A Warm Worm Welcome!

The Fall Festival brought along our newest residents of the Hawks Garden - compost worms! Let's learn a bit about them....

These Red Wriggler Worms are amazing decomposers. The worms munch on our human food scraps and turn them into garden gold. The worm castings (otherwise known as worm poop) create a fantastic fertilizer for plants. It is full of nutrients from the food scraps, and so it is excellent for sprouting seeds or making “compost tea.”

Our worm bin is also an excellent educational tool; students get to experience decomposition at work. A student can put their banana peel (sticker removed) into the worm bin, and in a few weeks, observe its transformation into compost. It also helps our students learn about being respectful and caring of the small creatures that make a huge difference in our lives. Without these incredible invertebrates, we would not have food to eat, and having them in our outdoor classroom is a great reminder of this.

One of the other most important lessons our worms will help teach is how beneficial composting is. The worms turning our waste into fertilizer is a visual and hands-on process that shows students the advantages of composting. It reduces food waste, sustainably returns nutrients to our soil, and connects the processes of decomposition and growth.

Students can look forward to interacting with the worms during garden recess, or during a decomposition lesson later in the school year!