Wormeries and Shredders
Wormeries and Shredders are for those who want to take composting a little more seriously

		Wormeries use friendly worms to create nutrients from organic kitchen waste and the like. Worms are valuable in the garden anyway because they naturally move organic matter around in the soil and contribute to its decomposition, but a wormery is a specialised container system. This houses a concentrated colony of the worms and when they are fed with the best of your plant waste they will, in return, produce the finest compost and a liquid feed.
		Shredders are a useful adjunct to producing large quantities of compost mainly from garden waste. They help to provide textured organic matter from twigs, prunings, hard stalks, etc which you would not normally compost; the shredder will speed up the composting process and increase its quality. It requires a bit of effort but the results are rewarding and satisfying.
		Night Flower; you should smell it! Bee on Lavender in our garden
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		Composting, Wormeries and Shredders Index Domestic Compost Advice Domestic Bins and Items Community Composting Wormeries   Garden Shredders

What is a Wormery?		A wormery is an easy, efficient system for converting organic kitchen waste into a bio-rich compost and liquid feed through the action of worms. Worms which convert the waste live in one of the internal chambers. For our main reference page on Wormeries which contains dedicated information, hints and tips click here . There's also a brief section on Wormeries in our general Tips on Making Compost page, click here to see that .
Wormery Advice and Materials(!)		Bucket of Worms are a family business specialising in breeding and growing Dendrobaena worms for composting. They provide information for worm composting and sell worms, the Worm Works wormery and accessories.
		Bull Electrical, Wormeries and Worms, two sizes of wormery are available, half-size for 1 or 2 people, full-size for 4+ people .
		Composting with Worms, by George Pilkington is described as the complete guide to domestic vermicomposting. It discusses how worms work, which worms to use; which bin is best, using the compost and what to do if things go wrong. Written in an easy to read style it shows how the individual can easily turn food and garden waste into a valuable, soil-enhancing compost.
		Evengreener (Blackwall) sell a complete range of environmental products to help you go greener; wormeries, composters, water butts, home recycling and more. Blackwall is the retail division of Straight plc. Unfortunately our personal experience is that their delivery times can be ridiculously long.
		Green Gardener sell and provide useful information on a range of different types of wormeries, including conventional, leaf and 'wormless wormeries'. They also sell products and give info on composting and gardening .
		Meadow Cottage Worms blend pure worm with recycled organic farm wastes, to produce chemical free multi purpose compost. They supply live worms for gardeners,for the retail and wholesale trade.
		Nicky's Nursery sell a range of wormeries, composting worms and composters; look under 'Sundries' on their site. Their speciality is seeds.
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Wormery Advice and Materials continued		Nurturing Nature's Waste Buster range, designed by a vermiculture (worm-growing) expert, is stated to be a proven system to dispose of household waste. Made of wood, they come in a range of sizes.
		OllieRecycles, tells you how you can make a wormery at home
		Original Organics sell a range of wormeries of different sizes and styles, from a junior wormery for a single person to large family sized ones, and even a Pet Poo Wormery. They sell worms (also composters), give advice and have a wormery forum.
		Pauline Lloyd, in her Vegan News Letter gives a succinct and informative account of vermicomposting. She includes useful references to books such as Worms Eat My Garbage, by Mary Applehoff which tells about composting with worms. She also describes a DIY composter based on The Complete Manual of Organic Gardening edited by Basil Caplan.
		The Recycle Works have Waste Buster wormeries of different sizes, made from FCS wood and featuring special worm bedding .
		VermiSell worm farm specialises in supplying worms; their website tells you about home composting with worms. They sell wormeries, worms (raised on their Cumbrian site), worm castings, compost products.
		West Country Worms work in partnership with South Hams, Torbay and Islington Councils to provide reduced priced Wormeries and Compost Bins.
		Wiggly Wigglers supply worms to companies, local authorities and thousands of individual customers. They also provide wormery advice and sell composters and a range of other products .
		Wormeries and info are available in garden centres. For example:
		Can-O-Worms Composter is a tray composter with 1000 worms & instructions.
		Compost Turbo Charger Aid to compost making; kit contains 12000 composting worms, coir bedding, lime mix and full instructions
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Garden Shredders		A garden shredder can turn your shrub prunings, garden plants, piles of leaves, flowers etc into instant mulch or provide a source for rapid composting. More powerful shredders will chip tree prunings and branches more than 3" (75 mm) thick. Some are even capable of grinding clods of earth and root balls into fine potting soil. Adding some shredded paper to the mix can help the process and improve the compost. This is easily done by hand (or other means: see the photo of our personal, organic, paper shredding machine on the left). In these days of increasing identity theft a cross-cut paper shredder is ideal for preparing a compost additive from discarded personal documents. Using a garden shredder requires a little practice; it is important to get the right mix of green (wet) and brown (dry) material. Too much green and the outlet will clog, too much dry may create choking dust. Goggles and gloves are a must and a breathing gauze and ear defenders a maybe; oh and you'll need a pusher stick. We use a small domestic shredder, one of the cheaper ones, but, with hindsight, have since decided that we should have spent more to get a bigger more powerful one and chosen a 'quiet' model. But don't be put off by these admissions; get it right and the job can be very satisfying.
		AL-KO Kober sell a range of garden shredders, including 'silent' shredders and dynamic micro shredders from 1.8 to 2.3kW, cutting up to 35-45 mm .
		Atco Quiet Shredders offer an environmentally friendly means of transforming garden waste into small chippings for the compost heap .
		Black and Decker advertise three compact and powerful garden shredders, with 1600, 1800 and 2200 Watt motors. For more info click here .
		Bosch sell two ranges of garden shredder. Bosch Quiet Shredders give durability and high performance, having a spiral cutting system with automatic feed. Rapid Impact Blade Shredders have a laser-cut precision blade offering high cutting performance and faster speed.
		Draper Tools sell portable 1.5 and 1.8 kW garden shredders, which chop garden waste up to 32 or 38 mm dia. into small pieces for composting .
		Doppstadt manufacture mobile and stationary Waste and Wood Shredders, Composting and other Waste Reduction Machinery .
		Globe Organic Services Ltd sell compost shredders/chippers, from those suitable for domestic gardens to professional models suited to landscapers, smallholders, local authorities .
		JCB sell 1.8kW and 2.4kW garden shredders with 32 mm and 37mm inlet capacity, safety features and integral debris collection box.
		Mighty Mac shredders are produced by Allen Power Equipment Ltd, who do a range of consumer and commercial chipper shredders, capable of handling branches up to 90mm thick. Search on your browser for details and suppliers
		The Mountfield quiet shredder has a 2.2kW motor driving a cut and crush action of the shredding blade, cutting up to 40cm, with a low noise level of 94db(A) and auto feed with reverse facility to help clear blockages.
		Scheppach Lonos domestic compost shredders come in three sizes. They are sold by The Recycle Works .
		Skipton Hire Centre (SHC) Ltd offers plant, tools and equipment, including Compost shredders, for sale or hire at daily, weekend or weekly rates .
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