Worm Bin

seyfades

I have been thinking about starting a worm bin to create worm casting and vermicompost, from the research I've done, I believe this will save me money on buying garden center compost.

I don't have a big garden just a few small raised beds, plus about 10 containers to grow pepper and tomatoes.

Does anyone know if it is worth it?

Fire

Hi, are you thinking of making regular compost also, in a compost bin from garden and kitchen waste?

seyfades

I have the black plastic compost bin, which I started a couple of weeks ago, but I understand they take a while to decompose. At the moment, I am just filling the compost bin with kitchen scraps, paper and cardboard.

Fire

I think both systems - worms and regular compost bins  - will serve you well.

seyfades

Thank you; 

Marygold

I've had a wormery for several years now and find the compost is too wet and lumpy to use as potting compost. I think you need to add things like sand to make it into potting compost. I use mine as a mulch on veg beds or around shrubs.

Garden noob

Similarly, I'm not sure if I would use compost from my compost bin as potting compost. 

Like you, I've only had one compost bin in my small garden for the past few years. The pictures suggest you can add waste in the top and get lovely dark compost out of the bottom. In practice it needs a lot of stirring etc, so you end up with a mixture of compost with garden waste etc. When my bin starts getting too full, I empty it onto a plastic sheet and separate the stuff I can use from the stuff that needs more composting, but it's not a perfect separation. I would be worried that the compost is still too "hot" to use as potting compost, because some bits are still decomposing. I use it to top up my raised bed etc.

In an ideal world you would have several bins on the go so you can wait for a bin to finish composting before using the compost.

This is a good bin for small gardens. It's square so it has a smaller footprint, plus you can neatly line up a few in a row so they don't take up much space:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002DXRJBA?ref_=Oct_CABSellerC_4224751031_0

Fire

@Seyfades,
 There's a good vermi-discussion here.