My “junior” wormery arrived. So called because it’s the compact version, and very neat it is too.

The stresses of being a wormer are considerable, however. “Start them with a few handfuls of kitchen waste then don’t feed again for a week” the booklet says, but the binmen came yesterday and I don’t want them to starve. In the end I gave them a few scraps and they’ll get more when it comes – I’ll just have to hope I don’t over feed them, but I don’t want to risk them starving either!

“Avoid extremes of temperatures, especially when starting out” the booklet says. There goes my plan to stick them in the garden – they’ll have to stay indoors for a bit if they want 18oC… At least until they’re established. Nor will they be able to stay out when there’s a frost, or remain in the sunny spot I’d picked over the summer. They don’t like it too acid, either, so easy on the lemon peel. I gave them some pages from the Guardian. Apparently they like to read, but they don’t like it to be too right wing.