Worms



Photo taken from http://bartholomeuszkirwan.sobox.com.au/
2010/09/22/compost-and-worm-farm-workshops-come-to-brisbane/

 No, this isn't going to be an entry about how I've got worms, or what it was like when my dog had worms. I don't have them and my dog hasn't had them for ages and the time he did was embarrassing and I'd rather not discuss it.

Every now and then the little greeny inside me sneaks out, clobbers me over the head and drags me off to learn how to do my bit for the environment. Some time ago when walking through Newtown, I stopped in at The Watershed. This shopfront is an initiative of the City of Sydney, and educates people how to use less energy and water and create less waste. I'm already a pretty conservative user of water and energy. I grew up in an underground house that had solar-heated water, with gravity fed water from a tank up the hill. This meant lukewarm (or cold) showers with no pressure. I could compensate for my childhood by having long hot showers, but the little greeny inside says no. I've also got more interesting things to do than stand around in a shower. I had Energy Australia install a new meter for my flat, which means energy prices vary according to the time of day. I now run my washing machine and dishwasher (when I use it) after 10pm, and I try not to spend too much time at home between 2pm and 8pm (peak period). It's much harder to make significant inroads into the amount of waste I create. I use non-woven fabric bags for my shopping to reduce the amount of plastic I use, but reducing green waste is hard when I live in an apartment.

So I jumped at the Watershed course. We spent an hour talking about how to maintain a compost bin, how to use the final product, and how it benefits the soil. We spent another hour talking about worm farms, how to feed the worms, what you can and can't put in a worm farm, and how to use the worm castings and worm juice produced. The course was interesting and as it was held in a community garden, it was hands on. Residents in the City of Sydney get to take home a free compost bin or worm farm. It's perfect for an apartment because I can keep it on my balcony and I don't need dry material like mulch or grass clippings to mix with the food scraps. Worms happily live on food scraps alone. Reducing green waste is something I can now achieve and I had a lovely time learning how to do it :)