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.