Make your own wormery

Create a wormery with our easy-to-follow guide and you’ll turn rubbish into great quality compost and liquid fertiliser for free!

Worms are a gardener’s best friend as they help aerate the soil. Now you can make them work even harder by making short work of your kitchen waste.

Wormeries do a similar job to home composting. However, wormeries work on a smaller scale (so are more suitable if you have a small garden or little waste) and they don’t smell!

Get started

1. Drill tap

Drill a hole in the bin/box for the tap, between 5 and 10cm (2 and 4in) from the bottom and fit the tap.

2. Add mesh

Put the wire mesh behind the back of the tap, so the tap doesn’t get clogged.

3. Make breathing holes

Drill small breathing holes into the bin/box lid.

4. Add sand

Put 5-10cm (2-4in) of sand in the bottom of the bin/box.

5. Add sticks

Lay the wooden sticks on top of the sand or gravel.

6. Add newspaper

Dampen the shredded newspaper and put a layer 5-10cm (2-4in) deep on top of the sticks.

7. Add the worms!

Create a hole within the paper and carefully put the worms inside.

What to do next

Adding food

Bury small batches of chopped up food waste into the newspaper, tucked just under the surface, making sure you dot the batches all around the bin. The more finely the food is chopped, the easier it is for the worms to get through it.

Next, layer sheets of wet newspaper over the shredded newspaper to keep light out and moisture in.

Only add more food when you can see that the worms have finished the last lot, otherwise the food will rot, upsetting your wriggly friends and making the wormery smell.

You can keep your wormery in the garden, but in winter the worms will work more efficiently if they’re kept in a warmer shed or garage.

Collecting the fertiliser

After a few weeks, collect the fertiliser through the tap. It will be quite strong so dilute it with 10 parts water before feeding plants.

After a few months, remove the worms and use the contents of your wormery as compost. Then put the worms back and start again.

What you can put in your wormery

What worms love:

• Coffee grounds and tea bags
• Fruit
• Veg peelings
• Cereal
• Bread
• Annual weeds (not seed heads)
• Green leaves
• Cow/horse manure

What worms don’t like:

• Meat and fish
• Cheese
• Baked beans
• Rice or pasta
• Cooked potatoes
• Grass in any quantity
• Weed seeds
• Diseased plant material
• Cat or dog faeces

Wormery worries

Flies in your bin

Tiny flies in your worm bin are most likely fruit flies, which won’t hurt you or affect the compost.
To prevent them, keep the lid on your wormery and ensure the kitchen waste is buried and covered with the wet newspaper.

Tiny white worms

These are not a problem either. They are pot worms and do a similar job to the composting worms you bought.

However, if you have more of them than the composting worms, improve drainage as pot worms prefer waterlogged, acidic conditions. Add more shredded newspaper and calcified seaweed or rock limestone, which is available from garden centres, to lower acidity.

Worms on the lid

If worms collect on the inside of the lid, they’re hungry or unhappy.

They hate having too much food piled on them, or fresh green materials (which heat up as they decompose), or conditions that are too wet. Fix whichever of these is the issue.

Got a successful wormery? Tell us more in the forums.