How to: Worm Composting

Vermicomposting, aka worm composting, is easy to do at home! Here’s a great little run-down just in time for Compost Awareness Week.

The worms farms we sell at our City Farm Nursery are the Tumbleweed Can-o-Worms. They come with the legs, tap, and worm bedding made of coco coir inside. For other brands or DIY worm farms, you may need to purchase the coir bedding separately.

To set up:

Position your worm farm in a protected, shaded area, so the system doesn’t become too hot or too cold.

Then, add some yummy food scraps and your compost worms, give it a light water to keep the worms moist, cover with a blanket or cardboard on top – and voila, you’ve got yourself a worm farm! Continue adding your food scraps and carbon material like shredded paper – up to 250 grams every few days is usually good. Just be sure to avoid adding any meat, onion, or citrus.

Once your top layer is completely full, empty the tray below of any worm castings that have fallen through and spread them on your garden – including in pot plants, as it’s full of nutrients. (Tip – when emptying worm castings onto your garden, pick out any remaining worms and pop them back in the worm farm).

Rotate the second empty tray to the top to add more food scraps and move the full top tray down for the worms to finish breaking down the rest.

Begin adding your food scraps to the new top tray. Some of the worms that are now in the second tray will start to move up to the top tray. Eventually the second tray will be completely processed into worm castings to use in the garden.

Repeat to keep turning your waste into garden gold. It’s really as easy as that!

You can also use the tap on the bottom tray to pour the worm juice tea into a watering can. Dilute approx. 1 litre of worm tea to 10 litres of water and use it as a liquid feed on your garden for added plant nutrients.

Happy Worm Composting!
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P.s. Don’t forget, if you’re a Brisbane resident, you can get up to $100 back on any compost bin or worm farm purchase by applying for the Brisbane City Council Compost Rebate.