Green & Clean

Vermicomposting is becoming quite popular at schools and nature centers. Kids are really fascinated to see kitchen scraps turn into compost in 60 days. The compost provides much needed vitamins and minerals for plants, including phosphorous and nitrogen.

You can use a wooden container or a plastic bin that can be picked up at any discount store. Make aeration holes on the top and bottom. Newspaper makes the perfect bedding for worms. It has to be shredded into thin strips about one inch wide so that it will decompose much more quickly.
Kids enjoy shredding newspapers to provide bedding for worms to live in.

After the paper is shredded, add water–three times as much water as paper. For four pounds of paper, use one and one-half gallons of water. Sprinkle the water in. Kids like to mix the water in with the paper. Then add two cups of soil.

Now you’re ready to add the worms. You need red wigglers, which you can order from worm growers, bait stores or get from farms (under manure piles). They reproduce quickly. You will need 2,000 worms for one bin.

Once all of the worms are added to the container, all that’s left is feeding them. You can use expired fruits, vegetables and eggshells.

You can also feed the worms any flowers or debris from your garden. Just make sure it’s not chemically treated or diseased. Do not add dairy products, meat, fish, bones, oily foods or plastics.

Mix the food material in well. Stirring helps aerate the bed. If you bury the food underneath the newspaper, it will keep the worms from smelling.

Once the food is mixed up, cover the container. Make sure that it’s dark in there because worms don’t like light. Feed the worms as often as you have scraps and in two to three months, you’ll have wonderful compost. It’s great for houseplants and in the garden.

Related: 15 Homemade Organic Gardening Sprays and Concoctions That Actually Work
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