Friday, April 24, 2009

See what you get from having worms in your...




Not very often I give myself a pat on the shoulder. Today, I gave myself more than one pat on my shoulder. The first pat is for the successful harvest of these lovely organic grown hot chillies from my backyard and the second one is for disposing my food waste or kitchen scraps in an efficient and convenient way from my verandah. Thanks to my worm farm for making this possible. I only started this composting method last year, by using the worms which are nature’s own recyclers to convert my food waste into nutrient rich 100% organic fertiliser that my potted plants, herb garden and vegetables plots strive. Most important of all, I have contributed to the reduction of garbage at my local municipal land fill, by reducing the amount of waste I throw away.





I bought this worm farm kit form the local hardware store last March. For the uninitiated few, let me briefly describe the worm farm. The worm farm consists of four trays. The bottom tray is a collector tray which has a solid base to collect liquid fertilizer that drains from the upper levels of the system. You can collect the liquid fertilizer by draining it out from the tap and use it as it comes or dilute with water.





The worms are started off in the first tray by using bedding material which can be made from sawdust, coir, newspapers, manure and dry cuttings from the garden. Worm do not like direct light so enhance the “settling in” process by leaving the lid opened for a while till no worms are visible which have been placed there. They then simply eat their way up, wriggling into the tray above where they can detect the food above which have been placed there. By the time the top tray is full; most worms have left the first tray where they began which had the initial bedding material. You can now take out this tray, remove the worm casting (poo) and then return it to the top again.







Thus the cycle is never ending, and you will have a convenient, natural and efficient way to dispose of your food waste, while at the same time ensuring a constant supply of your very own 100% organic fertiliser.


6 comments:

  1. My parent in law used to do this too. They use the compose for their vegetables farm, the result is most rewarding one..I will beg some of this compose from them later, my garden soil is not so fertile, I tried to plant some pak choy last year but were eaten by worms, don´t know why. Here´s a pat from me..JIA YOU!

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  2. Hi Uncle Phil

    After seeing the worm farm at your place, I have been asking my friends and colleagues, to my surprise so far none of them has one. You should deserve than a pat for this green action.

    Cheers
    Lim

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  3. Hi Estee,
    Yes, Jia U, Jia U, Jia U... to make our carbon footprints smaller.
    Cheers

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  4. Hi Lim,
    Let's get everyone to start a worm farm from here. I"ll give you some worms once you are ready.
    Cheers

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  5. Hi Uncle Phil,
    I came across your blog from Estee's (Asian living in Sweden). Thanks for sharing your interesting articles. I look forward to following your blog.

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  6. Hi Charming,
    You are most welcome. It's a two way traffic. I only contributed 50%. You guys make it to a 100%. Thanks for letting us to include you in our circle of newfound friends.
    Cheers

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