Kid's Stuff

Having used worm farms for many years, I am convinced that it is a great idea to pour several litres of water through the farm every week. This keeps the worms very moist and stops their bedding from getting too hot in summer. It also ensures you get plenty of the worm tea you are currently missing out on!

However, if you do water your farm regularly, you need to keep the tap on the bottom of your farm open at all times – and a bucket under the tap to catch the drips! If you don’t, you’ll find the tea collects in the bottom tray and goes anaerobic.

Empty your bucket of ‘tea’ every day or two to ensure it does not go stagnant. Dilute it down to the colour of ‘weak tea’, then pour it onto your veggie and herb plants regularly.

The ‘little insects’ you mentioned are probably ‘vinegar flies’. These small flies are attracted to gases given off by anaerobic microbes so I suggest you:

• Use a small hand fork to dig and ‘fluff’ up – or aerate – the top feeding tray
• Sprinkle a couple of teaspoons of Worm Farm & Compost Conditioner on top of the food scraps
• Add a few handfuls of good soil on top of the food scraps every time you feed your worms
• Ensure you keep a Worm Blanket on the surface of the feeding tray at all times.

Worm Regards

Peter Rutherford

Thank you to all the wonderfully creative kids around Australia who entered our competition to promote International Composting Awareness Week in May. Check out the winners here.

Thank you to all the schools who have entered the "Colour Me In" and "Name a Worm" Competitions for International Composting Awarness Week. We have received over 1000 entries from more than 150 schools across Australia.

Due the amazing response we will be needing a little help in selecting the best Coloured Worms. We will be seeking the help of some active recyclers from a school near by, so keep an ear out to see if your the lucky school.

Have you named our worm's yet? Or sent in your colouring in entry? There is still time. Entries are open until Friday 28th May 2010.

Send your entry to Tumbleweed, PO Box 5182, MINTO BC NSW 2566 or email them to competitions@tumbleweed.com.au and dont forget to upload your photos of what you got up to during International Composting Week to our snaps page.

May 2 – 8 is Composting Awareness Week and at Tumbleweed we’re really excited to be involved!

You to can get involved with your friends. By helping us find a name for our 3 worm characters, you could win 1 of 3 major prize packs for your school.

Each Prize pack includes 5 x 400L Compost Bins, 3 x Aerators, 5 x Can-O-Worms, a box of Worm Blankets, Composting Worms and Worm Farm and Compost Conditioner.

For more information visit our Name a Worm page here

Or colour in your favourite worm to win one of our Can-O-Worms Prize packs here

Worms take your leftover food scraps and turn them into a dark, soil-like material with a pleasant earthy smell – known as worm castings. They also produce a liquid called worm tea. Worm castings and worm tea, diluted 10:1 with water, are wonderful additives to any garden. You will see exceptional results in the colour, quality and quantity of all your fruit, vegetables, flowers and ornamental plants.

You can purchase compost worms from most hardware and garden outlets.  We are currently working on our worm sellers list, check back in the next couple of days to see where you can get your worms or check with your local council.

Hi Phoebe, Jasper's comment to your orange peel question was pretty spot on.

If you are adding small peices of orange peel be sure to add some Worm Farm and Compost Conditioner to balance out the pH level. The citrus increase the acidity level in your worm farm.

If the worm farm gets too much acidity it changes the microbial balance and the types of gases being produced in the system, this may force your worms to start leaving the worm farm, or they might eventually die in the highly acid environment. You will know if the acidity level is to high by the smelly odour.

So remember only add small amounts of citrus like orange peels if your worm farm is going great guns and dont forget to add a sprinkle of Worm Farm and Compost Conditioner every week to help neutralise acidity and balance pH levels.