Try A New Game -- Feed Worms the Veggies You Don't Like
What's Up?
Worms can be sort of squiggly and icky. However, worms like and eat vegetables and other items from the yard and the house. The worms digest the materials and produce wonderful compost ( or poop) for your plants and garden.
So have some fun each day. Feed the worms vegetables and scraps that are left over. In several months you will have created, along with the worms, excellent soil material.
Idea
Build an inexpensive worm composter. The composter will allow you to recycle your food and yard scraps, and create a new product -- worm poop or rich fertilizer.
And it can be fun! Feeding the worms will be a daily function, and you can even slip them the veggies you hate (don't tell your parents). Watch the worms digest the food and create poop. Your plants and garden will love the fertilizer. You can also sell the extra fertilizer and make extra money for something you want.
See Create A Worm Composter below for construction directions and what worms like to eat.
Fun Facts
- There are over 1 million worms in an acre of soil
- Worms can live up to a 5 years and grow to 3 inches long.
- Worms have both female and male organs and reproduce quickly. Baby worms are not born, but hatch from a cocoon smaller than a grain of rice.
- Worms have no eyes, legs, or arms.
- Worms can eat their weight in food each day.
- If a worm dries out, it will die.
How Does It Help?
Environmentally
By recycling your food and yard scraps you are reducing the amount of waste that goes into a landfill. Also by creating compost you are creating a wonderful new product that will help house plants shine, yards be more green and thick, and gardens to be more bountiful.
Monetarily
After the initial set up cost, worm composting saves you quite a bit of money on fertilizer and compost for your garden. Worms create compost every 60 days or so. So you have new fertilizer every 60 days. This can be used in a variety of ways such as fertilizing house plants, composting your garden or even using as a filler for containers. The worms can live several years so there is no extra cost until the worms need to be replenished.
Currently garden centers are selling 1 pound of worm compost from $12 to $25 a pound. So 60 days worth of composting could yield at least $25 if you sell the end product.
Parent(s)
Your child will need help with this activity, depending on their age and skill level.
Safety Tips
Permission
Please get your parent(s) permission prior to starting this project.
Dayton's Dough (Cost)
The cost of setting up a basic worm composter depends on the cost of the worms.
- 2 ten gallon plastic bucket - $12
- Plastic liner (cat liter box or lid) - $5
- 1 pound of red worms (about 1000) - $35
- Peat moss - $5
- Other household products - Free
