As a novice gardener, it’s hard to think and design for the long term. Things going into the garden need to last not just for months, or even years, but perhaps decades. Our consumer society also tends towards fancy solutions that aren’t robust.

Our worm farm is a perfect example. I’ve had it for years, and it was a lovely solution. It sat on my balcony, resting on four legs. Sliding doors gave access to the vermicast, and there was a tap to draw off the worm juice.

It wasn’t to last.

• The tap was the first thing to go, when it clogged up and stopped working.
• When shifting the worm farm on the balcony, one of the plastic legs broke off.
• Then when moving it to our new house, I discovered that the bolts holding the sides together had rusted into a mass of iron.

When we got it to the house, I abandoned the three remaining legs, and sat it on a row of bricks. But over time, the whole thing sank into the ground, at an angle, so the lid didn’t go on properly.

So with my new-found renovation skills, I made a small concrete pad for it, as shown above. The base, with its broken tap, was finally discarded.

The result: four sides and a lid, sitting on concrete. This will last!

It’s a lesson that’s hard to learn, and it highlights why we should always listen to our grandparents when it comes to gardening. They’ve seen and done it all, and have long since settled on solutions that work for decades…