Did you know, the presence of worms in your garden is a sign of having healthy soil? Worms help aerate the soil through their movements, allowing the roots of plants to receive more oxygen and nutrients.

Worms also help break down organic matter, such as dead leaves and kitchen scraps, turning this matter into nutrient-rich castings that improve soil quality. When worms excrete waste, this also contains beneficial microbes that aid in plant growth and disease resistance.

Reaping the benefits of all this activity and making good use of the nutrients can be achieved through ‘Worm farming’, also known as vermicomposting. Worm farming is a method of composting that relies mostly on worms like the skinner looking red wiggler worms. These are found near the top surface layer of soil or under material that has been left on the surface for some time. These red wigglers help break down organic matter from kitchen waste, like fruit and vegetable skins and can produce rich liquid fertiliser (worm tea) which contains nutrients to assist plant growth. Because the worm tea is so rich, it needs to be diluted with around 5 parts water, because the concentration of nutrients is so strong and could damage the plant.

Starting a worm farm is the most fun part of the process. Worm farms come in all shapes and sizes. There are premade ones or you can build one yourself out of materials found at home. When buying or building one, it is important to consider the size. Is there a large space for the worm farm or is space limited? Another thing to consider is how much waste your household produces.  You don’t want your worm farm to be overfull, but you do want enough material so the worm farm will remain healthy. Most worm farms are trays or buckets stacked on top of each other.   You need a size that suits your household.  A healthy worm farm also doesn't have a bad smell. 

If you're wanting a much larger worm farm you can recycle an old bathtub or washing machine. Anything can be turned into a worm farm as long as it has a hole and container at the bottom to collect your worm tea. Turning a bathtub into a worm farm will require different layers. For example starting at the bottom with gravel then wire, dry leaves and sticks, manure/soil/potting mix, worms, food scraps, towel then finally cover your bathtub with roofing iron and secure with something heavy. Just like that, you have a place for not just food scraps but paper waste as well.

Once your worm farm is ready, feeding your worms the right organic material is the next step.  Your worms will love organic scraps like fruit skins, vegetable offcuts, coffee grounds and paper. It is important to add a balance of dry materials like paper and moist materials being green food scraps to your worm farm.  Otherwise it can both become too acidic and stink or too dry. It is also important to not overfill your worm farm as it can cut off oxygen for the worms, again making your farm become acidic.

In the Te Ipukarea Society office Akeina Tairea has got the TIS keyhole garden up and running again, sowing new seeds which will soon become tomatoes, cucumbers and eggplants. To test the worm tea made by the society Ake is going to run a mini study using diluted worm tea on alternate rows of growing vegetables leaving the other row to grow naturally with just water. We will report back with the results of this mini worm tea test in the next few months

In conclusion, worm farming is a simple yet highly effective way to produce rich compost by repurposing organic waste. Worm farms have the added benefit of producing worm tea which can be used as organic liquid fertilizer to aid in veggie growth. If you want more information on how to make your own worm farm at home using easy to access materials found around the house, reach out to te.ipukarea.society.inc@gmail.com and we will send you more information. Or, if you want to go the easy route, the Society does have some of the well-known New Zealand made Hungry Bin worm farms for sale, for $360 the same price they go for in NZ. Te Ipukarea Society (TIS)