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Worm castings are a rich natural fertilizer for your garden and a fresh supply can be obtained by maintaining a small worm farm. They are also a useful way to dispose of table scraps and paper.
Most worm farm containers are made of wood or opaque plastic that are easy to open and access to harvest castings and add food for the worms.
Worms like a moist but not wet bedding. This is a mix usually containing shredded black and white newspaper, garden soil or compost and some kind of filler like coconut husks.
Worms will eat organic table scraps as well as paper products like moist cardboard and paper egg cartons. Smaller pieces are composted faster.
Typical garden or earth worms are not suitable for worm farming. Most worm farmers use red worms that can be obtained through garden stores, online or from other worm farmers.
Castings can be harvested by moving the bedding to one side of the container then placing the food on the empty side. The worms will migrate to the food.
Brian Albert has been in the publishing industry since 1999. He is an expert in horticulture, with a focus on aquatics and tropical plants like orchids. He has successfully run an aquatic plant business for over five years. Albert's writing experience includes the Greater Portland Aquarium Society newsletter and politics coverage for a variety of online journals.
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