Essential Wormery Maintenance

Emptying the wormery went to the top of my list this week - with the decomposing matter only inches away from the lid, I kept finding worms making an escape bid. Tecnically it should have been a simple job. . .

Legend; Remove the top few inches of rot, to be put back in later, as this is where the worms are supposed to all hang out, then empty the rest (what the pros call 'black gold") into the garden or to mix for potting compost. It's supposed to be a rich crumbly, earthy substance.

Reality; Remove top few inches - worms everywhere, so remove next few inches. Keep going; more worms than anticipated, get over a foot down into the composty stuff - still endless worms. Continue (what else to do?) Storage box now full (see above) so start using sack. Keep going. Yet more worms. Start to wonder if worms can suffer from overcrowding. Sack now half full and still no sign of the black crumbly stuff. Am looking at slimy potatoes and tea bags, and a large worm community. Finally strike a fine vein of black gold before establishing that the worms have also populated the bottom of the bin.
So, end result - two bags of worms and tea bags to go back in, and half a bag of almost compost.

Anyway, the job got done and I added lots of ripped up newspaper to the slimy worm mix as it went back in, to dry it out and stop it getting water-logged. As you can see, it's a dirty job, but quite frankly I didn't mind!

Best of all, I got to spend about two hours outdoors - that's the longest it's stopped raining so far this year. Consequently I am feeling a much saner person this evening. As yesterday was officially Blue Monday, I am calling today Turnaround Tuesday, the first day of the garden calendar '08.