The pictures say it all! There are actually two worms entertwined - click to expand.
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Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
A Fresh Squeeze interviews Urban Worm Girl!
Worm Composting Catches on in Urban Setting
Urban worm girl at your service
Urban Worm Girl Stephanie Davies
By Iya Bakare
While recycling is a good way to reduce garbage that ends up in a landfill, composting in your own home with Mother Nature’s creepy crawlers can dramatically cut your trash even further and give you some hearty fertilizer to toss in your backyard or community garden.
Vermiculture, also known as worm composting, is a modern form of composting that uses worms to transform the leftovers of organic matter into useful fertilizer.
Stephanie Davies, founder of Urban Worm Girl, says the benefit of this type of composting technique does not require an outside garden, which is ideal for city residents who live in apartments or condos. “My goal was to bring this to an urban community so we can reap the benefits from composting and be the recipients of great fertilizer from it, which allows us to be more active participants in the circle of life,” adds Davies. “I wanted to bring worms into the city, which brings city dwellers back to the country.”
Davies says she holds “Worm Parties” for both Chicago and suburban residents where she provides education about the worm composting process. At these parties, residents can purchase worm compost bins or simply observe and listen about worm composting.
Another benefit of vermiculture is worms eat faster than the traditional composting cycle. Davies says the worm composting period lasts about 50 days because worms are constantly eating, compared to 240 days for a regular compost bin. In addition, the worms used in the process can be utilized for several years. Davies says worms can live three to five years and their offspring can survive even longer. Out of the over 2,000 types of worms in the world, red wigglers are the best ones to use for worm composting, says Davies. “They like to sit and eat, as opposed to regular earthworms that are traveling worms.”
More than half of the waste residents send to landfills is prospective food for worms in a compost bin, she adds. Worms shouldn’t be given meat or dairy products, but they can thrive on other sorts of food, as well as green shrubbery, says Davies. They can even eat the bedding that’s in their bins: wet shredded newspaper, egg cartons, toilet tissue or paper towel rolls, or any type of clean cardboard or napkins. Since worms do not have teeth, Davies suggests adding crushed egg shells to the bedding, which will serve as their teeth to tear apart the matter as they digest the foods into their gizzards. All these items serve as cellulose for their digestive system, explains Davies.
The type of housing for the creatures is crucial, and Davies says plastic bins are best to absorb moisture. These bins should have a spout at the end to drain the byproduct of the composting process, which rids the fertilizer of bacteria. An ideal environment for a worm compost bin would be in a room that is fairly dark and quiet, such as a basement area.
Some city residents hooked on worm composting are sharing their enthusiasm with others. Amanda Scampini, an elementary science teacher at Peck Elementary School in Chicago, uses worm composting in her home and introduced it to her students. “At school, the kids love them because they [the worms] become pets to them, which they feed and take care of. They even try to name them,” she says.
Scampini says the compost bins started as student science projects they gave to teachers to put into their classrooms. She recalls one bin at the school that started with 1,000 worms and increased to almost 4,000 worms. “It’s almost like magic and it’s just great for the kids to see the project from the beginning to the end,” she adds.
http://www.afreshsqueeze.com/articleDtl.php?id=4a9699735e097
Urban worm girl at your service
Urban Worm Girl Stephanie Davies
By Iya Bakare
While recycling is a good way to reduce garbage that ends up in a landfill, composting in your own home with Mother Nature’s creepy crawlers can dramatically cut your trash even further and give you some hearty fertilizer to toss in your backyard or community garden.
Vermiculture, also known as worm composting, is a modern form of composting that uses worms to transform the leftovers of organic matter into useful fertilizer.
Stephanie Davies, founder of Urban Worm Girl, says the benefit of this type of composting technique does not require an outside garden, which is ideal for city residents who live in apartments or condos. “My goal was to bring this to an urban community so we can reap the benefits from composting and be the recipients of great fertilizer from it, which allows us to be more active participants in the circle of life,” adds Davies. “I wanted to bring worms into the city, which brings city dwellers back to the country.”
Davies says she holds “Worm Parties” for both Chicago and suburban residents where she provides education about the worm composting process. At these parties, residents can purchase worm compost bins or simply observe and listen about worm composting.
