Double Grande Worm Habitat Archives - Southern Beaches Community Garden

by Jimmy Bua - 23 June 202023 June 2020

Worm Farming 101

Worm farming or worm composting, as it’s sometimes called, is a magical process. One that involves the use of unique composting worms such as ‘Redwigglers’ to eat and process green, organic waste.

In its place, the worms leave nutrient-rich wee and ‘worm castings’ that are some of nature’s best fertilizer and soil enhancers.

Here at the Southern Beaches Community Garden, you’ll see plenty of examples of worm farms.

Types of Worm Farms

The first and probably most common is the stackable, multi-tiered worm farm.

Another type is the DIY variety. These can come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and styles but two of the most common are large 50 litre, plastic storage

bins or bathtubs.

Regardless of the route you choose to go, it is critical to make sure your DIY worm farm is equipped with adequate ventilation and proper drainage capabilities. Failure to do so can lead to a ‘die-off’ of your worms.

And finally, located beside the SBCG’s propagation tunnel is easily one of the largest industrial options in SE Queensland. The Double Grande from Worms Downunder which, once fully operational, has the capability of processing 40 litres of green waste per day.

Getting Started

No matter what type of worm farm you opt to go with, getting started is straight forward.

First, line the bottom of your container with some cardboard or newspaper. This will be the foundation of your worm farm on which your next layer of actual bedding material will sit.

This bedding material can be finely shredded paper, damp leaves, or, ideally, moist cocopeat. Many store-bought worm farming kits generally include a dehydrated block of cocopeat for you to rehydrate and spread out for your worm farm’s new arrivals.

Once your worms have been placed in the bedding material you’ve chosen to use, cover everything with a ‘worm blanket’, and let your worms get settled in. A worm blanket can really be anything. An old, ratty towel, burlap bag, newspaper, or just an adequately sized piece of cardboard. Pizza boxes work great for this.

As for food, don’t worry. Your bedding material (preferably cocopeat) will both house and feed your worms initially. After a couple of days allowed for settling in, it’s time to start feeding them.

What to Feed Your Worms

The list of what to feed your worms is extensive. Essentially, composting worms will process anything organic (meaning anything once living).

Fruit and vegetable scraps and tea bags are ideal. And, especially when first starting out, make your scraps as ideally digestible as possible since composting worms actually don’t have any teeth. This means chopping, blending, and shredding your scraps. This will help speed up the composting process.

In addition to your green waste input, you should also aim to balance this out with an equal amount of ‘brown’ or carbon-based waste. A few examples of this are moistened materials such as shredded paper, coffee grounds, straw, and even aged horse and cow manure.

Balancing out your green and brown waste you will ensure proper acidity levels of your worm farm are maintained.

Foods to avoid feeding your worms include raw or cooked meat and fish, chilis, bread, cake, pasta and rice, citrus products, onion and garlic, and dairy products such as milk and cheese.

Tips to Remember

When starting out, remember to NOT OVERFEED your worms. Overfeeding is the leading cause of die-offs of worms when starting a worm farm.

Red Wiggler Composting Worms — Happy Red Wigglers

Worms can eat half their bodyweight in food. So, if you’re starting out with a kilogram of worms, 500 grams of food would be the maximum you’d want to feed your worms per day.

And only once your worms have been allowed a sufficient settling in time period to adjust to their new home.

So go slow and monitor the feeding progress of your worms. Once they’ve processed at least half their food, they’ll be ready for more.

And your worm farming career will be well and truly underway.

by Jimmy Bua - 28 April 202028 April 2020

Red Wiggler Homecoming

A week following our big day, an even bigger day–in the form of a Red Wriggler Homecoming–was in store for the Southern Beaches Community Garden.

Red Wiggler Worms — Tom Symmons from Worms Downunder

It’d be then, on Thursday, March 5th—amidst grey skies and torrential rain—Tom Symmons from Worms Downunder (based out of Chandler, QLD) would arrive with the SBCG’s newest, most anticipated members in tow.

Worms. But not just any worms.

Red wiggler composting worms. Lots and lots of them.

Five kilograms or, to be a bit more precise, something in the vicinity of 20,000 worms.

