Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Recipe for Happy Worms

Nothing is more exciting than 1500 red worms wiggling in the dirt.  Just ask the kids in our afterschool gardening class. Here's their recipe for worm compost:

Ingredients
1500 Red Wiggler worms from a source such as Amazon.
10 gallon plastic bin with a few 1/4" holes drilled in the lid.
Shredded newspaper
Water
Food scraps
Dirt


1)    Put shredded newspaper in bin to cover bottom. 
2)   Get it damp but not soaking - about 2 cups of water is good.
3)  Put in some food scraps like, banana peels, apple cores, melon rind, coffee grounds, old squash, weeds you pull up from your beds (just make sure they’re not producing seeds!) What will the worms like best?


4Add a few handfuls of dirt.
5)   Examine your worms to make sure they’re alive and wriggling.         


Be sure to exclaim over their grossness, their slimyness, and the possiblity that they will poop on you.

6)  Put all 1500 worms in the bin!  (this is the fun part!)

7)  Gently cover worms with materials already in the bin.

8) Put them in a place where they won’t freeze. 


9) Check back in a week.  Is there some “black gold” compost in the bottom of the bin?  Use it as fertilizer for your garden beds. 



     10)  Or, make "poop tea," by tying worm compost or manure in gauze and floating it in a bucket of water.    After a few days, use the brew to water your plants. 

 
Got worms?? 

8 comments:

TALON said...

The photos are fabulous, JGH! I love the way they are cupping the soil so tenderly to exclaim over the worm poop! :)

Those children are lucky to have such an amazing hands-on program!

Oh, and I caught some shots of the super moon :)

tut-tut said...

It's so important to get them hands-on first thing! go, JGH, go!

meemsnyc said...

How wonderful that you are teaching the kids. Awesome idea!!

Joanne said...

You're definitely making gardening fun for these kids. They'll be gardening all their lives now :)

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

What a fun an exciting day for the kids and they have the excuse to get their hand dirty. I wish we had gardening class in school back then.

tina said...

What fun for the kids! They'll remember the worms forever and ever!

Pam J. said...

Yay! for you and Yay! for the worms. I love my worms so much that I gave them their own blog.
(http://mylovelyworms.blogspot.com/)

Wendy McDonagh-Valentine said...

What an awesome blog post!!! "Poop tea" !!!!! BLAH!!! I think it is beyond fantastic that you're teaching the kids how to garden. Every year I swear I'm going to plant a vegetable garden and every year comes and goes without a garden being planted. This year, I swear it's going to finally come to fruition!! I already have my son's friend on board saying that he's going to help me dig it up. I had a garden when I was a child and I absolutely loved having it. There's nothing like fresh veggies!! Happy spring!! :)

~ Wendy
http://Crickleberrycottage.blogspot.com/