Vermicompost With Junior Master Gardeners

Normally, I only put my writing on my blog but here is a column about the Junior Master Gardeners at Whittier Elementary School learning about compost worms. The students made homes for their worms and then were excited to select a worm for their very own.

Junior Master Gardeners learn, squirm with worms

Program 'gives kids exposure to nature,' teacher says

By Cathy Spaulding Phoenix Staff Writer

The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out. Their duty is helping the vegetables sprout.

That's what the Junior Master Gardeners at Whittier Elementary School will learn in a joint program with Muskogee's Farmers' Market.

Students in Whittier's Junior Master Gardener program spent Friday afternoon filling jugs with dirt, coffee grounds, shredded paper, vegetable scraps, leaves and wet spaghetti and putting a worm in each jug. There, the worms will make compost for vegetable gardens.

How?"The worm eats everything and poops," said Martha Stoodley, a volunteer with Muskogee Farmers' Market. The Farmers' Market is helping with the composting program. The Whittier students will feed and tend to the worms over the next few weeks, then help give out worm composting kits when the Muskogee Farmers' Market opens at the Muskogee Civic Center on April 19, Earth Day.

Whittier's Junior Master Gardener program meets after school two Fridays a month. It is funded through a Learn and Serve grant from the Cherokee Nation.

"The Junior Master Gardener gives kids exposure to nature," said Whittier second-grade teacher Melissa Brown, who sponsors the program. Students in second- through sixth-grade are participating in the program.Program participants got down and dirty in Brown's classroom Friday as they dug their hands through the dirt and ground coffee and ripped apart bell peppers.

They put the coffee and dirt in first, then a bed of shredded office paper, then the food, then the spaghetti.

"I put in dirt, leaves, paper, leaves, dirt, paper so my worm will have two places to stay," said fifth-grader Jacob Hubley. He said he named his worm "Worm Norris, Law of Coffee Bean Town."Jacob already knew a few facts about worms. "If you cut a worm in half, it will poop, too," he said. "I should know. I go fishing with them."

Other students got a hands-on lesson in worm behavior.

"They're mating on my hand," participant Chris Watson said, holding his arm up to show what was going on.

Stoodley confirmed that, yes, that was what the worms were doing.Brown will keep the worm habitats in her classroom.

Fifth-grader Patricia Lemon said she plans to feed her worms lettuce and bell peppers every day.

"You have to keep it in the shade," Patricia said."And make sure your little sister or brother doesn't suffocate it," said fifth-grader Elizabeth Smith.

Brown said the composting program is one aspect of the Junior Master Gardener program. She said students are converting a school courtyard into an outdoor classroom that will include different types of fauna including tropical and desert. The classroom also will feature a butterfly habitat.

Late Winter Gardening and Vermicomposting: The Worm Hotel Is About to Have Guests

Lowe's has their late winter vegetable starts in. Packs of 9 plants are about $3.50. I want to plant Brussel sprouts and broccoli using starts so I asked Sue Gray at the OSU Extension in Tulsa for some guidance. Here is her response.

"Go ahead and plant your brassica starts, but DO protect those tops….especially whenever it's going below 32 degrees F……the storebought transplants are probably not hardened off….so you may want to spend a little quality time on them or go ahead and cover with some kind of protection from wind, extreme light AND cold."
So, my new babies are inside under lights for now since we are supposed to get several more freezing nights this week. I'll transplant them out of these cells because there are two plants in some of them.

THE WORM HOTEL
Composting with worms, vermicomposting - Hubby built a four-story hotel for the compost worms we ordered from Uncle Jim's Worm Farm. I called Uncle Jim and the Red Wrigglers (Eisenia foetida) are supposed to be shipped this week.
We saw a similar four-story structure on the Internet and followed other instructions from the book, "Worms Eat My Garbage."
Basically, compost worms eat fruits and veggies plus shredded, damp newsprint. Many composters keep them in a can or plastic bin under the kitchen sink since that is a handy, warm, dark place for feeding and keeping track of them.

They do not try to escape all the time like caterpillars, but rather, keep to dark places under several inches of the damp, torn newspaper or shredded office paper.
You can tell by the design that they need air and plenty of bedding.

Also, note that the bottom tray is lifted with wood blocks under it and a drip tray on the floor. "Worms Eat My Garbage" said all these features are important for this type of setup.

I'll take a few more photos of the excited worms when they see their new digs. They should be dancing - I'll keep the blog updated.

Hopefully, I can involve the Junior Master Gardener Program at Whittier Elementary School in the project of raising another generation and making compost worm kits to give away on Earth Day at Muskogee Farmer's Market.

The City Farmer website has all the information you need to do a Red Wriggler composter.

A few points emphasized on the site:

Damp bedding is what the worms live in and can include cardboard, shredded leaves, straw, sawdust and aged manure - the more variety in bedding the better the resulting garden compost.

They also need a bit of sand or soil as grit for digestion.

Since worms are like us and are made up mostly of water, the bedding has to be moist to support their life. (They can't go get a glass of iced tea when feeling dry.)