By Carlo Albano, principal, Santa Cruz Gardens Elementary
Santa Cruz Gardens students have been digging deep into their community. On Nov. 9-10, SCG Green Team leadership students came out during their fall garden workday to lead a bustling composting workshop for the community.
“These workshops are important because you’re not going to keep buying a bunch of things, like new worm castings. You save,” says Taylor Murphy. “It’s also really fun to do.”
SCG is in its third year as a recognized Ocean Guardian School, focused on watershed stewardship and advocacy and managed by NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. Part of being honored as an Ocean Guardian School means conducting external outreach — sharing with the community ways in which everyone can protect local watersheds. This is exactly what SCG Green Team leaders did.
“Composting is important because it makes things break down faster,” say Olin Wilson and Lyanna Vega. “Composting creates a cycle to reduce our waste.”
Ms. Jade extrapolated further about that waste: “When you place organic matter in the trash or landfill, it doesn›t compost the healthy way, but instead creates methane. This is a harmful greenhouse gas that impacts our watersheds by creating warming ocean temperatures and harming marine ecosystems.”
Focusing specifically on methane reduction by diverting food scraps away from landfills, students modeled an easy way to compost at home. Students demonstrated how to vermicompost in a tiered system, specifically with red wiggler worms. Vermicomposting — or composting organic waste with worms — is an effective way to compost organic matter such as household food scraps. Students emphasized that red wigglers are best for the job because they are surface feeders, eating one-quarter to one-half of their body weight in food per day.
In the process, the worm waste also creates a highly sought-after and pricey garden amendment: worm castings. Caring for easy, engaging invertebrates while helping the planet was a key takeaway.
Red wigglers are available at most local garden stores.
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For more info about vermicomposting, visit: https://rodaleinstitute.org/science/articles/vermicomposting-for-beginners/