VOA慢速英语:Putting Worms to Work to Help Your Garden Grow

What can you do with earthworms? Some people use the creepy crawlers to catch fish. But others put worms to work making compost. Compost looks and feels like good soil. Gardeners and farmers add it to soil to make plants grow better.
你可以用蚯蚓来干什么呢？有的人用这种爬行动物作鱼饵来钓鱼。但是其他人用蚯蚓来制作堆肥。堆肥看上去和摸上去都非常像肥沃的土壤。园丁和农民将堆肥加入土壤中，使植物更好地生长。

You can make compost from food waste at home with or without the help of worms. How the worms help is by first eating and processing the food. It comes out the other end of the worm as rich compost.
无论有没有蚯蚓的帮助，你可以在家使用食物垃圾来制作堆肥。蚯蚓会首先将食物吃掉，进行处理，排出的粪便就是肥沃的堆肥。

Kim Gabel from the University of Florida Extension service in Key West suggests using red worms known as red wigglers.
基韦斯特佛罗里达推广大学的Kim Gabel建议使用红蚯蚓。

KIM GABEL: "The red wigglers are the best varieties for doing it because they are more of a surface feeder. Because different worms live in different strata, or portions of the earth."
Kim Gabel：“红蚯蚓用来制作堆肥是最好的，因为他们主要在土壤表层活动。不同的蚯蚓居住在不同的土壤层。”

You need a container to hold the waste and the worms. The size of the composting bin depends on how much compost you want to make. You need about a kilogram of worms for each half a kilogram of daily food waste that you add.
你需要一个容器来存放废物和蚯蚓。容器的大小取决于你想要制作多少堆肥。如果每天加入0.5千克的食品废物，你需要大约1千克蚯蚓。

Kim Gabel says the bin needs holes so the worms can get air.
Kim Gabel说，容器上必须留有小孔，这样蚯蚓才能获得空气。

KIM GABEL: "The worms do breathe. So that is a very important factor, along with they also like to be in the dark."
Kim Gabel：“蚯蚓需要呼吸，所以这是一个非常重要的因素。并且他们也喜欢生活在黑暗的环境中。”

So cover the bin to keep out the light.
所以要把容器覆盖起来遮挡光线照射。

One thing worms do not like is very high temperatures. Kim Gabel lives in the warm climate of southern Florida. She keeps her worm bin indoors. Unpleasant smells can be prevented by controlling the amount of food waste added to the bin and avoiding meat or bones.
蚯蚓不喜欢的是非常高的温度。Kim Gabel居住在气候温暖的佛罗里达南部。她将容器放置在室内。控制每天加入的食品废物的数量，不要加入肉或骨头，这样就可以防止不愉快的气味。

For composting with worms, you need bedding that is moist but not too wet. The amount of water you add will depend on the bedding material you use. Kim Gabel uses newspaper cut into strips about two and a half centimeters wide. Add two handfuls of soil for every half square meter of bedding material and mix well.
用蚯蚓制作堆肥，你需要湿润但是不要太潮湿的垫子。加水量取决于你选择的垫子的材料。Kim Gabel使用剪成2.5厘米宽的长条的报纸。每半平方米的垫子上加入两把土，充分混合。

Spread the worms over the bedding. The worms will start to wiggle their way down. Remove any worms that remain on top of the bedding after two hours.
把蚯蚓散布到垫料上。蚯蚓便开始扭动着钻下去。两小时后，将仍然停留在垫料表面的蚯蚓拿走。

When you feed the worms, place the food about two and a half centimeters below the surface of the bedding and cover it.
喂食蚯蚓时，将食物放置到垫料下方2.5厘米处，然后盖好。

The worm's waste, or castings, should be ready to use as compost within two to six months.
两到六个月内，蚯蚓的排泄物就能够作为堆肥使用了。

To remove the compost, you can push it all to one side of the bin. Place new bedding and food on the other side. Within a few weeks the worms will move to the new bedding. Now you can remove the compost and fill the empty space with new bedding.
要移走堆肥的话，你可以把堆肥推到容器的一边。在另外一边加入新的垫子和食物。几周之内，蚯蚓就会转移到新的垫子上。现在，你就可以将堆肥取出来，在闲置的空间加入新的垫子。