My husband is a very keen gardener and has a large compost heap. He has our
large garden and 2 allotments. I thought it might be a good idea to buy him
a wormery for christmas. Will it be of use to him or will it be too small
for him to be interested in and I will have wasted my money?

Any ideas would be gratefully recieved.

The message
from "Pauline Jones" contains these words:

My husband is a very keen gardener and has a large compost heap. He has our
large garden and 2 allotments. I thought it might be a good idea to buy him
a wormery for christmas. Will it be of use to him or will it be too small
for him to be interested in and I will have wasted my money?

Probably the latter. I think most people who choose wormeries see them
as a mini tidy effortless alternative to a proper compost heap.They
create a small amount of potting compost and liquid fertiliser. As he
needs, and already makes, large amounts of compost to feed his soil, he
probably won't really want or need a wormery.

Janet.

On Sun, 10 Nov 2002 15:25:05 -0000, "Pauline Jones"
wrote:
My husband is a very keen gardener and has a large compost heap. He has our
large garden and 2 allotments. I thought it might be a good idea to buy him
a wormery for christmas. Will it be of use to him or will it be too small
for him to be interested in and I will have wasted my money?

Any ideas would be gratefully recieved.


aha, one of my specialised boring subject (to rant on about at partied when no one
else is interested usually!)

Wormeries are different to compost bins in that they will take cooked food (no risk of
rats) and even fish bones. They also get through cardboard and newspaper. Mine
is outside the kitchen door and this makes it easy to feed.

But the best bit is that a liquid is produced by the worms that can be diluted and
used as an insectiside and a fertilizer. I got about 10litres of the stuff last year, from
the ordinary wiggly wormers grey bin. You also get lovely compost every year.

I hope he enjoys it if you get him one.

teapot

My wife got all enthusiastic about wormeries a couple of years ago. We used
to feed it devotedly with kitchen waste, but it was a pain to keep draining
off the excess liquid. The worms got waterlogged!

We had gallons of liquid fertiliser which I used on the allotments. Didn't
seem to do much good (as Which? also reported). We dispensed with the
wormery and put the remaining worms into our two "Dalek" compost bins. They
thrive there and make beautiful compost without the wormery hassle. We put
garden waste, kitchen waste and loads of shredded paper in. We did have an
infestation of rats last year, which needed lots of rat poison and we try
not to put meat in the bins now.

My conclusion: buy your hubbie a nice "Dalek" and some lovely worms from the
local fishing tackle shop.

Ed

"teapot" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 10 Nov 2002 15:25:05 -0000, "Pauline Jones"

wrote:
My husband is a very keen gardener and has a large compost heap. He has
our
large garden and 2 allotments. I thought it might be a good idea to buy
him
a wormery for christmas. Will it be of use to him or will it be too
small
for him to be interested in and I will have wasted my money?

Any ideas would be gratefully recieved.


aha, one of my specialised boring subject (to rant on about at partied
when no one
else is interested usually!)

Wormeries are different to compost bins in that they will take cooked food
(no risk of
rats) and even fish bones. They also get through cardboard and newspaper.
Mine
is outside the kitchen door and this makes it easy to feed.

But the best bit is that a liquid is produced by the worms that can be
diluted and
used as an insectiside and a fertilizer. I got about 10litres of the
stuff last year, from
the ordinary wiggly wormers grey bin. You also get lovely compost every
year.

I hope he enjoys it if you get him one.

teapot

my wormery has a tap at the bottom for draining. Haven't tried it as
fertilizer yet, but surprising how much liquid it sheds


"Edmund Greening" wrote in message
...
My wife got all enthusiastic about wormeries a couple of years ago. We
used
to feed it devotedly with kitchen waste, but it was a pain to keep
draining
off the excess liquid. The worms got waterlogged!

We had gallons of liquid fertiliser which I used on the allotments. Didn't
seem to do much good (as Which? also reported). We dispensed with the
wormery and put the remaining worms into our two "Dalek" compost bins.
They
thrive there and make beautiful compost without the wormery hassle. We put
garden waste, kitchen waste and loads of shredded paper in. We did have an
infestation of rats last year, which needed lots of rat poison and we try
not to put meat in the bins now.

My conclusion: buy your hubbie a nice "Dalek" and some lovely worms from
the
local fishing tackle shop.

Ed

"teapot" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 10 Nov 2002 15:25:05 -0000, "Pauline Jones"

wrote:
My husband is a very keen gardener and has a large compost heap. He
has
our
large garden and 2 allotments. I thought it might be a good idea to
buy
him
a wormery for christmas. Will it be of use to him or will it be too
small
for him to be interested in and I will have wasted my money?

Any ideas would be gratefully recieved.


aha, one of my specialised boring subject (to rant on about at partied
when no one
else is interested usually!)

Wormeries are different to compost bins in that they will take cooked
food
(no risk of
rats) and even fish bones. They also get through cardboard and
newspaper.
Mine
is outside the kitchen door and this makes it easy to feed.

But the best bit is that a liquid is produced by the worms that can be
diluted and
used as an insectiside and a fertilizer. I got about 10litres of the
stuff last year, from
the ordinary wiggly wormers grey bin. You also get lovely compost every
year.

I hope he enjoys it if you get him one.

teapot

oxymel of squill wrote:
my wormery has a tap at the bottom for draining. Haven't tried it as
fertilizer yet, but surprising how much liquid it sheds


A few years ago (must be 10 if not more) There was a recycling place
somewhere near Folkstone\Hawkinge in Kent that was advertising for
kitchen waste.
Further enquiries revealed that they paid £1.50 a litre for Worm juice.

I would recomend getting a wormery that has multi layers, such as the
'can o worms', this would make harvesting finnished compost alot
easier, as in a dustbin style wormery, you have to dig out the top
section of rotten stuff, to get to the soggy compost at the bottom,
also the worms should have more of a surface area to do there work,
and more air.
I have a few wormeries, one of which is just a regular 250 litre
large black composting bin, i blocked off the bottom with a plastic
bag, and put some twigs ontop of that, then a perforated plastic bag
onto of that, the effluent now collects on the bottom layer, and keeps
the compost from getting water logged. this bin has become filled in a
year with food waste and grass cuttings. So i would sugest a can o'
worms for easy use, and a very large composter for garden waste, the
composter has been a excellent breeding ground for worms, as there are
stacks of them. large composter cost about £15, and a can o worms
costs £60 ish, but there are cheaper ones of a similar design.