Worm Farming and Composting at Home
Presenter: Neville Passmore
One of the things we can all do to improve the productivity of our soil and at the same time reduce the rubbish bin load from the house is to recycle waste.
Neville visits an education based farm school that introduces kids as well as grown ups to animals and food growing in soil that has been enriched with compost and earth worm activity.
Earth worms are really hard working little critters, you never hear them complain and you can actually feed them on a mixture of scraps from the kitchen or from the garden. They will eat their own body weight in around about 2 days, which means they will eat through all your scraps in no time!
The product of their labour is a lovely chocolaty soil, called ‘worm castings’. It has all the plant nutrients that your plants need which makes it fantastic to put around the garden that all your plants will thrive on!
Another method that works to break down living waste material is composting. Instead of worms you make use of microbes which in nature are responsible for breaking down dead trees right down to fine leaves, they do the lot!
Fast burn compost roller bins can cut the time to compost to a few weeks. Pile layers of grass clippings, shredded paper and chipped tree wastes into the bin. The trick is to get the combination of ingredients right so it is not too soggy or dry. You need about 3 of the green ingredients to about 1 of the dry, and get the air into the mix by turning every day, or more if you can.
Good compost microbes thrive on oxygen and they can’t get too much. If your compost gets soggy and smelly it usually means the anaerobic or non air breathing microbes are at work which is definitely not desirable!
A reason why your compost may stall and not be up to scratch could be because the scraps that you are putting in are too large. To make your jobs easier when breaking them up get some of the worlds best garden tools onto the job. Fiskars secateurs and hedge trimmers are terrific for reducing the particle size down which will get things moving in your compost bin again.
Apply the compost ideally under the soil where it helps hold moisture in sandy soils and improves drainage in heavy soils. Compost, it is mother natures way of turning rubbish into great garden news, it is simple to do, cheap, gives you a little bit of exercise and is one of life’s little miracles.
Products
Fiskars PowerGear® Hedge Shears
Fiskars PowerGear ® ByPass Pruner Medium
One of the things we can all do to improve the productivity of our soil and at the same time reduce the rubbish bin load from the house is to recycle waste.
Neville visits an education based farm school that introduces kids as well as grown ups to animals and food growing in soil that has been enriched with compost and earth worm activity.
Earth worms are really hard working little critters, you never hear them complain and you can actually feed them on a mixture of scraps from the kitchen or from the garden. They will eat their own body weight in around about 2 days, which means they will eat through all your scraps in no time!
The product of their labour is a lovely chocolaty soil, called ‘worm castings’. It has all the plant nutrients that your plants need which makes it fantastic to put around the garden that all your plants will thrive on!
Another method that works to break down living waste material is composting. Instead of worms you make use of microbes which in nature are responsible for breaking down dead trees right down to fine leaves, they do the lot!
Fast burn compost roller bins can cut the time to compost to a few weeks. Pile layers of grass clippings, shredded paper and chipped tree wastes into the bin. The trick is to get the combination of ingredients right so it is not too soggy or dry. You need about 3 of the green ingredients to about 1 of the dry, and get the air into the mix by turning every day, or more if you can.
Good compost microbes thrive on oxygen and they can’t get too much. If your compost gets soggy and smelly it usually means the anaerobic or non air breathing microbes are at work which is definitely not desirable!
A reason why your compost may stall and not be up to scratch could be because the scraps that you are putting in are too large. To make your jobs easier when breaking them up get some of the worlds best garden tools onto the job. Fiskars secateurs and hedge trimmers are terrific for reducing the particle size down which will get things moving in your compost bin again.
Apply the compost ideally under the soil where it helps hold moisture in sandy soils and improves drainage in heavy soils. Compost, it is mother natures way of turning rubbish into great garden news, it is simple to do, cheap, gives you a little bit of exercise and is one of life’s little miracles.
Products
Fiskars PowerGear® Hedge Shears
- PowerGear® technology doubles your cutting power
- Sharp precision blades
- Non-stick coated blades
- Lightweight, durable Nyglass® handles
- Hardened steel blades
- 9" blades
- Overall length: 22"
Fiskars PowerGear ® ByPass Pruner Medium
- Hassel free replaceable blade, no tools required
- PowerGear(r) design doubles your cutting power
- Ultra hardened steel blade with non-stick coating
- Adjustable handle opening size
- Bypass blade for clean cuts on green growth
- Ergonomic design comfortably fits all size hands 3/4" cutting capacity
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