Deep winter and worms

I have put the wormery in the sheltered part of the garden, covered the top layer with cardboard and made sure that any worms which wanted to escape, had an opportunity to do so. Last year this worked fine and they were ready to start again in the spring. This year it's been COLD so I don't know what I'll find.

Why is this worth doing? Well, in August I took some tomato seedling orphans - you know, the ones that grow by themselves in the compost heap - and put them in a medium sized pot with almost pure worm castings. They went into our south facing conservatory and until the freeze in January, were producing flowers and tomatoes. Not a lot of tomatoes, but enough for my sandwiches once or twice a week. They are sweet too. I've been picking them as they look like they are changing colour and bringing them in the house to ripen.

The conservatory is unheated by the way. Warm in the sun and cold at night. I suspect that the brick keep the place heated by absorbing daytime heat and providing just enough background heat to keep it going.