September 2009 update

My worms were trying to escape from the bottom which is not a good sign. I thought they had plenty of chew over but they are unhappy. I took out the bottom layer which looks like very rich compost and put it on the courgette and an over wintering tomato (we have a south facing conservatory). I carefully put some new material on the bottom and returned the undigested 'stuff' to the top - sweet corn cobs and apples. But, they still tried to escape. Of course, escape means drowning because the bottom bucket has worm 'juice'.

I have now taken out everything again, put some soil, cardboard and fiborous material on the bottom, then a few of the things they really like plus more cardboard. I took out the soggy paper which didn't have any worms munching on it. Now I hope they will stay put and be happy.

Two friends have said that all their worms died so I feel lucky that I might have caught them in time.

18 May 2009

The worms are doing well - well, they aren't looking for an exit route through the holes in the bottom of the container. I realise that I need to have two compost bins in the kitchen - wormery and compost - since the worms don't like onions or citrus and we use a lot of both.

I can't remember if they like bananas so I'm keeping them out. However, I now compost cardboard - loo rolls into the wormery in small pieces, and other card in the compost after a thorough wetting.

I hanker after a bigger wormery that is a little less Heath Robinson and a bit easier to take apart and put together. To extract the wormery 'juice', I have to hold the top bit and gently prise the bottom container off with my foot, while wiggling the top. Not difficult, just a little cumbersome.

After the winter

I put my wormery near the compost heap for the winter and checked it last week. The worms were happy and there were lots of little, tiny ones, attacking the food waste. Success!