A wormery is a container in which composting worms live, that is managed for converting organic (usually “waste”) material such as fruit and veg scraps, garden greens, or animal manure into valuable compost.

Worms can eat up to half of their own body weight each day, and their population increases rapidly under favourable conditions, so a wormery can be a very effective asset in many waste management and gardening applications.

Wormeries can follow many different designs, as long as they allow for maintenance of healthy conditions for the worms and easy accessibility for both feeding and harvesting of compost. They can be made from an old bath or fridge or freezer, from stacked car tyres, from plastic boxes, or in a container made from wood or from concrete blocks. There are even fabric wormeries available, and in fact these are very effective.

The main considerations are that a wormery should have a lid that protects it from the elements and from pests, there should be good drainage, and if possible a good degree of ventilation.

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