Keeping a wormery is an easy & environmentally friendly way of turning your kitchen waste into a nutrient rich compost, that is known to gardeners as black gold, because of its almost magical effects on plants & vegetables.

Each day, the worms in your wormery will eat & & digest up to ½ their own body weight in waste. This is important, because it is now estimated that in the West, each person generates about 500 kilos of waste every year. The really startling fact is that nearly seventy per cent of this household waste, has the potential to be either recycled or composted.

Although people are aware & express concern about environmental issues, recent surveys suggest that most people will not take action until it actually hits them in their pocket. This could be about to happen sooner than we all think.

With landfill sites, under pressure, as well as local government budgets, there are now plans in the pipeline to charge householders for the rubbish they leave out for collection. Even though recyclable waste will be collected free, there is the possibility that all other household rubbish will soon be charged by the kilo to be removed.

Even before this happens, it will be a good idea to look at your personal spending & realise how much the kitchen waste, you are throwing in the bin is costing you… You really are just throwing good money in the bin. Lots of the food we throw away is still edible, we just buy to much of it… A lot of this waste can be eliminated by simple planning, drawing up menus & when it comes to perishable foods, keeping to the shopping list & just purchasing what you need.

If you use a wormery to turn the kitchen waste that you do have left, into useful compost, & then use that compost to grow some of your own food, like salads & tomatoes you can supplement your shopping. I am sure you will be pleasantly surprised how much you knock off your weekly shopping bill.

You do not have to become an urban farmer if you do not want to, but if you simply concentrate on growing a few of those crops that are expensive to buy, like specialist salads, which are easy to grow in the summer, you will eat better & have more money left in your pocket.

If you are considering growing your own veg, especially in raised beds, the worm cast compost, if used as a top dressing will increase your chances of producing a bountiful crop. Some gardeners swear that the Black Gold increases veg crops by up to 20%.There is nothing more delicious or healthier for you than eating freshly picked vegetables .

There are plenty of good commercial wormeries on the market, from simple, stacked plastic boxes to stylish wooden ones designed to resemble cottage garden beehives. Clear? If you are handy & want to save money, you can always build your own. A very good place to start, would be to get the DIY Wormery Manual you can download this e-book from the Internet, & apart from plans to build a wormery to use or sell, it will explain how to care, feed & breed worms.

If you have a garden access, to an allotment, keeping a wormery has got to be an attractive proposition. Not only will it help you save money, it will also help to look after the environment.