worm bed/ composting question
 

hi- well it's been about 5 years since I posted here, I am just
getting started trying to reestablish my veggie garden. This time
rather than tilling up an entire yard ;-) I have made a raised bed- we
have had to get some new retaining walls, and the untreated sleepers
that we're replacing are perfect for this sort of thing.

Unfortunately, my veggie bed is in the top part of the yard, and the
dirt pile I'm filling it up with is in the bottom yard so it's going
to be a process of shifting a few barrows a day until it's full.
Which brings me to my question.

I've laid thick newspaper on the bottom of the new bed, and am dumping
dirt on it as I go. Would it be a stupid idea to also start burying
vegetable scraps up there? Maybe even under the newspaper layer?
Just that it's there and it would be so easy... the reality is I might
not get the bed filled with dirt til it's time to plant for spring, so
would using it as a worm bed/compost bed be a good idea or just plain
disgusting? Any suggestions?


Hope
Gosford NSW

g'day hope,

reckon i'd be getting some mushroom compost and adding it in as i go
get it from the farm or partly decomposed from some landscape centres.

aalso add anything like vegetable scraps and shredded pruning as you
go, you will need plenty of organic matter like the mushy and sredding
eetc.,. to keep the worms going. now having said all that the worms
aren't at their best in winter they tend to hyberbate a bit.

but if you sort of rough mix the dirt etc as you go that stuff will
break down by itself anyway, keep it covered with a good layer of
mulch hay, lift the hay each time you want to add more.

other things to consider cow, horse, sheep manure all will go to help.

len


snipped
--
happy gardening
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On Wed, 27 Apr 2005 17:21:05 +1000, len gardener
wrote:

g'day hope,

reckon i'd be getting some mushroom compost and adding it in as i go
get it from the farm or partly decomposed from some landscape centres.

aalso add anything like vegetable scraps and shredded pruning as you
go, you will need plenty of organic matter like the mushy and sredding
eetc.,. to keep the worms going. now having said all that the worms
aren't at their best in winter they tend to hyberbate a bit.

but if you sort of rough mix the dirt etc as you go that stuff will
break down by itself anyway, keep it covered with a good layer of
mulch hay, lift the hay each time you want to add more.

other things to consider cow, horse, sheep manure all will go to help.

len

thanks len, that's the kind of thing I was thinking of doing. I
wasn't sure if uncomposted food scraps should go in, but in they go
:-).

Just before I gave up my garden last time, I had about 10 bags of
unrotted chook poo stacked under the tree- well the bags have
decomposed and it's all turned into the most delicious black soil FULL
of worms- needless to say that was the first stuff that I shovelled
into the new bed- the worms gave me the idea of the food scraps.

good to see you still posting here :-)


Hope

One day Hope got dressed and committed to text

On Wed, 27 Apr 2005 17:21:05 +1000, len gardener
wrote:

g'day hope,

reckon i'd be getting some mushroom compost and adding it in as i go
get it from the farm or partly decomposed from some landscape
centres.

aalso add anything like vegetable scraps and shredded pruning as you
go, you will need plenty of organic matter like the mushy and
sredding eetc.,. to keep the worms going. now having said all that
the worms aren't at their best in winter they tend to hyberbate a
bit.

but if you sort of rough mix the dirt etc as you go that stuff will
break down by itself anyway, keep it covered with a good layer of
mulch hay, lift the hay each time you want to add more.

other things to consider cow, horse, sheep manure all will go to
help.

len

thanks len, that's the kind of thing I was thinking of doing. I
wasn't sure if uncomposted food scraps should go in, but in they go
:-).

Just before I gave up my garden last time, I had about 10 bags of
unrotted chook poo stacked under the tree- well the bags have
decomposed and it's all turned into the most delicious black soil FULL
of worms- needless to say that was the first stuff that I shovelled
into the new bed- the worms gave me the idea of the food scraps.

good to see you still posting here :-)


Hope

AFAIK the worms will enjoy packets of food scraps wrapped in newspapaper,
avoid citrus skins etc. Thats how I recall the feeding instructions from a
worm pack I once bought and put into our garden. Also AFAIK snail killer
pellets are also toxic to our "Garden Buddies".

--
Regards ..... Rheilly Phoull

On Thu, 28 Apr 2005 16:35:10 +0800, "Rheilly Phoull"
wrote:



AFAIK the worms will enjoy packets of food scraps wrapped in newspapaper,
avoid citrus skins etc. Thats how I recall the feeding instructions from a
worm pack I once bought and put into our garden. Also AFAIK snail killer
pellets are also toxic to our "Garden Buddies".


thanks, I'll leave citrus peels out of my worm-treats. I don't bait
or poison anything anyway so they're safe from that :-).

