Humans have been polluting the earth for decades. We have dumped our wastes into the soil, rivers, seas and even the air. Environmentalists are encouraging everyone to do what they can to help save Mother Nature.
It doesn't have to involve something big like chaining yourself to a tree in the middle of the Brazilian rainforest, something as little as recycling and managing your household waste like food scraps goes a long way. A fun, environmentally friendly and cost effective way of getting rid of your food scraps is worm farming.
Worm what you ask? Worm farming or worm composting is the practice of feeding your organic wastes to worms to produce worm tea. Worm tea is the liquid produced during the composting process and is used as an environmentally safe fertilizer.
So you not only get rid of your organic wastes like food scraps, but you also get to make organic chemical free fertilizers for your gardens. Worm farming can be done both indoors and outdoors and is a good way for kids and adults alike to learn about nature, recycling and helping the environment.
So how do you start a worm farm? Before you go off and catch some worms here are a couple of basic things you should know about worm farming. First off you need to pick the site of where you want your worm farm to be. Remember that worms don't like the heat so make sure to pick a nice cool and shady spot for your worm farm.
Picking the ideal container is important in worm farming. You can buy commercially sold worm beds or farms or better yet you can recycle old boxes or even an old bathtub. The thing to remember is that the typical worm bed is around 30 centimetres deep, 60 centimetres wide and 90 centimetres long.
It is important to have holes in the base of the box to allow for good drainage and air circulation. The box should also have a lid to cover it with and a base underneath the box to catch liquid and provide good drainage. Remember that worms breathe through their skins so they need a lot of moisture but be careful as too much water will also drown your worms.
After you have your box and base set up, the third step to worm farming is preparing the bedding for your worms. Torn, or shredded paper mixed with compost and soil make for good worm beddings. Make sure that the bedding material is torn or shredded and then soaked in water before it is added to the box. The bedding layer should be ten to fifteen centimetres deep.
Now that your worm bed and bedding is ready its time to pick your worms, you can buy commercially sold worms. Worm farming has gotten to be very popular so you can even check the yellow pages under Worm Farm for distributors. Worms are usually sold by the thousands and a thousand worms would weigh about 250 grams. A good solid number to start your worm farm with is around two thousand worms.
When it comes to feeding your worms be sure to pick food scraps like vegetable and fruit peelings. They also like bread, juicer pulp, crushed eggshells, and even teabags. Never feed your worms dairy products, meat, fish, fat and bones. This type of food will also make your worm farm stink. Worm farming experts also advise you not to feed your worms oily foods, citrus and garlic.
Harvesting the fruits of your worm farming efforts is done in two simple steps: first, move the old bedding to one side of the box and then add fresh bedding to the other side. The worms will move on their own after a day or two. Make sure to harvest the liquid produced by the worms and their castings as they make great fertilizers.
Worm farming is an easy, fun and cost effective way to manage your food scraps, not to mention the money you save on fertilizers. So help save money and help save the environment today by starting your very own worm farm!
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