Wormeries and snaileries for Compost Delight

If you have lots of kitchen waste, and the compost heap is at the other end of the garden, a wormery not far from the back door is a good idea – and you can give worms waste food that you shouldn’t put on the compost heap.

They will devour the scraps of old bread and biscuits that you might throw in the bin, as well as fish skin, left over bits of meat and old cheese. Just add everything in small amounts, chopped up, adding vegetable peelings, apple cores, tea bags and tea leaves, paper and cardboard. There should be a mix of a third paper and cardboard to food scraps.

The lid must be firmly closed on whatever type of wormery you use. There are various types on the market, ranging from the basic wheely-bin type to the stacked three or four tiered type which stands on its own integral legs. There are also large rotating types, on stands, but these are for community use – good for a school or standing by a village hall

Wormeries have a sump and drainage tap to catch the liquid that the worms produce, and it’s important to drain it off. It gives an excellent plant feed, diluted to ten parts of water, for house plants and other plants.

At some stage the bin, or one of the layers of the bin, needs to be emptied. This is a great soil enricher or if it is not quite at that stage, can be added to the compost heap or bagged compost from the garden centre.

You won’t get vast quantities of compost from a wormery, but it is a very good way to use up kitchen scraps and provide an alternative to the ordinary compost heap.

Snaileries

This is going a bit too far, you may think? Well, the champion of composting, organic gardening guru Bob Flowerdew is a firm believer in using everything at your disposal in the garden to keep soil fertility at its height.

He suggests using a plastic laundry basket as unlike worms, they like a more ventilated environment. It should have a lid or at least a covering. Put some broken pots in the bottom, add a bit of water, then add any snails you can find.

Feed them food waste just as you would the wormery, but only vegetable matter so that the snailery does not strongly attract vermin who could chew through the sides.

Any leafy materials, cabbage, lettuce and other salad foods are good, and add some torn up paper and cardboard. Crushed eggshells give them a source of calcium for their shells.

The snails will chomp away and produce droppings which will be a good soil improver. After turning out the snailery, putting the snails in another pot while you do so, then you can start all over again.

This might be one side of gardening that children will enjoy.

What to put in your wormery

• Crushed eggshells
• Tea leaves and tea bags (break them apart)
• Vegetable peelings, but not too much fruit or citrus, onions or lettuce
• Newspaper and cardboard – an Country Gardener when you have finished with it!
• Scraps of meat and fish, cheese, bread and biscuits