In-ground Worm Farm

This is an in ground worm farm. A simple, low cost way of recycling veggie scraps and garden waste for use in the garden.

You don't have to worry about starving worms or drowning worms in their waste. They will naturally migrate to your worm farm and then leave if they have finished.

Drill

Hole Saw (roughly 2 cm in diameter)

A large pot or other cylindrical vessel (I also used this that I had lying around)

A shovel/matic (soil removal device)

A lid - I used a large paver

*If impatient you can purchase some worms from the hardware store. (such as here)

This type of worm farm has so many more benefits

1. It's hidden below ground
2. It utilises the available worms in your backyard
3. It creates a breeding ground for your backyards worms
4. If you forget to put food in (or go away), the worms wont die, they just leave
5. If you have some really hot/cold weather, the worms can migrate lower underground like they would in the wild.
6. Cheap, using what you have lying around the house

There are a range of objects that could be used. Some systems use a long PVC pipe dug deep into the ground. We aren't going to create something like that we are going the lazy persons method.

I am using a cheap, large pot that I had left over but I have also used a water container (see the blue container photo). You could use heaps of small pots or

The key feature is that it needs to be either cylindrical or wider at the top than at the bottom so it can be removed from the ground easily once full.

Grab the drill and hole saw and cut a large number of holes into the pot.

As you can see, I roughly spaced them out so 8 could fit around the rim of the pot and space them out every 2 cm down the height of the pot

You will also need to remove the bottom of the pot

1. Select an appropriate location in the garden.
2. Make sure that where you dig it, if water flows into it, it can also drain out.

The other factor to consider, is easily accessible from the house as you will need to visit it to drop off the house scraps

Fortunately, because we selected a pot, we only need to dig down about 30 to 40cm.

Dig it out so the pot can fit

Once the Pot is put in place, gently backfill around the pot

I decided to place some potting mix at the bottom and then some food scraps.

Then I made a cover out of some newsprint/butchers paper to aid in keeping it dark.

Don't overload the worm farm initially as you need some worms to eat the food otherwise it will simply rot.

• This is where you could add some purchased worms if you wished.

A simple google search will help you with what to give your worms.

https://tumbleweed.com.au/pages/worm-farming-information

I've even put dog poo in the worm farm.... Word of note, don't go digging around in the worm farm if you have put dog poo in there.

Once in place, you can cover the worm farm up with something as simple as a paver or if it's a water container, this one came with a screw top lid.

When the worm farm is full the great thing is, you can pull out the pot, bury it over and start again.