worm bed/ composting question

 

hi- well it's been about 5 years since I posted here,  I am just
getting started trying to reestablish my veggie garden.  This time
rather than tilling up an entire yard ;-) I have made a raised bed- we
have had to get some new retaining walls, and the untreated sleepers
that we're replacing are perfect for this sort of thing.

 Unfortunately, my veggie bed is in the top part of the yard, and the
dirt pile  I'm filling it up with is in the bottom yard so it's going
to be a process of shifting a few barrows a day until it's full.
Which brings me to my question.

I've laid thick newspaper on the bottom of the new bed, and am dumping
dirt on it as I go.  Would it be a stupid idea to also start burying
vegetable scraps up there?  Maybe even under the newspaper layer?
Just that it's there and it would be so easy... the reality is I might
not get the bed filled with dirt til it's time to plant for spring, so
would using it as a worm bed/compost bed be a good idea or just plain
disgusting?  Any suggestions?


Hope
Gosford NSW

 

g'day hope,

reckon i'd be getting some mushroom compost and adding it in as i go
get it from the farm or partly decomposed from some landscape centres.

aalso add anything like vegetable scraps and shredded pruning as you
go, you will need plenty of organic matter like the mushy and sredding
eetc.,. to keep the worms going. now having said all that the worms
aren't at their best in winter they tend to hyberbate a bit.

but if you sort of rough mix the dirt etc as you go that stuff will
break down by itself anyway, keep it covered with a good layer of
mulch hay, lift the hay each time you want to add more.

other things to consider cow, horse, sheep manure all will go to help.

len


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On Wed, 27 Apr 2005 17:21:05 +1000, len gardener


thanks len, that's the kind of thing I was thinking of doing.  I
wasn't sure if uncomposted food scraps should go in, but in they go
:-).

Just before I gave up my garden last time, I had about 10 bags of
unrotted chook poo stacked under the tree- well the bags have
decomposed and it's all turned into the most delicious black soil FULL
of worms- needless to say that was the first stuff that I shovelled
into the new bed- the worms gave me the idea of the food scraps.

good to see you still posting here :-)


Hope

 



 One day Hope got dressed and committed to text


AFAIK the worms will enjoy packets of food scraps wrapped in newspapaper,
avoid citrus skins etc. Thats how I recall the feeding instructions from a
worm pack I once bought and put into our garden. Also AFAIK snail killer
pellets are also toxic to our "Garden Buddies".

--
Regards ..... Rheilly Phoull

 

On Thu, 28 Apr 2005 16:35:10 +0800, "Rheilly Phoull"



thanks, I'll leave citrus peels out of my worm-treats.   I don't bait
or poison anything anyway so they're safe from that :-).

Is there a reason to wrap the scraps in newspaper?


Hope

Gosford  NSW