'm waiting to see if the colony recovers and leachate production starts again. My advice is to add plenty of dry material (newspaper shreddings) with each batch of fresh stuff and to mix everything up on a regular basis. Trust your nose, too. Bad smells are an early sign of trouble.

Spring Is Here!

Well, after the worst winter for decades it would appear that spring has finally arrived. I've decided to move the wormery out of the greenhouse and onto a pile of bricks at the end of the garden. I must admit that when I opened the lid at the weekend, I was rather shocked. Sure, there were plenty of worms in and around the lid but the contents looked awful. The bottom third was a soggy mess and smelt disgusting. I removed the putrefied goo, added lots of fresh organic material and paper shreddings along with a good handful of lime. I've given everything a really good mix and left the tap open to improve air circulation. I also noticed that the leachate smelt bad too - a sure sign that the contents had gone "anaerobic." I'm hoping that the worms will be alright but only time will tell. During the cold winter I didn't mix up the contents because I thought it would chill the core of the wormery, which is a bad thing. It looks like you still need to move material about even when it's really cold. Lesson learned.

Worm Check, One Two.

Just thought I'd let you know that, despite the cold weather, my little wormery guys are still alive. In the autumn, I moved them into the greenhouse and made a sort of lagging jacket out of a cardboard box and some bubble wrap. I also made a "hat" out of more bubble wrap and a plastic tray to keep everything in place. Well, it's done the trick. I'm still getting leachate, albeit in rather smaller quantities than in the summer and I'm feeding them around half the amount of kitchen waste. I'm still adding lime mix at the rate of a handful every four weeks that seems to work for me. I'm quite optimistic that they'll survive until the spring provided that we don't have another winter like 1963. Fingers crossed.