In my main hot pile, anything goes. But my cold dalek bins will ideally attract a lot of worms, and I find they really dislike too much citrus, or any onion family scraps.
Also, I avoid using human pee if the donor is taking antibiotics or other prescription meds.
Well I do have lots and lots of red worms in there. I'm not too sure if it's the brandling worms you mentioned Brenda? In fact my whole garden has tons of worms. I saw the weirdest thing the other night while I was out in the garden checking if anything was eating my clematis... On my newly sown lawn there were loads of worms laying over the surface of the soil just laying there. Huge fat things! And when I went near them they sucked themselves back into the hole they came out of super fast! I've never seen that before
Well they were doing it when they were raining and even last night when it was dryer. There were also a few stuck together, so I wonder what was going on there!
I think I'd go easy on egg shells as no matter what I do I find them later more or less as they went in. However, save them, crunch them up, and use around hostas or other plants susceptible to slugs as barrier control. Works well on the top of the soil in pots as it tends to stay put and not get moved about by the birds, worms etc
I have been adding a whole orange peel everyday , is that wrong ? i don't have a lot of materials except for dead heading and a small amount of grass clippings and a little news paper . Will i have to start again ?
Nothing's wrong or right, Sooty - just what works or doesn't! Grass clippings, dead-headed flowers and newspaper is a good combination.
Eggshells, well crunched, are good as they'll counteract the acidity to some extent, but it you don't crunch them well they'll take ages to break down. I do collect them coarsely crunched, however, meaning to use them to control slugs, but never seem to get round to it.....
Worms in pairs on the surface are indeed mating. Interestingly, they're all hemaphrotiditic and are fertilising each other's eggs. They can do their own if necessary, but tend not to if possible. On the surface, on their own, on a wet night they're avoiding drowning in their burrows. They leave their tails in, secured by bristles, and contract back inside at the first sign of an early bird - or gardener.
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In my main hot pile, anything goes. But my cold dalek bins will ideally attract a lot of worms, and I find they really dislike too much citrus, or any onion family scraps.
Also, I avoid using human pee if the donor is taking antibiotics or other prescription meds.
I guess that's why my bins don't work. Too much pee, the worms will be too drunk to work
I think I'd go easy on egg shells as no matter what I do I find them later more or less as they went in. However, save them, crunch them up, and use around hostas or other plants susceptible to slugs as barrier control. Works well on the top of the soil in pots as it tends to stay put and not get moved about by the birds, worms etc
I have been adding a whole orange peel everyday , is that wrong ? i don't have a lot of materials except for dead heading and a small amount of grass clippings and a little news paper . Will i have to start again ?
Nothing's wrong or right, Sooty - just what works or doesn't! Grass clippings, dead-headed flowers and newspaper is a good combination.
Eggshells, well crunched, are good as they'll counteract the acidity to some extent, but it you don't crunch them well they'll take ages to break down. I do collect them coarsely crunched, however, meaning to use them to control slugs, but never seem to get round to it.....
Worms in pairs on the surface are indeed mating. Interestingly, they're all hemaphrotiditic and are fertilising each other's eggs. They can do their own if necessary, but tend not to if possible. On the surface, on their own, on a wet night they're avoiding drowning in their burrows. They leave their tails in, secured by bristles, and contract back inside at the first sign of an early bird - or gardener.