I've been looking forward to making a bath tub worm farm for ages, and when a fibreglass bath came up on Facebook marketplace, I was round there with a trailer in a shot. Then it was just a matter of convincing the husband to make a simple frame for it out of scrap wood.
It sits in place just behind the chicken coop, facing south - the cool, shaded side of the garden. It's conveniently located next to the garden shed, and I have the chicken's water underneath there with an outlet that goes through the tin into their coop, which utilises the space a bit better. This way, I can water the worms and fill up the chook water at the same time. Not only that, but it doubles up as a potting up table, with the potting mix in a bucket to the right, and the seed trays on a shelf underneath that.
After much reading about how to make a worm farm, I decided to go with Geoff Lawton's method in this video. Why? Because it was really simple, and if he reckons it works, I'm all good.
The first step was the screen - we cut up a seed tray to lay over the hole, with a brick on top, as per below. Later I came back and put some shade cloth under that as well - I could imagine the worms falling through into the water below, which of course didn't rest easy.
Then, as per Lawton's method, we half filled the bath with horse manure we got from a friend last week - a whole trailer load for free. When I say we, it was really Jamie, who enjoyed swearing at me that 'this would be a better way to work out your core than sitting watching me'. Ah, husband banter.
Then, in went the worms, complete with scraps, from the small plastic worm farm, and we watered them in.
I do love the ply lid, as it doubles up as my potting up table. I screwed a handle to it - it was a window fastener I found about 15 years ago in England, in a field, and had been trying to find a use for it ever since. One of those cute spirally things. I'd go get another photo but it's frosty outside!
One thing I wasn't sure about is the oxygen. Lawton doesn't mention it in the video, but in this site they talk about worm farming at Zaytuna, his farm, with pipe laid through with holes in it. That's easy enough and I can always put that in tomorrow, simply moving the manure to one side. In this method, Zaytuna actually doesn't use kitchen waste but human and animal manure - the kitchen scraps go to the chickens. Hm, more reading to do!
There's another way to do a bath worm farm - this diagram shows how.
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What's different to the Lawton method is the gravel and the the bedding. But, given Lawton's method seems to work, I couldn't see the point of sourcing gravel AND 'bedding'. Maybe this is an error on my part but it's not as if it'll be too hard to fix and adjust if, in a month or so, it doesn't seem to work in the way I want it to.
I'm really hoping his 'keep it simple' method works.
Because vermicost is meant to be extraordinary for your garden - its an incredible fertiliser and soil conditioner. I do love seaweed fertiliser but every time I buy it I feel uncomfortable - it comes in a plastic bottle. I could make it, but I also feel uncomfortable stealing seaweed from our already depleted oceans. I'd rather have alternatives that I can make on site for as little impact on the earth as possible - unless it's a positive impact!
How do you farm worms? What are your tips, tricks, methods?
Have you heard of the #earthdeeds challenge? All you need to do is write a short post about the small - and big - efforts you might be making in your day to day life that don't cost the earth. Read about it here. And don't forget @naturalmedicine curates earth healing posts in the curation by @artemislives each week, Earth Healing. It's one of my favourite curations on HIVE and worth checking out.
With Love,
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When I was small and we first moved to the country, about ¼ mile from the Canoochee River, where we had a cabin and swimming hole, my brother had the idea that people would flock to our place for the fishing (which WAS good before the pollution and deforestation ruined the water table)
He built a raised wooden platform, with sides of course. As I remember it, it was about 4x8x2 and filled with black earth. Great for the soil, not so good for profit and after about a year it collapsed. There was no treated lumber back then. (early 60's)
!ENGAGE 25
What a shame - that's always upsetting. Sounds like a dream - and a good memory, albeit a sad one too. Here's to forestation.
ENGAGEtokens.That's me on the bottom left of the stairs
Oh what a dream this was, you can still find spots where the water is flowing and relatively clean
We actually spent summers under that shelter, then daddy had the cabin built, where we lived while our HOUSE was being built
Thanks @riverflows
Awesome! I was talking just earlier this week with @bobydimitrov about how well worm beds will go with our rabbits! Rabbits poop into worm bin, worms make happy, fertile, nutritious (already really awesome fertilizer), little rabbit poops into something that's probably close to what God had in mind when he made the earth to be a fertile garden.
Also, if you throw potato peel into your worm bin, they'll sprout into free potato plants.
I was actually using some worms today to fish with the little one and was thinking of buying some just to put them in the dirt! They are wonderful for the soil, making a tub farm for them is an awesome idea!
I think he'd love it! They are actually special sorts of worms for compost - you might like to google it. And you can do small space ones in a bucket too!
The composting you are doing is much bigger scale compared to what we are doing in a tiny downtown apartment. We manure organic waste to use at plant fertilizer on a very small scale. Good luck with worm farming. This is definitely something I would like to take up if (and when) i own a house 😇
ra
I think you can do it in small buckets!! Or tall ones, with a very small surface area so they don't take up much space. You could probably even mount it on a wall! And they don't even need light, so you could do it in a utility room too... This one's pretty cute - you could definitely make your own!
https://theurbanworm.co.uk/product/20-litre-mini-worm-farm/
Ashamed to admit it, but when I garden I am still squeemish with worms. Don't want to touch them or see them.
I do like this method though, because you can feed the worms, cover it up, and walk away with fresh worm juice. I think the worms know how to tunnel and move about on their own to find the best spots to feed and breath.
Oh gosh! I can't even imagine, although I understand. I love picking them up and admiring them. Jamie thinks I'm hilarious - he hears me talking to them when I'm gardening. That, and the chickens.
Keeping my garden mulched. I've got thousands of worms in the gardens....
Send some my way! Working on my soil health should improve the worm situation...