| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| fallscrape |
WormeryI've been donated a wheely bin by my parents - it's part of a failed council initiative to collect green waste. Originally you put all compostable material in it, it was picked up at the kerb and job done. But it was too expensive or the compost couldn't be used by gardeners or something so they stopped it.That meant the bins were abandoned at all properties by the council, though they did pick them up for recycling. Not sure what happened to them after that, but we kept ours because we were on hols when they came round. So it's been sitting there for ages with grass cuttings etc in it and has eventually composted down into some nice soil which I've added to my heap. The empty bin however is in excellent condition. I'm thinking: Drill a hole in the bottom of the bin (on the side close to the bottom) and add a tap - then fill it with thick gravel to aid drainage. Put a wholy bit of wood on top and cover in thick well rotted mulch as bedding, add worms from fishing shop - I think they do small red wrigglies which are good for composting) and then add some cut veg under wet newspaper. Then just top up with anything and everything from the house (cardboard, egg boxes, fruit cuttings and teabags etc). Just wondering whether this'll be insulated enough to keep the worms nice and warm during the winter - I have no shelter in my allotment and it'd be nice to keep them going. Can I put things like pizza crusts and other cooked stuff in it? We're mainly vegetarian (rarely have any meat waste - I only generally eat bacon and none is left over for worms!) |
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| Mr BlueSky |
I have a worm bin which has been on the go for a couple of years. They have not had any insulation except for the layer of hay I put in there from time to time. They don't seem to mind. They just slow down in the winter and then breed like rabb.. erm worms when it warms up.
There is a great site somewhere on DIY wormbins. I will try and dig it out. |
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| cab |
Looked into the wormery this morning, two of mine seemed to be 'at it'. Has to be a sign that they're settling in okay, I'd have thought.
Dunno whether they're really making a good job of composting anything yet, and there has been barely a drop of moisture in the bottom from the first few weeks. |
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| Mr BlueSky |
Really?  And I thought they were wormaphrodites
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| dougal |
I'm going to stick my neck out and say that IMHO a wheelie bin is UNlikely to make a good wormery.
The ideal setup for a wormery is going to be where you can have continuous (rather than batch) production. This is done by either working round a wide but shallow box, or in the commercial kits, by having a stacking arrangement (taking off full boxes from the base and once emptied, returning them to the top of the stack. With the very deep shape of a wheelie bin, the stuff at the base is going to be very compacted before you tip everything out (as you'd have to) to get to the good stuff. I'm not sure what the best use for such a bin might be. I'd suspect it might just be to have the coloured top changed (here we have identical bins but with green or brown tops)... ... but maybe a waterbutt? (with bowser potential?) but it seems the wrong configuration (and enormous) for a wormery. |
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| Mr BlueSky |
There was a really good tutorial on how to make a wormery on a budget out of four standard B&Q tubs with the bottoms cut out and a fine mesh fixed in place. I found the link but it is no longer active. 
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| dougal |
Can you find it in Google's cache? (or it may be that the same content has been reposted at a different address.) If you know specifically what you're looking for, you're the best to find it! 
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| fallscrape |
Having red several articles this morning I don't see any problem with it - if I want to seperate the worms out, you stick them on a sheet during daylight and they bury themselves, so you skim the top and heypresto, worms back in the bin.
I did consider using it as a waterbut - I'm getting a greenhouse as well. I have a fair bit of kitchen waste however and need compost quicker than traditional compost bins supply it! The other problem is money - I just can't afford to spend any more of it! |
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| fallscrape |
if you've got it book marked, paste the link here or stick it into the wayback machine on archive.org - that'll have cached pages going back years! | ||||
| cab |
Most hermaphoridites can do it alone, but most prefer to do it with someone else. Worms go top-and tail, secrete slime, swap spermatozoa and happily go off and lay eggs. |
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| JB |
You could try the bokashi composters
or then again maybe not |
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| Mr BlueSky |
Hey Mr DJ... Here is the original link: http://www.troubleatmill.com/wormbin.htm See if you can find a cached version of the page. |
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| dougal |
Ta-ra http://web.archive.org/web/20061004171800/http://www.troubleatmill.com/wormbin.htm |
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| Mr BlueSky |
How the flip do you do that.
Elvis is in the house!!! |
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| fallscrape |
shame half the images are missing - I wish archive.org wasn't so flakey sometimes! | ||||
| fallscrape |
http://www.instructables.com/id/EHII4ZKZN5EPH67CKF/?ALLSTEPS
may be of some interest. |