Wonderful Urban Worms

Ruth has been busy with volunteers at the Phoenix Community Garden welcoming some of the best gardeners’ friends: wriggly worms!  A wormery is a great way of recycling your unwanted kitchen scraps when you live in an urban area and don’t have access to much outdoor space.  Here’s Ruth’s top tips for setting up a new wormery:

1. Allow worms to settle for 2 weeks before adding any compostable material
2. Add a handful of garden soil or homemade compost to bedding to add microorganisms
3. Initially just give a handful of food (raw kitchen scraps, etc) every other day, bury it under damp shredded newspaper to keep it moist & deter fruit flies
4. Position out of the sun & in winter insulate with bubble wrap
5. Worms need air: add plenty of egg boxes, damp, shredded paper & corrugated cardboard to trap air
6. Dry eggshells, crush & sprinkle; this gives them the grit they need & keeps alkalinity good
7. Avoid onions, garlic & citrus fruit, grass cuttings