Delivered and spread out amidst their moist cocopeat and straw bedding inside the SBCG’s Double Grande Worm Habitat, the red wigglers would begin their settling in process.

It was an impressive sight, seeing those little magical creepy crawlies set loose in their new home. But, not nearly as impressive as the Red Wigglers themselves. At least, according to the incredibly thorough and enlightening literature provided in the Worms Downunder information pack.

For example, did you know the worms:

Breathe through their skin as they don’t have any lungs
Are hermaphrodites (they all have both male and female reproductive organs)
Are sensitive to light to the point where paralysis can occur within one hour
Can die if their skin becomes too dry
Cannot regulate their body temperature as they’re cold-blooded

In addition to body temperature, ambient temperature plays a major factor in the rate at which the Red Wigglers feed. Too high or too low a

temperature takes the worms out of their ideal comfort zone, greatly reducing the amount of food they consume.

However, in an ideal, well-maintained environment, Red Wigglers are capable of eating anywhere from 50 to 100% of their body weight in organic matter PER DAY.

So it stands to reason, then, the more worms, the better.

And the best part…?

You don’t have to worry about having to cull any of your Red Wiggler worm population as the little critters are as clever as they are hungry. Clever in that their reproduction is self-regulated in direct proportion to the size of their environment.

Regulated to the point where, in ideally maintained conditions, the worms can double their numbers once every three months.

Which, for the SBCG’s Double Grande Worm Habitat, will eventually equate to 80,000 Red Wigglers…

All doing their part in processing upwards of 40 litres of green waste a day, producing nutrient, soil-enriching worm ‘castings’ and helping to remove vast quantities of methane producing green waste from our local landfills.

A win-win for the SBCG and the local community alike.

by Jimmy Bua - 9 April 2020

The Big Day

For the Southern Beaches Community Garden, February 28^th would be the big day.

An auspicious coming together of garden members, neighbours, McPherson MP Karen Andrews and the owner of Brisbane based Worms Downunder, Jen Symmons.

The day would see the delivery of the SBCG’s new baby; a Double Grande Worm Habitat from Worms Downunder based in Chandler.

Compliments of MP Karen Andrews’ Communities Environment Grant, once set up and fully operational, the Double Grande Worm Farm Habitat will be ready to handle upwards of 40 litres of green waste per day.

In doing so, the Double Grande will help remove approximately 3 tonnes of biodegradable waste from landfill per

Double Grande Worm Habitat Demo — Worm Farming 101 in session care of Worms Downunder owner Jen Symmons

year…

All while creating soil enriching worm castings considered by many to be some of the best all-natural fertiliser found anywhere.

Yes, the excitement and anticipation was real.

Real enough to create an adrenaline fuelled, engineering inspired epiphany of sorts. One that would see the garden’s new 200 kilo worm farm put on three rollers and pushed and navigated through tight quarters the last 25 metres…

Eventually into position at its permanent home beside the SBCG propagation tunnel located in front of the garden clubhouse.

MP Karen Andrews & Jen Symmons — Worm farm banter between friends

And it’d be there where, five hours later, the Worms Downunder owner would take the helm by giving various garden members, along with an inquisitive Karen Andrews herself, an in-depth tour and description of the community garden’s newest attraction.

It would take a bit of imagination on everyone’s part. This, because the process of properly setting up and wetting

SBCG Tour for MP Karen Andrews — Garden Tour compliments of SBCG President Marian Evans.

down the habitat’s straw and coco peat’s bedding requires that the worms be delivered at a later date.

But even so, the combination of the habitat’s various moving parts coupled with Jen’s thoroughly informative talk on vermiculture painted a picture that kept everyone fascinated.

All of which proved the perfect segue for a private garden tour for the MP and her assistants compliments of SBCG President Marian Evans.

MP Karen Andrews & SBCG Members — MP Karen Andrews and new friends.

A tour which, once complete, would see the MP’s party departing with a couple potted plants as mementos of their time at the SBCG.

And the SBCG with rewarding memories of their own.

And more importantly, with the inclination to get their Double Grande Worm Habitat running at maximum capacity as quickly and effectively as possible.