Charles Darwin called earthworms ‘the intestines of the soil’. Worms can eat up to 75% . . . → Read More: How to make a wormery]]>
We’re joined today by Jo Middleton, who blogs at Slummy single mummy, with a fabulous tutorial on how to make a wormery. Perfect for a school gardening club project and for getting kids closer to nature. Here’s Jo’s guide:

How to make a wormery

Charles Darwin called earthworms ‘the intestines of the soil’. Worms can eat up to 75% of their own body weight every day, turning waste into rich and fertile compost. After decades of dependence on chemical fertilizers, people are returning to traditional non-toxic methods of gardening, and composting is one of the easiest ways to get eco-friendly.

Worm composting, or vermiculture, is a fun and easy way to turn your organic waste into plant food and is ideal for people who don’t have space for a full size composter. You don’t even need a garden – you can keep your wormery indoors and produce compost for houseplants and window boxes. A wormery is also a great way to introduce children to gardening and the environment as they can help to build and care for the wormery.

Building your own wormery

Expensive wormery kits are available to buy ready for assembly, but it is actually very straightforward to make your own. You will need a container, wood or plastic, that you can make holes in and fit with a lid. Worms are surface feeders so your wormery doesn’t need to be deep. 8in – 16in should be ample and you need roughly one square foot of surface area for every pound of waste per week.

Make air holes around the upper perimeter of your tub and in the bottom for drainage.

• Support your tub on bricks inside a tray, to collect any liquid that drains off. This liquid (leachate) can be used as plant feed.
• Fill the bottom of the tub with a 5 – 10cm layer of drainage material such as sand or gravel.
• Cover the sand with a dividing layer, something that will let moisture seep through but not worms, such as wooden slats or a section of carpet.
• Add a 10 – 15cm layer of damp bedding material. Shredded newspaper works well – get the newspaper wet, but not soaking – about the consistency of a damp sponge.
• Add your worms! These need to be special composting worms, often known as brandlings, tiger worms or red worms. You can buy theses at fishing shops or worm bin suppliers. (www.bucketofworms.co.uk)
• Add a layer of food.
• Place a thick layer of damp newspaper over the top. This keeps in the moisture and keeps out the light.
• Finally, make sure your wormery has a tight fitting lid. This protects your compost from rodents and flies.

Keeping your worms happy and healthy

Start off with just small amounts of food while your worms settle in. As they multiply you can add larger quantities, but make sure it is well chopped and only add more waste once the previous batch has been composted. Don’t feed your worms more than they can handle – excess waste will just rot, upset your worms and produce nasty smells.

Like humans, worms thrive on a varied diet and have particular likes and dislikes.

Worms like: coffee grounds and tea bags, fruit and vegetables peelings, cereals and bread, crushed egg shells.

Worms don’t like: meat and fish, fats or greasy foods, dairy products, rice, pasta or cooked potatoes.

Worms like a moderate temperature and eat more when they are warmer. Don’t let them overheat though, so keep out of direct sunlight. They can be kept inside or out, but will benefit from being indoors in the winter, maybe in a garage or shed.

Keep a good level of moisture – not too wet and not to dry. You can add extra dry bedding or moisten with rainwater or leachate if you need to. Your worms will regulate numbers to fit your wormery and should not try to escape if wormery conditions are right.

Once the worms have settled in you can sit back and watch them turn your rubbish into high quality compost! Depending on the size and conditions you should have compost ready to harvest in around 3 – 6 months.

Happy wriggling!

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Jo Middleton is a freelance writer, blogger and marketing consultant and writes the award winning blog Slummy single mummy.

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More kids gardening projects

For more kids gardening ideas visit our School Gardening Club section

Photos: Alexander von Halem and Clarity J

happily shared with the outdoor play party and your green resource

Ice play provides a rich sensory experience for children to explore. There are so many wonderful creative ways to enjoy ice play, including science, art and maths activities. Here are some of our favourite ice play ideas, from some of our favourite bloggers. Click through on each of the links to discover some fantastic ice play . . . → Read More: The best kids ice play ideas]]>

Ice play provides a rich sensory experience for children to explore. There are so many wonderful creative ways to enjoy ice play, including science, art and maths activities. Here are some of our favourite ice play ideas, from some of our favourite bloggers. Click through on each of the links to discover some fantastic ice play ideas you can enjoy with your children this winter.

