It's red, it wriggles, and it's here to save the world — one potato peel at a time. For those unacquainted with this little eco-warrior, I'm talking about the humble earthworm. Well, to be more specific, I'm talking about millions of earthworms.

Okay, so I admit the gross-factor is pretty high, but once you've heard what these (actually very clean) little wrigglers can do, you'll be clambering to get your own domestic worm farm started.

The advantages of worm farming are two-fold. You can make superb organic fertiliser and compost for your garden whilst at the same time reducing your carbon footprint by cutting down the amount of waste you send to landfills.

Waste not, want not

The average South African family produces roughly five kilograms of waste each day. Of this approximately two kilos are organic (food) waste. This organic waste generally ends up in landfills where it rots under anaerobic (no oxygen) conditions giving off the greenhouse gas, methane.

Six species of earthworm — most commonly Eisenia Foetida and Lumbricus rubellis — are able to convert organic matter into rich compost and fertiliser.

Contrary to popular belief, these worms are perfectly hygienic as they are free of parasites and viruses and are able to increase beneficial bacteria and reduce odours.

Inside the guts of these particular worms are masses of beneficial bacteria and microbes. Everything digested by the earthworm is coated in these microbes and bacteria. The microbes break down the organic matter into forms which are easily absorbed by plants so that nutrients which would otherwise have remained in the soil can be used by the plants.

Better fertilisers

From the organic matter, the earthworms produce two products which you can use in your garden. The solid vermicast (literally worm poop), can be used as compost and the liquid vermitea (worm tea) can be used as an effective fertiliser. An added ecological bonus is that you will no longer need to rely on the less effective chemical fertilisers which are produced from fossil fuels.

A worm farm is preferable to a straightforward compost heap for two reasons. The first is that the nutrients in the vermicast are more readily absorbed by the plants. The second is that a compost heap, if not properly aerated, still produces damaging methane gas. It's also prone to producing bad odours and attracting pests.

One man's trash…

The Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town has a vermicomposting farm which produces 80 kilos of fertiliser a month from the organic waste produced in the kitchens. This quantity of fertiliser is produced by 160 000 earthworms.

Luckily, you won't need quite so many. It's advisable to start off with at least 1000 earthworms (250 grams). These earthworms reproduce quickly, and after a period of about two years, you should have between 15 000 and 20 000 earthworms — capable of processing two kilograms of organic waste a day. If two years seems a little too long to wait, start off with more earthworms.

An earthworm can eat its body weight in food each day. Although this may seem like a lot, it means that in the beginning you will only be able to feed your worms 250 grams of food each day. Don't over-feed the worms as this will lead to the excess food rotting and producing bad odours.

Because the worms used in vermicomposting farms are a special species of European earthworm, it means that you can't just collect them from your garden. It's also important to note that they won't survive in the soil as other earthworms do.

Full Cycle (www.fullcycle.co.za), an environmental company based in Noordhoek, Cape Town, sells a mixture of Eisenia foetida and Eisenia ardenii worms as well as easy to use worm composting systems — Can-O-Worms and Worm Factory.

Considering that you'll be cutting future fertiliser costs, the systems aren't really all that expensive. The Can-O-Worms goes for R800 and the Worm Factory for R700, while 250 grams of worms can be bought for R150.

A Can-O-Worms

Systems such as the Can-O-Worms are relatively small (width: 50cm, height: 73cm) and easy to use. However, if you don't want to dish out the money, you can probably construct your own system quite easily.

The Can-O-Worms works on a system of interchangeable trays. The worms move upwards towards the food in the upper trays leaving the vermicast in the bottom tray. The kitchen scraps are placed on the top tray and new trays are added until the top (third) working tray gets full. By this time the worms should all have left the bottom tray which will be full of vermicast. This is removed, emptied into the garden and placed at the top of the tray pile.

The top tray should also have a layer of bedding. The food scraps should be placed in between and beneath the bedding. The bedding can be made from shredded newspaper/paper/cardboard, sawdust and leaves. The earthworms like this section the most and it should be kept moist and aerated (fluffed up). Soil or fine sand can be sprinkled over the bedding to provide some grit for the worms’ digestive systems.

It is important that you keep your vermicomposting system away from extreme temperatures. The correct pH balance also need to be maintained, which means that you may need to experiment with different food scraps to find out what works best.

Finally, it is important that the decaying organic matter doesn't become anaerobic, so you need to carefully fluff up the top layer.

Convinced yet? It's low maintenance, your garden will flourish and you'll help save the planet. Plus, if the Mount Nelson is investing in them, it's got to be worth a shot — right?