Wormery.

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We have just put a shed up in our small garden which means we have had to get rid of our plastic composter.

Where the composter was he wasnt used in the winter anyway as the ground was too boggy and it was a faff to get to as I would regularly slip over.

I am contemplating a wormery. Are they easy to set up. Do they take up much space. Do I need much contact with the worms? Is it likely to significantly reduce our food waste?

Any input and ideas gratefully received.

We have a wormery. Takes up minimal space & you don't need to do much in the way of maintenance. The worms aren't very active in cold weather, so we don't seem to get rid of very much waste during the winter. They get through a surprising amount of paper & the compost is rich & nutritious (plus you get plant food from them too). Ours was from www.wigglywigglers.co.uk

Very easy to set up and make a huge difference to food waste. Pretty much all our food waste (except citrus peel, chillies, and meat) goes in. At this time of year they eat it as fast as they get it. Things slow down a bit in the dead of winter but I've always managed to fit it in somehow.

You do need some worm contact, but you soon get used to it. When you empty out a layer of compost you will need to remove worms that are still loitering in that bit and move them up to a higher level. You don't have to of course but it will be much less efficient if you keep loosing worms to the garden.

Thank you.

Does it smell at all? It will be quite close to the backdoor.

What sort of waste goes in there apart from peelings? I assume they wont want beans and chips LOL

Regarding worm contact...isnt that what my nearly three year old DS is for ?

We have been selected to do the video diary for mumsnet re waste reduction and Im a bit that we have just got rid of our composter...well we still have it but no where to site it!

No smell

If you get something like a Can of Worms you don't need to touch the worms at all. As someone already said Wiggly Wigglers is a great site to look at.

They also sell Bokashi composters which you keep in your kitchen to handle stuff like meat and fish.

Our doesn't smell but it is in a very shady spot (huge overhanging lilac bush) and in a far corner (not that our garden is huge) so I wouldn't really notice if it did.

Ours doesn't smell at all, & is right next to the back door.

No smell. We get lots of little fruit flies in ours, but I think you could avoid that if it bothered you - i remember reading something aboput it when I set it up. And they only fly about when you take the lid off anyway.

I love mine! (and am more proud of my worms' production capacity than a grown woman should be )

I have the rectangular one from wiggly wigglers as it fits really well into a corner by the back door. No smell, no flies.

Oh I'm so pleased to see this. I was just about to start a thread. We're moving and there is no compost heap and I feel sorry for Dh having to traipse to bootom of garden in the winter with food scraps so am thinking of a wormery.

Silly question perhaps but what comes out at the bottom. Will I still get compost?

I haven't looked into it yet but are there different sizes and what size is best for a family of 2 adults and 2 children.

What work is needed on my part other than putting food in at the top?

Get in contact with these people www.wigglywigglers.co.uk I once had a flatmate who organised our composting that was a bit of an expert in this regard but we don't see each other much! He always got his advice from these people.

We have just expanded into a second one! I love mine & we had ended up with layers & layers of worms so set up a second one & have two running. Works really fast but if you use the compost as compost dilute it & don't put tomatoes in as my garden is covered in tomato weeds!