Above: sail some ice cube boats :: make colourful ice sculptures :: paint on ice cream :: go excavating for frozen treasure ::

  make a frozen rainbow you can eat :: investigate dry ice :: mini ice hockey game  :: freeze some bubbles

add ice to your sensory table ::  add coloured ice cubes to your bath :: add colour and salt to make ice art

go ice fishing :: create ice decorations :: explore melting :: paint with popsicles 

 What’s your favourite kind of ice play?

Our tallest is currently 1m 65cm. They got up to 2m 47cm last . . . → Read More: Sunflower Challenge 2011]]>

Today’s the Day!

If you’ve been growing sunflowers with us as part of the Compton Hospice Sunflower Challenge you need to measure your sunflowers today. There are fabulous prizes on offer for the tallest bloom, so measure up and contact Compton with your vital statistics.

Our tallest is currently 1m 65cm. They got up to 2m 47cm last year, so there’s plenty more growing to be done. How tall are yours?

Sunflower Festival

If you’ve been enjoying growing sunflowers (whether you’re joining in the official challenge or not) and have a sunflower-themed play idea to share with us – we would love to see them. Please add a link to the Linky at the end of this post. We’ve shared some ideas for art, science and math in our Sunflower Activities ebook, and here’s one more idea for sunflower fun.

How to make a Sunflower sundial

Sunflowers love sunshine of course and grow best when they’re in full sun (challenge contenders take note!), so why not combine the two with a dash of horology science to make a sunflower sundial.

Materials: a stick, a flowerpot filled with soil (or something else to hold the stick upright), a clock timer, yellow chalk, a patio / driveway /yard and sunshine!

Place your stick in the flowerpot, so it stands upright and then place the pot in a part of the patio or yard which gets the sun all day.

This stick will be the gnomon (good word!) which is going to cast a shadow on your dial, and you’ll use the yellow chalk to draw sunflower petals on the floor to mark out each hour of the day. We made our clock from 8am to 8pm

At 8 o’clock use your chalk to draw a petal on the ground, with the tip of the petal marking where the shadow of the gnomon falls. Add a number 8 to the tip of the petal.

Set your clock timer for 9 o’clock. When the alarm goes off, it’s time to mark out the location of the 9 o’clock petal. Continue setting the timer and marking off your petals throughout the day.

You could try out some the the ideas in our Sunflower Activities ebook or from the linky below to help you pass the time. We had lots of excited shrieks when the alarm rang!

Talk with the children about what’s happening with your sun clock. Why do the shadows move? Why are the shadows longer sometimes and shorter at other times? Do they think the pattern is different each day or the same?

Join the Sunflower Festival

Share an idea with us for any kind of sunflower-themed play idea, craft, activity or experiment. The linky will be open until the end of the month, so plenty of time for you to join in if you would like. Help us gather a great resource of sunflower ideas.

happily shared with get your craft on and  science Sunday and  craft schooling Sunday and  something for the weekend

Our sunflowers have now moved outside to our little greenhouse to enjoy the Spring sunshine and get them used to being outside. We’ve been out enjoying the garden too. Little has been especially interested to see creatures out there. She will stop in her tracks . . . → Read More: Mini beast hunt]]> Growing sunflowers with children? Download our free sunflower activities ebook.

Our sunflowers have now moved outside to our little greenhouse to enjoy the Spring sunshine and get them used to being outside. We’ve been out enjoying the garden too. Little has been especially interested to see creatures out there. She will stop in her tracks and peer at her feet, watching an ant running around. Big is interested to know which animals are goodies (that would include worms and ladybirds) or badies (which definitely includes slugs and snails). So we have decided so survey what animals we have sharing our garden with us by playing… Garden Bingo!

First we talked about what animals we might expect to see. (Sorry Little, but no elephants are likely to be found.) Then we drew pictures of them. Everyone can join in with this, no matter how young or artisically challenged they might be. Little did a great worm, ladybird and spider – with carefully counted legs. Big’s cat is very characterful and her butterfly is perfectly symmetrical. I was able to muster some greenfly and wowed everyone with my woodpigeon.

Then we stuck our animal pictures on to our bingo card and wrote their names underneath, along with a tick box for each one. Each time we spot an animal in the garden we’re going to tick them off our card. Take time to have a good look at each animal as you see them. Look at their shape, colour and patterns and count their legs (or note their lack off). Talk about their role in the garden ecosystem and decide if they are goodies or badies.

If you like a competition you could make each person a slightly different bingo card to see who can spot all their creatures first to get a ‘full house’. We like to promote harmony in our garden so we have one big bingo card to complete all together.

If you’re out in the garden and growing things with your children, come and join in with our Sunflower Club to get a Spring and Summer full of activities all linked to growing and gardening.