The GREEN Page

THIS WEEK IN SUSTAINABILITY

Lower Junior students tried some cooked beetroot from the kitchen garden grown by our senior students. They also listened to a story called Harriet’s Hungry Worms by Samantha Smith. Harriet feeds her worms regularly but they don’t seem to do anything until she discovers a tap on the side of her big, green box and discovers how wonderful they are to help the soil and make the vegetables grow. Students learned how to make their own mini compost bin, using shredded paper, soil, food scraps, a little water and added the compost worms. They learned that worms love to eat: vegetable peels, garden leaves, shredded paper, tea leaves and crushed egg shells. They don’t like a lot of citrus food, onions and garlic, meat, dairy food or spicy food. 

Worm Facts: There are around 3500 species of worms in the world. They have been on our planet for 500 million years. A compost worm eats around half of its body weight in food scraps each day. Worms turn the food that you feed them into ‘worm poo’ (vermicast) and ‘worm wee’ (a natural liquid fertilizer)

Once the worms have turned the food scraps into compost the students can empty the compost into their garden at home.