The Great Outdoors
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Miranda takes us through the wonders of the common-or-garden earthworm.
arthworms are amazing little critters, underground garden heroes you could say. These funny little wrigglers break down your decaying garden waste and bring life to the soil by fertilising it with much needed nutrients. What’s more, worms breathe though their skin, can eat their bodyweight in soil in a single sitting and if you happen to chop one in half with your shovel, its head end can regenerate…amazing eh?! Well, we thought that this summer is the perfect time for us all to watch these little wrigglers at work. And it’s easy! All you need is a wormery, which is basically a little worm house. And we’re going to show you how to make one.
You will need... • 2 litre clear, plastic bottle • Compost or soil and some sand
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• Scissors • Black (or very dark) card • A few worms per bottle • Spray bottle • Worm food – grated carrot, vegetable peelings, dead leaves, shredded newspaper Your first mission is to go looking for some worms in your garden or local park. Take a trip to the compost heap if you have one as these are super popular with worms. Failing that, turn over some stones, or dig a hole, you’ll strike lucky somewhere! Cut the top ¼ off your bottle and snip a slit up the side of it. Put it to one side – this will become your lid and the slit you’ve made will help it to fit back over the bottle. Now, take your bottle and fill it up with alternating layers of sand, soil, sand, soil, sand etc. Spray each layer with water so that it is damp. Here comes the fun: Take a few
worms and add them to the top of the bottle and watch them burrow down. Then add the ‘food’ to the top. This could be a mix of carrot peelings, potato peelings, dead leaves… Wrap the black card around the bottle to make it dark. Worms do not like light and the card will entice them to burrow around the outside of the bottle so that you’ll be able to see them when you want to have a peek! Worms like to be kept toasty so make sure you put the wormery in a warm place. You can take the cardboard off when you want to have a look at what they are up to, but always replace it once you’re finished. Check that the contents are damp and that there is always something there for them to munch on. After 1 week, take the worms back into your garden and look for some more if you’d like to try the experiment again!
