In article , Franz Heymann notfranz.
writes
Thanks for an interesting note. But my whole point is to try and find a way
of circumventing the maintaining and harvesting of a wormery by just letting
the worms do their job in the exact spot where I ultimately want the compost
to be.

About 6inches of compost seems to be a reasonable amount to add. 6
inches of mature compost equates to more like 2ft of kitchen scraps etc.
So what about building 2ft high mini compost heaps across where you want
the compost to be?

The best compost I ever made was when I lived in a cottage with only an
outdoor toilet. I dug a 2ft x 2ft x 1ft deep hole outside the back door,
and used to add to this daily potato peelings and other veg scraps,
about 3 pots worth of lapsang suchong tea leaves, and about half a
bucket of urine. It turned into dark sweet smelling friable compost
which a year later was full of beautiful clean little new potatoes.

I was told that the brandlings sold by fishing tackle skops would be just
what I need. Is that correct?

Yes, but there's enough in the soil, and they breed fast enough, for
merely adding compost ingredients to very soon get you an adequate
population. No need to spend money! (see url below).

I wonder if what you could do would be simply to layer the compost
ingredients thickly as a mulch? It wouldn't compost as quickly as in a
heap, and you wouldn't be generating the heat, but you would build up a
population of brandlings. You'd have to make sure that you didn't
include any roots or seeds, because they'd just take off and grow, but
if it was green stuff, grass cuttings, veg peelings, it should work,
though not be particularly attractive to look at. After all, it's the
same process that happens naturally under thick vegetation or in woods.

--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm