For the backyard worm wormer you can start with a small commercially available system and move up from there. Worms breed relatively quickly under  the right circumstances. Poor breeding conditions can include extremes in Heat and Cold as well as heavy rain.

You can start a worm farm with as little as 1000 worms and grow stocks up from there. The more you start with will obviously increase your numbers quicker.

Worm Farming is an ideal income earner for small backyards due to small space required to set up, and very low input costs. It is actually very surprising the number of ways you can profit from worm farming. The following is a list of possible options for you to explore.

Vermicast
Vermicast is the waste product worms produce, which resembles small dark crumbles of sawdust. This is used as a soil conditioner or potting mix additive. Farmers have also used it as a conditioner over paddocks before planting crops as well as on pasture. Vermicast can be packaged and sold for domestic gardens. If you have a larger scale operation you could also sell to farmers and graziers.

Liquid Vermicast
Liquid Vermicast is used as a foliar spray and soil conditioner. It can be diluted and used on annual plants or as a tonic and conditioner for household plants. Concentrated solution can be bottled and sold or you can mix it ready to use and supply in a spray bottle. It’s usually best to prepare on demand or to order as it can go stagnate quickly and may lose potency.

Worm Capsules (worm eggs)
Worm eggs are often sought after to increase worm populations in gardens and farms. The more worms found in a soil, the healthier the soil is. Worm capsules are often the preferred choice due to their lightweight and ease of spreading.

Fishing Worms
Believe it or not worms are still amongst the most popular of all fishing Baits. Commercial fisherman can use them to encourage fish toward their nets and weekend family fishing trips often revolve around baiting hooks with worms. Fishing worms are usually kept longer and sold at a larger size. Some larger growers feed their worms high protein diets such as horse pellets to increase their weight and size for sale.

Worms
Of course the worms can be sold for composting as many backyard systems need restocking or new worm farmers starting out.

You can start selling at local farmers markets or through your local paper. As word spreads you will have people calling you through referrals as well as reselling to past customers.

Compost should be made using 2 separate and uniquely individual methods:

1. Traditional Compost is made using organic matter from around the yard. Traditional compost should not include household or food scraps as these are likely to increase pests, vermin, flies and disease into the heap.
2. Household and food scraps should be used as feed in a worm farm where they will be turned into quality food for all yard and houseplants in the form of worm castings or vermicast.

Traditional compost will typically include a mixture of green and brown matter. Green from grass clippings and old seed free weeds will provide Nitrogen and heat to the compost while the brown from old leaves, grass hay or pea straw will provide carbon, aeration and a home for beneficial insects in the heap.

The best and most freely available ingredients for a traditional compost are manure, Grass Hay and Lawn Clippings. These can be collected from within your own property, neighbour, family or friends (best) or from a local garden centre (next best).

Now to put these ingredients to work. 5 steps to the ultimate compost:

Step 1
Compost should start with a fluffy layer of grass hay to aid in drainage from the base of the heap. Place hay around 30 cm (12 inches) thick but avoid manual compaction – the future layers will be sufficient compaction.

Step 2
Add about 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 inches) of fresh green lawn clippings to the heap. This could be one or several standard “catchers” full depending on the size of the heap.

Step 3
Manure should be added to this at around the same thickness as the lawn clippings. I find rabbit manure is the best but this can be substituted for sheep or cattle manure. Keeping your own rabbits is a good way of maintaining an ongoing supply of manure for your compost or as a direct feed or soil conditioner.

Step 4
Add another fluffy layer of grass hay on top of this and repeat steps 2, 3 and 4 until the heap (or bin) is at the desired height.

Step 5
When the heap has shrunk to around half its original size it may be ready to use for some applications such as mulching leaf vegetables. If being used as a soil conditioner prior to planting, now would be a good time to turn and aerate the heap.

Using a bin is a personal choice but you could just as easily build a heap on its own or within a wire cage for support.

Well, to be perfectly honest, you don’t need a bin, cage or any structure to make compost. The ideal compost would be made in the open air. Perhaps in furrows or in long rows. Covers can be used if desired.

Compost bins come in all shapes and sizes. There are commercially available Timber and plastic varieties. Some plastic bins are designed as tumblers to make turning easier. Wooden bins can be made from treated pine (not recommended) or Cedar or Cypress species.

Home made compost bins can be constructed with old wooden pallets, roofing iron or old fence palings. I use some old 200L drums I purchased from a neighbour. I use these as we are now in a residential area with a small backyard. It’s easier to keep the compost together with the drums.

There is really no reason to require the use of a Bin for making compost. It comes down to personal choice, your setting or other circumstances.

Commercially compost heaps can be seen in Windrows often hundreds of metres long. Trucks back up to a pile and empties its load of organic waste and this process continues. The compost at one end is in the making while new organic matter is being added to the opposite end.

In a domestic residential setting however, this would require thinking on a much smaller scale. If using a small open air windrow method you may require some form of edging or catchment to keep the compost tidy and in its place.

Compost doesn’t always require turning but if it did, using a windrow or open air composting method will make it easier to turn if and when required.

