Worms, Compost and Gardens
Originally published May 1st 2022
We spent some time with compost this week! We did a lot of digging in the garden, started a worm compost, and overall enjoyed our week in the dirt.
We read Compost Stew, and played and worked in our giant pile of gorgeous compost from Booths Blend in Greenwich. We loaded the compost into the wheelbarrow, and began spreading it on the garden beds to feed our plants for next year. There was much imagining and playing mixed in with our garden work. On Tuesday we read The Little Composter, met the worms in our new worm compost, learned about what they need to eat and stay happy in their bin, and made them some fresh food from ripped up pieces of leftover greens and brown paper. We talked about what composts and what doesn't, and this tied directly into our lesson on worm diets. Basically, if a worm can eat it, it makes a great addition to the compost!
We worked in the garden again, fertilizing the fruit trees and adding more compost into the garden beds. It started raining and we went inside to make "worm" paintings with cooked noodles. That was a messy, sensory delight!
On Wednesday we attempted to make a visit to the community garden but were waylaid by sudden winds and hail, so we tucked into a secret trail in the thicket across from the community garden to have snack, and ended up exploring and playing there in the brushy woods and on the riverbank for the rest of the morning as the weather cycled through a mad range of sun, wind, rain and hail every quarter of an hour or so. We had a pretty fun adventure!
On Thursday we prepped potatoes and peas for planting, and we put them in the garden, despite the snowThey'll be fine in there though. We also cooked peas and potatoes for eating, and prepared a lovely, warm snack of mashed potatoes and steamed peas with butter. We had a visit from Gizelle from the community library at circle time, who read us several stories about birds which coincided beautifully as an introduction to our bird unit beginning next week. Everyone was so friendly and excited to meet Gizelle, and so voraciously interested in the stories, it was a delight to see
