Expert Advice

Castings – or worm poo - are great for plants in your garden or in pots.

Before you plant, dig small amounts of castings around the drip line of your fruit trees, or in your veggie garden beds and pots.

Drain the worm juice from your worm farm every week and dilute it 1 part worm juice to 10 parts water, then pour it around the base of your fruit, vege and flower plants – now, watch them come to life over the coming months!

The great news is that worms love spring – its not too cold or too hot – in fact it’s the perfect season!

As it gets warmer, the first thing they’re going to do is become more active. They’ll want to eat more which means they’ll produce more castings for your garden – and that’s just as well because rich worm tea is what your garden needs right now to get the fruit and veges flourishing!

To get the most from your composting worms, increase the amount and variety of scraps you add to your worm farm and add some extra Worm Conditioner to boost the nutritional value. Water the farm every week – that way you’ll produce the worm tea your garden needs!

If you’ve moved your worm farm to a sunny spot for the winter, now is the time to move it back into the shade – a worm farm will warm up quickly in the sun and your worms will suffer – they enjoy an environment that’s around 18-25 deg C.

Finally, check the condition of your worm blanket – with warm dry weather just around the corner, a good blanket will help keep the moisture in.

Spring is a wonderful time to use the compost that you’ve been preparing through the year, but first of all you need to make sure it’s ready to go.

The first thing to do is start a new compost heap – that way you’ll leave the existing one to mature! Then get out your ‘Compost Mate’ spiral-mixing tool and mix the old one every week – that will speed up decomposition.

As the days warm up, the microbes and worms in your compost will become more active, so they’ll need some extra nutrition. Add some extra ‘Compost Conditioner’ and a few handfuls of chicken or cow manure each week.

It’s also important to protect your compost from drying heat. Cover it up with a Tumbleweed circular Can-O-Worms blanket, a hessian sack or an old woollen jumper.

How do I know when my compost is ready?

Your compost will be ready when it’s a rich dark colour and the organic matter is completely broken down.  You’ll notice it has a beautiful earthy smell.

Use your Compost Mate to pull the most mature compost from the bottom of the pile then spread it over your garden beds and dig it in. Now its ready to plant!

PS… If you don’t have a ‘Compost Mate’ already, I suggest you get one! They are ‘the best thing since sliced bread’, for mixing, aerating, and speeding-up your compost!

Those small flies are called vinegar flies or Drosophila melanogaster and they indicate that there is not enough oxygen in your organic waste for aerobic decomposition.

When your organic waste doesn’t have the oxygen it needs to decompose effectively, microbes called anaerobes become active and multiply. They give off gasses that attract Vinegar flies.

How can I get rid of them?

You need to get more oxygen into your compost to encourage aerobic decomposition of the organic waste.

Rotate your tumbler every day.

Aerate the waste by mixing equal volumes of carbon material (fine woody mulches, and small twiggy leaf litter), with richer nitrogen/protein materials (food scraps, manures, fresh grass clippings).

The contents of your tumbler may have become too acidic. Sprinkle a good dusting of Tumbleweed Worm Farm and Compost Conditioner into the tumbler every two or three weeks. Being alkaline, the conditioner will help maintain the correct pH and minimise anaerobic activity.

Regularly empty the mixed ingredients from your tumbler and allow it to ‘mature’ in a compost bin on the ground.

Happy Tumbling!

Yes you can add bread to your compost but please note:

Bread is very attractive to rodents, so it is essential to put a 'rodent exclusion' system at the base of your compost bins. 

Get a flat piece of galvanised tin sheeting and cut a circular piece with a diameter larger than the base of your compost bin. Drill 40 or 50 holes in the tin sheet so that water can drain out and worms can come into the heap from the soil. Aeration is a key to good composting. Also try and break the pieces of waste bread up into small pieces so they decompose more quickly.

Remember "Variety is the Spice of Life" so ensure that you are putting in lots of other different organic matter in with the bread waste.  Happy Composting.  Pete rutherford

Composting earthworms, our ‘soil-making’ friends, are cold blooded. That means the temperature of their environment affects their body temperature. 

Ideally you need to keep their bedding at around 18-25 deg C. If it drops below that, your worms will cool down, then slow down and eat less food.

It’s easy to keep your worms warm and comfortable during winter by managing their environment.

Here’s what to do…

Move your worm farm to a sheltered spot to avoid drafts. If possible, find a position that captures morning sun…. consider a closed-in veranda, garage, cellar – even under or inside your house.

Make sure the ‘bedding tray’ is full – that’s the one that holds your compost/rich soil under the feeding tray. You could even add an extra tray of ‘bedding’ because these trays help keep out the cold and maintain a more even temperature.

Use at least one ‘worm blanket’ on the surface of your feeding tray then place a blanket or bags or something similar that ‘breathes’, over the top of the entire worm farm.

When doing your weekly worm farm flush, use warm water (20-25deg C) - but NEVER HOT!

In very cold climates where freezing occurs, some people dig a hole in the ground, and place the entire worm farm into the hole. Then they cover the surface with a layer of straw or dry leaves that is at least 200mm thick. Luckily, in Australia there are very few of us who need to resort to these measures!

