big fat juicy ones, long thin curly ones...
...see how they wriggle and squirm!
Oh, excitement! My worm farm has arrived!
I've always been a dedicated composter. I always put together some kind of composting arrangement wherever I lived, even tiny little ones in the grounds of apartment buildings. When we first moved in here, we used the compost bin already in place - right up the very end of the backyard, in a most inconvenient corner of the carport. But then Mr CJ got sick, and by the time I caught up with dealing with that, I developed a prolapsed disc in my back and couldn't walk much at all for a while. Yes, yes, drama drama. One of the sad consequences of these particular difficulties was that I gave up the composting and resorted to the rubbish bin. It was just too much physical labour for us to cope with. And yes, I felt terribly guilty about it ever since.
Recently I read this blog post by a woman who lives in an apartment block and wished she could compost, but was concerned about the neighbours' reactions to such goings-on. I thought to myself, this lady needs a worm farm. Then I thought that it would be terribly hypocritical of me to comment on this lady's blog when I don't even have a worm farm myself. So I first went online and ordered a worm farm, and then went back and commented on that blog post.
Of course I started with a google search, and had a little look around at the websites selling worm farms. The one I liked the best was Kookaburra Worm Farms, based in Gin Gin, Queensland. It's a family owned and run business, and the thing I liked the best was that they have developed a worm farm that goes directly on your garden bed. The worms are free to wander through the whole garden and come back home for a feed or if it gets a bit cold out there. This means you never have to collect the vermicastings and spread them out over your garden - the worms will do all that for you as they wander about. All I have to do is give them food and make sure they are moist enough. This has got to be the very least labour-intensive composting option I have ever heard of.
I had no idea that you could send live worms through the mail. But, yes, you can - though not to the Northern Territory in the hot-weather-time months. Kookaburra Worm Farms send all their orders through Australia Post. The postie seemed a little bemused - I don't think he had previously realised that live worms could be sent through the mail, either.
The instructions were pretty simple. Put the box in your garden bed. Put in the worms.
Give them some food and make it nice and damp. I started them off on a layer of leaf litter mulch from around the yard, and some newspaper, and some bread crusts, which I cut up into little pieces, as recommended in the notes. Worms don't have teeth, you see.
Now I have a couple of kangaroo sausages left over in the fridge. They've been left over a day too long. Previously I would have just felt so awful putting them in the bin, feeling I've dishonoured the sacrifice made by the kangaroos, and wishing that we had a dog to eat them. Now I can just chop them up and feed them to the worms, and they will go back into the soil, and new things will grow, and the cycle of nature is restored. Oh, this feels so good.
Oh, nobody knows how much I love my worms...
Oh, excitement! My worm farm has arrived!
I've always been a dedicated composter. I always put together some kind of composting arrangement wherever I lived, even tiny little ones in the grounds of apartment buildings. When we first moved in here, we used the compost bin already in place - right up the very end of the backyard, in a most inconvenient corner of the carport. But then Mr CJ got sick, and by the time I caught up with dealing with that, I developed a prolapsed disc in my back and couldn't walk much at all for a while. Yes, yes, drama drama. One of the sad consequences of these particular difficulties was that I gave up the composting and resorted to the rubbish bin. It was just too much physical labour for us to cope with. And yes, I felt terribly guilty about it ever since.
Recently I read this blog post by a woman who lives in an apartment block and wished she could compost, but was concerned about the neighbours' reactions to such goings-on. I thought to myself, this lady needs a worm farm. Then I thought that it would be terribly hypocritical of me to comment on this lady's blog when I don't even have a worm farm myself. So I first went online and ordered a worm farm, and then went back and commented on that blog post.
Of course I started with a google search, and had a little look around at the websites selling worm farms. The one I liked the best was Kookaburra Worm Farms, based in Gin Gin, Queensland. It's a family owned and run business, and the thing I liked the best was that they have developed a worm farm that goes directly on your garden bed. The worms are free to wander through the whole garden and come back home for a feed or if it gets a bit cold out there. This means you never have to collect the vermicastings and spread them out over your garden - the worms will do all that for you as they wander about. All I have to do is give them food and make sure they are moist enough. This has got to be the very least labour-intensive composting option I have ever heard of.
I had no idea that you could send live worms through the mail. But, yes, you can - though not to the Northern Territory in the hot-weather-time months. Kookaburra Worm Farms send all their orders through Australia Post. The postie seemed a little bemused - I don't think he had previously realised that live worms could be sent through the mail, either.
The instructions were pretty simple. Put the box in your garden bed. Put in the worms.
Give them some food and make it nice and damp. I started them off on a layer of leaf litter mulch from around the yard, and some newspaper, and some bread crusts, which I cut up into little pieces, as recommended in the notes. Worms don't have teeth, you see.
Now I have a couple of kangaroo sausages left over in the fridge. They've been left over a day too long. Previously I would have just felt so awful putting them in the bin, feeling I've dishonoured the sacrifice made by the kangaroos, and wishing that we had a dog to eat them. Now I can just chop them up and feed them to the worms, and they will go back into the soil, and new things will grow, and the cycle of nature is restored. Oh, this feels so good.
Oh, nobody knows how much I love my worms...
That is seriously cool. And yes, you should name them all Bruce, just to keep it simple.
ReplyDeleteBruce it is then! Good choice, majikfaerie. I'm sure they will all grow and breed much more robustly than if I had named them Percival or Felicity.
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