WORM FARMING – THE BEST COMPOSTING EVER.

Picture courtesy of Flickr

Also known as vermicomposting, Worm farming is basically establishing a community of worms that help in the recycling of our food scraps and other organic waste into a natural fertilizer called vermicast.  Instead of the traditional composting done on compost pile, this one uses worms.
What is composting anyway?  Composting is nature’s way of breaking down organic matters into a very rich nutrient soil.  Plants, vegetables, fruit trees, animals, and of course us humans are all organic matter.
Every living thing will eventually decompose when they die. They will breakdown to be reused by mother earth as fertilizers and become food for plants.
Worm farming is the best way to recycle our organic wastes into rich compost because they do this naturally and much faster than any other form of composting and a lot better than any fertilizers you can buy in a garden store.

Let me share with you some facts about these wonderful little creatures.

• They turn the organic matter they eat into a type of humus which is the most important part of the soil.
• They dig holes in the soil to let it breathe and allow rain water to go deeper and reach the roots of the plants where it is needed most.
• They create their own soil called vermicasts which help plants to toughen their immune system.
• They have a very big appetite and will eat vegetable and fruit scraps, moist cereals and bread, egg shells, newspapers, egg cartons, card board, ground coffee and filters.
• They hate peels of any citrus fruit, meat, dairy products, oil, seafood and pet droppings. Waste segregation has to be done.
• They have an unusual ability to destroy pathogens, which do not survive when passing through their guts.

Do we need worm farms?

That’s a definite YES! Just imagine how much amount of organic wastes we can reduce significantly through worm farming. When we reduce our everyday organic waste that we send to our landfill, we also reduce the potential accumulation of deadly liquid called ‘leachate’ which pollutes our underground water, our streams and oceans.  We also reduce the production of another harmful and powerful greenhouse gas called “Methane”.
We too can help the environment. By making our own worm farm, we can grow worms and let them breed over and over again. Worms have done a lot of amazing things to our environment for thousands of years now but with all the chemicals we have dispersed into the earth to grow our food, we have slowly killed them. Worm farming is one way to help them repopulate and with the extra worm that we grow we can release them to their natural environment to do their thing in helping save the earth.
Let’s get building one in our backyard. It’s fun and educational for our kids.