As you can see, it’s pretty easy to keep your worms warm in the winter – and in doing so, keep them active and producing rich worm tea!

Thanks for your question David, I’m often asked whether it’s a good idea to put pet poo into a worm farm.

I recommend that you don’t!

There are two main reasons

1. There are diseases in pet poo that can transfer to humans. So, if you put pet poo in your worm farm and the poo does not completely mix and process, those diseases will be held in the worm castings. When you use the worm castings to feed your fruit trees or vegetable plantings, the pet poo diseases will transfer via the soil into your plants. Then, when you eat the fruit or vegies, you could contract the disease…Although the risk is slight, its well worth avoiding!

2. Composting worms like to eat organic scraps like lettuce leaves, melons, carrot and pumpkin, etc. If your worms are already being fed plenty of food scraps they will probably leave the pet poo to slowly decompose on its own.

So, what can you do with your pet poo?

Put the pet poo into a well mixed and well managed compost system or bury it in a hole in the ground at the drip-line of European tree species – but please don’t bury pet poo near Australian Natives which are sensitive to the extra phosphorous that the poo contains.

Hello my organic gardening, composting and worm loving friends,

My name is Pete Rutherford and I’m very excited to welcome you to Pete’s Corner. My aim is to share and explore with you the wonderful world of worms, compost, living soils, and our own health, happiness and vitality.

I live in Sydney on the northern beaches with my amazing wife Ali. We grow quite a lot of our own food and we’re trying to live more simply, more slowly, and more lovingly.

Here on the Northern Beaches, I’m lucky enough to be a teacher of what I love most – organic gardening and all aspects of sustainable living.  I feel blessed that this work allows me to connect more and more closely to my family, my community and my ‘mother’ - earth.

My passion for organic gardening and sustainable living developed when as a chemical farmer, I experienced the destruction and devastation that this crazy farming causes - including the death of my dad, Toby Rutherford, by cancer. I think the mass of chemicals he ‘bathed’ himself in led to his early death.

Not surprisingly, I left chemical farming after dad died to retrain in organic farming. Over 20 years I’ve studied Rudolf Steiner’s amazing work in ‘Biodynamics’, as well as Bill Mollison’s and David Holmgren’s work on Permaculture. I’ve also researched the prophetic Japanese farmer Masanobu Fukuoka and many other incredible human beings who shine a light on a more sane and respectful way of living and growing food.

I invite you to walk this path with me, as we learn together how to create the type of world we all dream of, and long for, in our ‘heart of hearts’.

Yours Ecologically

Pete Rutherford.

There are a couple of things you can do to ensure your worms have plenty to eat while you’re away.

My preferred method is to use 5 litres or so of Lucerne Chaff or Lucerne Hay (Alfalfa). Lucerne is a high protein food that releases slowly. It should keep your worms happy, safe and sound for 3-4 weeks!

Soak it really well in a bucket of water then lift off the lid of your worm farm and your worm ‘blanket’. Place a layer of wet lucerne over about 90% of the top feeding tray then sprinkle some rich soil on top. If you can’t get lucerne then you could feed your worms slightly more than usual.

Make a layer of mixed food scraps over about 80% of the surface of the top feeding tray, then add a thin layer of rich soil. Make sure the layer of food scraps is no thicker than 20 to 30mm or it could become anaerobic (no oxygen). This will cause your worm farm to go putrid and stink… and then your worms will go elsewhere!

Once you’ve provided an extra layer of food, kiss your worms goodbye then replace the worm blanket and lid. I suggest you put a rock or something similar on top of the lid to ensure the wind (or an animal) does not knock it off.

Without the lid your worm farm will dry out very quickly! It’s a great idea to find a friend or next-door neighbour that loves worms, to drop over once a week, water the worms and check them - just so they don’t feel too lonely while you’re away.

Have a great holiday and thanks for taking good care of your worms!

Eco Logos and Worm Regards

Pete Rutherford

If you’re heading off for the summer holidays there are a few steps you’ll need to take to keep your worm farm thriving while you’re away.

It won’t take long – but it will make all the difference…

Leave your worm farm in a cool, shady spot.

Aerate

Open the tap to remove excess liquids and loosen the top layer of soil.

Moisten

Pour 8-10 litres of water through the top tray

Feed

Add a layer of food scraps (no thicker than 20-30mm) or lucerne chaff or lucerne hay, then top it with a thin layer of rich soil. Replace your worm blanket and the lid.

Secure

Finally, sit a rock on top of the lid to keep the farm safe.

Position

Give your worms a break too – position your worm farm in a cool place with full shade while you are away. This will slow them down so they eat less and have a ‘holiday’ as well.

Aerate

Did you know worms breathe oxygen through holes in their skin? That means you need to keep plenty of air flowing through the farm.Make sure you leave your worm farm tap open or even remove it completely to ensure no water collects in the bottom tray.

Excess water will limit air movement and can become a serious problem. Get a stick or small garden tool to loosen and mix up the top few inches of soil in the top feeding tray. This will make sure there is good aeration for the worms while you are away.

Make sure the tap is open or removed then pour 8 to 10 litres of fresh water through your worm farm from the top. This will ensure the whole worm farm is nice and moist.