Trench composting is another method of composting without the need for a bin. Trench composting is probably the easiest method of all. This method involves digging rows and composting in the hole.

I usually look to nature to see how she handles herself with anything before I do it. I then aim to duplicate that natural environment in a man made micro scale. Nature makes her own compost by falling leaves, dead plants and animals, insects, decaying plants and weeds and animal manure. Nature does not use a compost bin when building up her forest floors. If we can duplicate that in our backyard, we have achieved something.

A Compost bin looks good and enables it to fit and be created in a specific area. Its purpose is nothing more than cosmetic.

This article is not meant to be exhaustive. It is however, designed to provide you with options when it comes to making your compost heap.

If you have read my articles before you may know I am not in favour of adding household scraps to a compost heap. Household scraps are the main reason a Compost heap smells and attracts vermon.

Household scraps do have a place in the garden however. I usually put these in my worm farm.

If you do not have a worm farm there is still several ways you can use house scraps in the garden.

In this Article we will look at Trench composting.

This is an excellent way to build up your Vegetable gardens fertility and get rid of your house scraps at the same time.

4 simple steps to start a Trench compost.

Start by digging a row in your vegetable garden. Now dig another row placing the soil on top of the first row so you create a trench. This trench will become your Compost heap. During the next week put your household scraps in this trench.

After a weeks worth of scraps have been added to the trench, dig another trench by putting the soil from the row you are digging on top of the waste you placed in the previous trench.

Step 3 requires repeating step 2 until you have your bed completely dug.

Once you have completed all steps above you will be left with a row of household waste and nothing to dig on top of it because you have come to the end of the bed. There are a couple of options for completing this step…

• Option 1: I prefer to use this option. Simply use some green/brown compost and fill the hole or empty your grass catcher in the hole until its full.

• Option 2: You can rake the raised garden you have created until the soil fills the hole.

There are several variations to this method of composting.

I have read articles suggesting a variation to include digging between widely spaced rows of vegetables. This can damage the root system of plants if dug too close. I do use this variation sometimes but I don’t recommend it to new gardeners.

Another variation includes simply digging a hole emptying a bucket full of scraps and fill the hole in. This is ideal around the base of trees and shrubs. It’s a good idea to place a marker where you have placed each bucket full to ensure you don’t dig in the same location for a few months.

In a small or domestic backyard it is not impossible to have more compost than you can use. Fortunately there are many more uses for compost than just adding it to your veggie patch.

Some of the ways I use Compost around the home include:

1. Foliar Spray – Compost can be soaked in a bucket of water and the liquid used as a foliar spray for vegetables, annual flowers and shrubs. The best time to spray is in the evening when showers are forecast. This will ensure no residue dries on the leaves of the plants. If showers are not likely, water the plants an hour or so after applying the liquid compost. Depending on the method of application you may need to use a coarse spray watering can or you could strain the liquid compost using an old cotton sheet or similar rag. The leftover compost can be emptied under a tree or shrub.
2. Houseplant tonic – Using the same method used for a foliar spray, liquid compost makes an ideal tonic for houseplants. Avoid spraying on the foliage inside, as it can be messy. Dilute the concentrate at around a 10:1 ratio. Approximately 100ml to 1litre of water.
3. Compost makes an excellent potting mix for houseplants and outdoor plants in pots. The solid waste left after making the foliar spray or tonic would be ideal as a potting mix base. This should be dried for a day or so before using. The compost should be sifted through a 10mm screen before using. To aid drainage I use a simple perlite cat litter available from the supermarket. Its cheap and ideal for this type of use as it also absorbs moisture while aerating the mix.
4. The coarse screenings left after making your potting mix above can be used as a mulch on an annual flower bed or in the Veggie bed around beet crops like spinach and silverbeet.
5. Worm Farms – Yard compost can make an ideal bedding for a worm farm. It can also be used as a replacement food source if your worms will need a feed while you are away.
6. Compost should also be added to a vegetable garden before digging it up for the first seasonal planting. More can then be placed around vegetables as mulch as they begin to grow.

Have fun finding your own uses for compost around the home. If you find you still have too much, give it away to your fiends.

Anything that was once alive is often what we are told should be added to a compost heap – with the exception of meat scraps, citrus and onions.

I like to break with tradition when making compost. A typical compost heap in my backyard would include shredded leaves, lawn clippings, hay (or straw) and seedless weeds. I would also add animal manure from rabbits, chooks or sheep, depending on what was available.

I never (or make that rarely) add household scraps to a compost heap.

Worm farms are increasing in popularity. Worms will eat their own body weight in food every day so in theory 1kg of worms will consume 1 kg of waste each day, though this doesn’t always happen in practice.

Household scraps are the ideal food source for worms. The average family would produce enough household waste to feed 2000 – 10,000 worms on a daily basis.

I therefore prefer to use a 2 step composting method.

• 1. A Green / Brown compost heap using yard and garden waste.
• 2. A Worm farm fed from Household waste and scraps.

Not putting household waste in a traditional compost heap also helps prevent vermon and reduces the typical smell most compost heaps have.