New food-bank garden needs someone who has a way with worms

White Center Food Bank director Rick Jump is thrilled to have received that container to be turned into a worm-compost box for WCFB’s new “edible garden” – now he just needs a worm-savvy volunteer to help the box fulfill its destiny! He showed us the box when we stopped by this afternoon toward the end of a work party, during which Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle volunteers removed ornamental plantings from a long, narrow strip in front of the WCFB building, and started turning the space into the “edible garden”:

That’s Aviva from CHoSS – she brought kale and collard plants from her own garden to get into the newly tilled ground outside WCFB (which serves part of West Seattle, as well as White Center). The rich soil you see is partly thanks to compost donated by Cedar Grove, but that worm box we mentioned will have a big role in the future too – do you know how to set up and manage a box where worms will turn clippings and scraps into garden-ready compost? If so, please contact Rick at WCFB – rick@whitecenterfoodbank.org or 206.762.2848.

7 Replies to "New food-bank garden needs someone who has a way with worms"

  • Aviva February 21, 2009 (9:08 pm)

    Many thanks to the team of Seattleworks volunteers who did the diggin’ as well as Patrick, who saw the posting on the blog and showed up with a bag of compost and a willingness to pitch in.

    This garden will be planted as a cultural food garden, with examples of greens and other veggies mirroring the diversity of White Center. We’ll be holding more work parties at this site in the future – so if you want to help out, contact info@gleanit.org.

  • StephenHJ February 21, 2009 (11:25 pm)

    It really doesn’t take much to make the worms happy… There’s even a page about it on the King County website.

    A little searching on Google will turn up a lot more details, but the basics would be:
    1) Drill a few holes in the bottom.
    2) Line the bottom with about 2″ of shredded paper.
    3) Add scraps (Fruits/Veggies, no meat or salt, limit citrus.) The more the scraps are torn up, the faster they compost.
    4) Add a little more paper on top.

    As you fill, add a little more paper once in a while.

  • Misty February 22, 2009 (8:52 am)

    You can get red worms (also known as dung worms, I believe) from the West Seattle Nursery on California. They are used for composting.

  • yumpears February 22, 2009 (9:15 am)

    My husband and I just cleaned out our office and are sitting here trying to figure out what to do with a giant (generator-sized) box of shredded paper. If you need it we’ll happily deliver!

  • miws February 22, 2009 (10:07 am)

    That’s a good idea, yumpears.

    .

    If crosscut shredded paper of the various types used in documents, bills, glossy magazine/catalog pages (the part that has customer name and address on it, (don’t forget any order forms on the inside, with that info on it) is acceptable, this is a great way to actually recycle it.

    .

    Unless policy has changed on this (or soon will with the upcoming recycling changes) it’s been my understanding that crosscut shreds are not recyclable, due to being apparently too small, and need to be tossed in the garbage. The shreds from non-crosscut machines are okay for recycle, but we are understandibly urged to use crosscuts, because it’s more secure than the noncrosscuts.

    .

    I’ve always hated tossing the crosscuts in the garbage.

    .

    Mike

  • ivan February 23, 2009 (6:17 am)

    When using shredded paper or shredded cardboard in worm bins, please be sure to soak it thoroughly in water, then wring it out just as thoroughly.

    Worms need a constantly moist environment. Please do this before putting the paper into the worm bin. If the worm bin is covered to prevent surface evaporation, one such soaking should be enough.

    Best of luck to the Food Bank in keeping the garden and the worm composter going.

  • Aviva February 23, 2009 (8:59 pm)

    …and much thanks to Ron and Pat Dahl who donated the worm bin as well as a compost bin.

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