Another benefit of vermiculture is worms eat faster than the traditional composting cycle. Davies says the worm composting period lasts about 50 days because worms are constantly eating, compared to 240 days for a regular compost bin. In addition, the worms used in the process can be utilized for several years. Davies says worms can live three to five years and their offspring can survive even longer. Out of the over 2,000 types of worms in the world, red wigglers are the best ones to use for worm composting, says Davies. “They like to sit and eat, as opposed to regular earthworms that are traveling worms.”
More than half of the waste residents send to landfills is prospective food for worms in a compost bin, she adds. Worms shouldn’t be given meat or dairy products, but they can thrive on other sorts of food, as well as green shrubbery, says Davies. They can even eat the bedding that’s in their bins: wet shredded newspaper, egg cartons, toilet tissue or paper towel rolls, or any type of clean cardboard or napkins. Since worms do not have teeth, Davies suggests adding crushed egg shells to the bedding, which will serve as their teeth to tear apart the matter as they digest the foods into their gizzards. All these items serve as cellulose for their digestive system, explains Davies.
The type of housing for the creatures is crucial, and Davies says plastic bins are best to absorb moisture. These bins should have a spout at the end to drain the byproduct of the composting process, which rids the fertilizer of bacteria. An ideal environment for a worm compost bin would be in a room that is fairly dark and quiet, such as a basement area.
Some city residents hooked on worm composting are sharing their enthusiasm with others. Amanda Scampini, an elementary science teacher at Peck Elementary School in Chicago, uses worm composting in her home and introduced it to her students. “At school, the kids love them because they [the worms] become pets to them, which they feed and take care of. They even try to name them,” she says.
Scampini says the compost bins started as student science projects they gave to teachers to put into their classrooms. She recalls one bin at the school that started with 1,000 worms and increased to almost 4,000 worms. “It’s almost like magic and it’s just great for the kids to see the project from the beginning to the end,” she adds.
http://www.afreshsqueeze.com/articleDtl.php?id=4a9699735e097
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
Local Worms
Our friends at the Pacific Garden Mission were recently featured on National Public Radio (NPR) on the morning show 848. We often buy our worms from the Mission in order to have "local" worms.
Click here to listen. Check out the photos too!
Click here to listen. Check out the photos too!
Monday, August 10, 2009
Workshop on Saturday!
Don't forget that Urban Worm Girl is hosting a workshop on Saturday Aug 15th. RSVP to info at urbanwormgirl (dot) com
$150 gets you a worm bin, 1 pound of worms and Urban Worm Girl's personal assistance in setting up your bin. You'll go home ready to start composting your kitchen scraps that afternoon!
$150 gets you a worm bin, 1 pound of worms and Urban Worm Girl's personal assistance in setting up your bin. You'll go home ready to start composting your kitchen scraps that afternoon!
Friday, August 7, 2009
Urban Worm Girl is going Off-Grid
Check out Urban Worm Girl on Sun, 8/9 at the Illinois Renewable Energy Fair in Oregon, IL.
If you haven't been to one of these fairs (the Illinois or Wisconsin version) - it might be time to check it out. Great information for decreasing our reliance on the energy grid, cool workshops, solar cooking, and rebate information.
Urban Worm Girl will lead a composting with worms discussion on Sunday at 10:45.
And don't forget our next workshop in Chicago is on Sat, 8/15.
If you haven't been to one of these fairs (the Illinois or Wisconsin version) - it might be time to check it out. Great information for decreasing our reliance on the energy grid, cool workshops, solar cooking, and rebate information.
Urban Worm Girl will lead a composting with worms discussion on Sunday at 10:45.
And don't forget our next workshop in Chicago is on Sat, 8/15.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Worm Food is Beautiful
When we think of worm food we often think of the remains of our groceries when we clean out our refrigerator. In this instance, a cabbage that was destined for wormfood was pushed aside in the fridge and forgotten about. Look at what happened! It sprouted a flower.
Proof that worm food isn't always the bag of soggy lettuce greens that you forgot about. It can be beautiful too.
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