We are finally going through the botany study I put together last year. We had started it last summer, but it was too late in the season to really get the benefit of growing things. So I put it off until this spring. We studied worms a couple of years ago using Creepy Crawlies and the Scientific Method: More Than 100 Hands-On Science Experiments for Children
Now, making the wormery wasn’t too difficult. We followed the instructions on this Youtube video:
We went to Walmart to get some bins and similar bins used in the video happened to be the least expensive ones in the store so our wormery looks like this one.
My sons enjoyed drilling holes in the bins. We drilled holes on the top and sides to give the worms air vents. We also drilled a few holes in the bottom of the top container to allow any liquid to pass through.
Once that was completed we alternated layers of torn up cardboard and food waste.
After several layers and wetting down those layers we went in search of worms. We probably found about 25-30 worms in total and placed them in the bin. We did this project a week ago and I checked the bin this morning to see if the little guys were still alive. Yes, alive and well. I had planned on storing it outside, but was warned that the temperatures might be unstable. Right now it inhabits a corner of my kitchen and so far so good. It resides next to my container of slugs (that is another story, ugh!).
Now my little girl wasn’t too interested in this project. When she is outside she has a one track mind. She wants to make recipes with dirt and whatever else she can find around the yard.
Yes, it was messy. She required a shower when she came inside because she looked like this:
Our gardens have been planted now and the time has come to just watch things grow. We have planted sunflowers, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, watermelon, brussel sprouts, potatoes, beans, and basil in our backyard. My attempts to grow milkweed to attract monarch butterflies to lay their eggs have once again been thwarted. I will try again.
The wormery sounds great! That is something I’d like to have! How is the ant farm? My younger ones enjoyed the youtube video (especially the repeating commercial part!).
Lee
The ant farm is going well right now. I dumped the ants we had in there twice because neither group had any larvae. Apparently the babies are supposed to make them act more normal. We stumbled on a huge colony with tons of larvae and now they are at home and busy in the ant farm. We need to use a flashlight to watch them because it is hard to view them otherwise.