Worms

In 2009, Year 1 established 2 worm farms on the balcony outside their classroom with the aims of reducing school waste and creating fertiliser for the gardens. Marrickville Council ran a workshop for parents and teachers on how to set up and maintain the worm farm and students provided fruit and vegetable scraps from their lunches to feed the worms.



Click here for a PDF file that tells you all you need to know about building a worm farm or fixing one that has gone a bit squiffy!

Some basic rules to follow include:


Other tips:

• keep the worms damp but not too wet
• avoid dryness as this encourages ants and cockroaches
• in summer make sure the worm farm is kept in shade to avoid getting too hot
• in winter, it will slow down a lot due to cold weather - unless it can be kept in a dappled shade spot to increase the heat and therefore the activity of the worms
• use the right worm stock – red or tiger worms are recommended
• use garden gloves to handle the worm farm to protect fingers from visiting spiders

Just in time for the May Fair, Year 1 bottled up the precious Worm Juice for sale.



They used recycled drink bottles that had come from the canteen and added stickers with information for the buyers:


The worm farms have been so successful that the school is now establishing a Worm Factory! There are to be 5 worm farms, one for each day of the week, and the aim is to use all the school's food scraps.

This week's Garden Club was very popular. Children who'd never been before came to get their gloves into gooey worms and squishy horse manure in the worm farm building process.



A week later, the Worm Factory was up and running thanks to the hard work (and busy colouring in) by Year One students.