Frugal Living Tips

Worm Farming

by Reine
(CapeTown, South Africa)

Black wormery in back ground

Worm Farming is fun, frugal, educational and very GREEN. Before starting, know that you can source earth worms. The ones I have are known as red wrigglers. You can either buy a worm kit home for them or you can make your own. There are 100s of web sites giving information about this. Then start your farm.

Living in South Africa, I have one. I feed them kitchen waste in the form of carrot ends, veggie peelings, fruit peelings, veggies and fruit that are beyond edible. When there is not enough waste, I feed them edibles from the garden like honeysuckle leaves and flowers, and excess herbs. They also eat newspaper and cardboard like egg boxes and corrugated cardboard. The less contaminants in the paper and cardboard the better.

I started my worm farm with a worm kit in the form of a three tier tray system, with wrigglers and bedding. The farm is now six months old. There are thousands of worms. It produces worm tea daily and has extended to the second working tray two months ago. The first working tray is waiting to be used in the rest of my garden as very nutritious compost.

Worm farming is not about instant gratification. It is a fairly slow process. It is very rewarding, easy to do and beneficial for your garden.