To recap, I bought a plastic dustbin with a secure lid, one which won’t fly off in the wind: you don’t want your precious bait emigrating.
I drilled ventilation holes all round below the rim. On reflection I should have drilled more holes but of smaller size to keep slugs out. But hey ho I do have a source of big juicy slugs for chub as well now!
I cut off the base of the dustbin which now gives a tube with a fastenable lid.
Bury the dustbin in the garden to just below those ventilation holes. A shady sheltered spot is required.
The question was asked “What if the wormery gets soggy and waterlogged in use?” As it happens, mine does not as I am on sandy, well-drained soil. If in doubt why not add a layer of gravel for drainage in the bottom before filling?
It does get slimy but that’s what my worms seem to like. They don’t do DRY.
My worms are REDWORMS, the type found in farm muck piles or horse stables. I find they are an excellent bait.
The residue breeding stock have been taken from address to address over a long period of time. I get bigger ones and also many smaller one when they are younger (ideal during the winter)
Start filling with vegetable kitchen waste: tea bags, cabbage leaves, banana skins, potato peelings, melon skins and so on.
To start off put a bag of stable manure in the bottom: 50p a bag?
Keep topping-up with the worms’ grub.
Put a layer of insulation (bubble wrap?) under the lid to help negate temperature extremes.
Why a sunken wormery? It prevents the extremes of weather – cold and hot – from getting to them; consequently I have worms available to me in all but the severest freezer-ups. The last time they went too deep to harvest was the very cold winter of 2010. I do get them in my adjacent ordinary compost bins but they disappear in the winter whereas these in the wormery stay put.
Beautiful….
In time the wormery will be full of matter that has rotted and turned to manure. Take a stock of worms and use the manure on the garden, then start again with their food. Ignore the gardeners’ advice about turning the vegetable matter over frequently to accelerate rotting. This is a wormery. They like it slimy.
Save the turning over for a compost bin proper!
Enjoy all that free bait. You will get enough to use as chop in your feed as well as on the hook.
John Step.
