Worm Buffet

I've had worm farms before and had mixed success with them. This is a bit of a different take on a traditional worm farm and instead of a standalone box this is an 'in-ground worm farm'. This has a couple of advantages, such as being able to self-regulate the moisture level and providing the worms an escape route if the conditions become uninhabitable.

The main item you need with this is just a piece of large diameter PVC pipe, I also used an old handle and some PVC cement.

Start by measuring off a length of PVC pipe about 450mm long. I like to mark this with some tape to get a straight cutting line, you can either saw this to length with a handsaw or bench saw.

You can now use a sander to smooth the ends of the PVC pipe, use a deburring tool or knife to remove any burrs from the edges.

Use some dividers and a ruler to lay out where you need to drill holes and mark the locations with a sharpie.

Now it's time to drill all the holes in the PVC pipe, you can do this with a drill press or just use a cordless drill.

Use a jigsaw to cut alternating slots between the holes, I then went back with a drywall saw to widen the slots a little more.

Once again you can go back and clean up the slots to remove the burrs.

Make two PVC sheets from some of the leftover PVC pipe from the linked instructable. Use the deviders to scribe out two circles, the first one should fit snugly inside the PVC pipe and the second one should have a 10mm larger radius.

Now saw the two circles out and sand the edges smooth.

Drill a hole through the centre of each circle and test fit the parts together with the old drawer handle.

Now use PVC cement to glue both parts together, making sure to use the handle's bolt to align the parts. Once you have applied the PVC cement clamp the parts together and allow the PVC cement to set.

Now dig a hole into your garden deep enough for the top couple of inches to point out the ground. You can insert your worm buffet into the ground now and carefully backfill any dirt around the sides.

Then just throw in some table scraps and put the lid on. You can either wait for worms to migrate into the buffet or add some worms yourself.