York Town News
Wonderful worms: York 4-H creates composting bin for Center for Wildlife
By Melissa Wood
Members of the Coastal Clovers 4-H club uncover a "can-o-worms" composting bin. The bin has three trays and can hold up to 20,000 worms. The club will be donating the bin and worms to the Center for Wildlife on March 9.
Photos by Melissa Wood
Members of the Coastal Clovers 4-H club uncover a "can-o-worms" composting bin. The bin has three trays and can hold up to 20,000 worms. The club plans to donate the bin and worms to the Center for Wildlife, which can provide both composting material for growing gardens and a continuous supply of worms to help feed the birds that are being rehabilitated there.
Photo by Melissa Wood
Julia and Isabel Lahey show their poster of the life cycle of a worm at the Coastal Clovers 4-H meeting on Sunday, Feb. 25.
Photo by Melissa Wood
This is one of the many facts that members of York's Coastal Clovers 4-H Club have learned about worms, a topic they've been researching as they get ready to donate a worm composting bin to the Center for Wildlife on Friday, March 9.
The worms in the bin should be ready for their first harvest by summer, and will be fed to birds undergoing rehabilitation at the center.
"If they have their own worms, they won't have to buy them," said Rosie Perkins, an eight-year-old member of the club.
As the Coastal Clovers get ready to make that donation, they've also been taking care of the worm bin and learning all about worms so they can share that knowledge with the staff at the Center for Wildlife, which will soon be taking care of their new worm bin.
On Sunday, Feb. 23, the club gathered to talk about some of the things they've discovered about worms and take a look at how the worms are doing in the bin.
The worms in the bin are placed on a layer of newspapers, then food waste is added, which the worms can break down into "vermicompost" - more commonly known as "worm poop" - that drops down into the bottom layer and can be used as a soil additive.
At the same time, the worms in the bin multiply quickly and can be used for bait or, in the case of the wildlife center bin, for feeding the birds. The bin that will be going to the center can hold up to 20,000 worms.
"That's why they're called worm farms, because they're harvesting," said Grace Ciccarelli, another third-grade member of the Coastal Clovers, who talked about worm farming and how it works.
The children were assigned different topics to research and present on at Sunday's event.
Already the worms in the bin for the center have thrived under the care of the Osgood family, who has held onto the bin before the donation. Project organizer and 4-H leader Russ Osgood said he regularly puts in coffee grounds and his daughter Haleigh put in a banana the first day the worms arrived.
"Once it gets going you can add on a daily basis," said Russ, who added that food must start to decay before the worms will eat it. "With worms, they don't smell food. They smell the bacteria on it, so it has to start to break down."
The club bought the composting bin from RedWorms for a Green Earth, a worm farm in Rollinsford, N.H., with support from the Pine Tree 4-H Club Foundation. People interested in worm farming can also make their own composting bins.
The Bardwell family created their own by using a big plastic tub that they poked holes in for aeration and drainage.
Elizabeth Bardwell and two of her children, Jack and Zoe, talked about how worm composting helps the environment.
"Everything you put in is organic and continues to be organic," said Elizabeth, who added the organic waste is really good for growing anything. "It's easy and fun to do."
The Coastal Clovers also plan to display what they've learned about worms at the Acton Fair. On Sunday, the children began work on pictures including the lifecycle of worms, the layers of composting and the work of the Center for Wildlife, which will be put together in a storyboard to help illustrate the project at the fair.
Other members of Coastal Clovers 4-H Club who are also working on the worm project include Carly Osgood and Julia and Isabella Lahey.
