It was a great pleasure for me to be able to collaborate with Pôle Sud in Lausanne for another sustainable living workshop. This time we did a three hour course on creating and caring for a worm bin. Together we looked at some basic anatomy how do worms move, feed themselves, multiply and eventually die. We then discussed the needs and behaviours of our little red wrigglers, which conditions they do and do not like, what certain behaviours are telling us about there health and how we can make sure to take good care of this valuable ecosystem.
The participants then each built their own two-levelled bin and added the worms to their new homes.
Owning worms has become a more commonly "acceptable" thing to do these last few years. That's not surprising when you see some "coffee table" or art deco style bin your can own, but if you are simply looking to reduce your household waste, or cannot have a compost bin out doors then this is a straightforward solution. Up to 30% of what we throw away can be composted by worms and turned into free fertiliser for our indoor and outdoor plants. People Buy worm castings in garden centres....so why not make our own??
Worms can eat up to half their weight in food every day. Therefore if you start off with 200g ( a standard starting weight) then you can compost 100g of fresh scraps a day... that should cover most of your kitchen scraps over the week!
In a classroom the worm bin can lead onto so many activities and opportunities for learning life skills. Caring for another living being, providing the rights foods, considering humidity and air flow, noise, disturbances etc. Having discussions about recycling, composting, biodegradable material, pollutants, life cycles. Worms play such a fundamental role in the balancing of the ecosystem that we live in; making the soil in which we then cultivate our food! But they are often overlooked. So inviting them into your home or your class is a nice way of recognising their importance and taking part in reducing our waste.
For more courses please go to their link:
http://polesud.ch/activites/categorie/nature-sante/agir/
The participants then each built their own two-levelled bin and added the worms to their new homes.
Owning worms has become a more commonly "acceptable" thing to do these last few years. That's not surprising when you see some "coffee table" or art deco style bin your can own, but if you are simply looking to reduce your household waste, or cannot have a compost bin out doors then this is a straightforward solution. Up to 30% of what we throw away can be composted by worms and turned into free fertiliser for our indoor and outdoor plants. People Buy worm castings in garden centres....so why not make our own??
Worms can eat up to half their weight in food every day. Therefore if you start off with 200g ( a standard starting weight) then you can compost 100g of fresh scraps a day... that should cover most of your kitchen scraps over the week!
In a classroom the worm bin can lead onto so many activities and opportunities for learning life skills. Caring for another living being, providing the rights foods, considering humidity and air flow, noise, disturbances etc. Having discussions about recycling, composting, biodegradable material, pollutants, life cycles. Worms play such a fundamental role in the balancing of the ecosystem that we live in; making the soil in which we then cultivate our food! But they are often overlooked. So inviting them into your home or your class is a nice way of recognising their importance and taking part in reducing our waste.
For more courses please go to their link:
http://polesud.ch/activites/categorie/nature-sante/agir/