How to build your own worm farm – no tractor required!

You will need:

• Two matching plastic containers with lids.

• A drill with two bits – approx 6mm and 1.5mm

• Newspaper and cardboard

• A couple of bricks or blocks of wood

• Soil

• Worms! Ask at your garden centre or local council. We got ours from the friendly people at the Hawke’s Bay Environment Centre – about 2000 of them in a bag!

1 Using the larger drill bit, drill lots of holes (about 30) in the bottom of each container. These will provide drainage for the drippings and also a way for the worms to crawl from bin to bin when it’s time to switch containers.

2 Using the smaller drill bit, drill lots of holes in the top of one of the lids. The holes are for ventilation so your worms can breathe. The other lid (the one without the holes) will be a tray underneath the worm bin to catch the worm tea.

3 Using the small bit, drill air holes in the walls of each container in a ring, near the top of the tub.

4 Make their bed! Tear some newspaper into strips and dunk them in water and then squeeze them out so they’re damp. Cover the bottom of one of the tubs with about 100mm of newspaper. Mitch had been saving newspapers for weeks!

5 Put in the worms! When you buy worms they will usually come in soil, but if not, throw in a bit from your garden. Put a piece of wet cardboard on top of the worms and put on the lid – the one with the ventilation holes.

6 Feed them! But not too much. Once they start breeding they can handle more food. Your worm population could double in two to three months.

7 Put the lid that has no holes on the ground like a tray. Put a couple of pieces of wood or bricks on the tray and sit the empty bin on it. Put your other two bricks inside the empty bin and then place the bin with the worms in it on top. Voila! You’ve got a worm farm.