Is there a reason to wrap the scraps in newspaper?


Hope

Gosford NSW

One day Hope got dressed and committed to text

On Thu, 28 Apr 2005 16:35:10 +0800, "Rheilly Phoull"
wrote:



AFAIK the worms will enjoy packets of food scraps wrapped in
newspapaper, avoid citrus skins etc. Thats how I recall the feeding
instructions from a worm pack I once bought and put into our garden.
Also AFAIK snail killer pellets are also toxic to our "Garden
Buddies".


thanks, I'll leave citrus peels out of my worm-treats. I don't bait
or poison anything anyway so they're safe from that :-).

Is there a reason to wrap the scraps in newspaper?


Hope

Gosford NSW

Keeps it tidy :-) and the wrigglers soon get into the package. Other than
that I dont think theres any technical reason.

--
Regards ..... Rheilly Phoull

Hope wrote in
:

On Thu, 28 Apr 2005 16:35:10 +0800, "Rheilly Phoull"
wrote:



AFAIK the worms will enjoy packets of food scraps wrapped in
newspapaper, avoid citrus skins etc. Thats how I recall the feeding
instructions from a worm pack I once bought and put into our garden.
Also AFAIK snail killer pellets are also toxic to our "Garden
Buddies".


thanks, I'll leave citrus peels out of my worm-treats. I don't bait
or poison anything anyway so they're safe from that :-).

Is there a reason to wrap the scraps in newspaper?


Hope

Gosford NSW

I chuck just about everything into my worm bin (even though the
"instructions" gave me a big list of things not to include) and it doesn't
seem to be doing the little fellows any harm at all! They are quite happy
to eat onion, capsicum and chilli, citrus etc... That's my experience with
worms for what it's worth :)

To answer your question regarding newspaper, it provides a carbon source
for all that nitrogen that you're putting in - this, of course, speeds up
decomposition ("composting") which gives the worms more food more quickly.

HTH,

Ivan.

On 1 May 2005 07:19:01 +0800, Ivan
wrote:

Hope wrote in


I chuck just about everything into my worm bin (even though the
"instructions" gave me a big list of things not to include) and it doesn't
seem to be doing the little fellows any harm at all! They are quite happy
to eat onion, capsicum and chilli, citrus etc... That's my experience with
worms for what it's worth :)

To answer your question regarding newspaper, it provides a carbon source
for all that nitrogen that you're putting in - this, of course, speeds up
decomposition ("composting") which gives the worms more food more quickly.

ahhh ok that makes sense. There's a THICK layer of newspaper on the
bottom of the bed, maybe I'll wrap the scraps in a single layer of
paper and stick it under the thick layer.

These are just garden earthworms that have been attracted by the
organic stuff, they're not the special worms that you get in a worm
farm (as far as I know). SO I guess they'll eat what they want and
leave the rest... it's an open system after all. Thanks heaps for teh
tips.


Hope

On Sat, 30 Apr 2005 14:02:13 +0800, "Rheilly Phoull"
wrote:


Is there a reason to wrap the scraps in newspaper?

Keeps it tidy :-) and the wrigglers soon get into the package. Other than
that I dont think theres any technical reason.

ahh ok well I'll try it this way! Thanks.

Hope
who has a 50 kg bag of horse poo in her boot waiting to go in there
too...

Hope wrote:
On Sat, 30 Apr 2005 14:02:13 +0800, "Rheilly Phoull"

Hope
who has a 50 kg bag of horse poo in her boot waiting to go in there
too...

I hope it is 3 months or more since it has been in the horse.
Unfortunately, modern horse care includes regular worm treatments and
you need to let these break down before you use horse poo if you want to
keep your worms. I was told 3 months.

On Sun, 01 May 2005 13:10:47 +1000, Terry Collins
wrote:

Hope wrote:
On Sat, 30 Apr 2005 14:02:13 +0800, "Rheilly Phoull"

Hope
who has a 50 kg bag of horse poo in her boot waiting to go in there
too...

I hope it is 3 months or more since it has been in the horse.
Unfortunately, modern horse care includes regular worm treatments and
you need to let these break down before you use horse poo if you want to
keep your worms. I was told 3 months.


oh bugger.


Hope