ianbee: this is instead of getting a dog: worms

Sorry for the lack of worm-farm news, it’s been a bit slower to get going than I had anticipated. I was really looking forward to opening the lid and dropping a carrot in only to watch it being pulled down under the surface in front of my eyes by a gang of ravenous worms.

Maybe that will happen soon. Firstly there was the problem of moving a mature worm farm across Sydney in a car. The solution involved lots of old towels, which sadly have had to be thrown out. Then there was the issue arising from the experiments that the previous owners had been running on the colony. You know by now that the first rule of worm-farms is you mustn't talk about ... no, wait, it's no dairy. Also no meat, citrus or onion. But nothing is mentioned about knickers. Or socks. So there were a lot of half eaten pants and the elastic bits from the top of socks left. By the time I had removed all the unauthorised items it was clear that ants outnumbered worms by about 100 to 1.

So today I have bought a “worm booster pack” which is full of healthy, happy new stock and tomorrow I am going to clear out the farm, evict the remaining tenants and start again.

Yesterday my iPod decided a 07:15 alarm required me to be woken up at 06:49. I disagreed, but how could I refuse when faced with such a scientific looking graph? Although I would have preferred to see a chart where the right axis tended more towards "awake", and also "morning".

I needed to get up early because I was attending a wormfarm seminar at Manly Library. Wormfarms, for the uninitiated, are like compost bins for the urban dweller. They don't need to go in the garden and are perfect for the small household with only a few apple cores to dispose of in a non-guilty way. You give the apple cores to the worms in their plastic box and in return they give you worm-poo and worm-wee for your plants.

I was looking forward to figuring out the typical wormfarm seminar demographic, but there was a healthy mix of young and old, men and women, hippy and non-hippy. I was however the least tanned out of all attendees by a very long way. They did provide cake, which cheered me up.

The seminar was led by a lady who really really likes worms. She explained that a common error in worm husbandry is to allow them to drown in their own worm-wee. To avoid this they need a little slope so they can climb up and reach into the soil above. At this point she subconsciously did a little wiggle to demonstrate a worm reaching for the safety of the soil. This seems to be only one of many ways that you can kill your worms.

They die if they get too hot. Or dry. Or if you feed them meat, or garlic. Or too much citrus, or not enough. They like tea bags apparently, but I'm worried they might choke on the staple that holds the tag to the string. I think my worms, when I get my "starter pack", are going to have a bad deal. However, I am encouraged that we might be able to go on this journey together dear reader ...

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