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Composting class teaches lessons in 'black gold'
Gardening season is just around the corner, and an upcoming Bull Run Mountains Conservancy seminar will offer growers a new weapon for boosting their production.The two-hour April 4 class will feature hands-on instruction and advice for starting a worm bin composter, said Michele Thieme, the organization’s research director. Costing $90, the session will include all of the essential elements for starting the composter ? from the ventilated plastic bin and shredded newspaper to the red wiggler worms and a touch of soil. It will also include valuable instruction on how to feed the worms and maintain a balanced, healthy composter, Thieme said.
“Food waste accounts for about 13 percent of the waste disposed by U.S. households,” Thieme said. “Composting with worms helps reduce the amount of trash going to our landfills, and thus the amount of land that needs to be used as landfills.”
Thieme, who started a worm bin composter just over a year ago, is enamored of the process.
“It is extremely satisfying to take food and yard waste, which would otherwise be carted off to the landfill, and convert it to rich compost that can be used to create healthy plants and more food for the table,” she said, pointing out that she keeps food waste in a plastic bin in the refrigerator, feeding her worms about once a week.
While outdoor compost piles slow down in cooler weather, the worm bin composter works year-round. Worms speed up the process of decomposition of organic material, she explained.
“Worms digest the food and yard waste and produce castings. The castings contain many nutrients, such as nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, and calcium,” Thieme said.
Called vermicomposting, the process is odorless ? provided it’s well-maintained. Bins should be kept indoors at a constant, cool temperature, Thieme explained. The composter must not be kept too dry (“the worms breathe through their skin”) or too moist because they’ll drowned, Thieme said.
Because the red wiggler worms used in vermicomposting are not native to the United States, gardeners must take some precautions.
“Compost from a worm bin should be used in gardens in raised beds and potted plants, and worms from the bin should not be released into natural areas,” Thieme said.
Some gardeners prefer to use sparse amounts of “black gold” on top of the soil while others like to mix it with topsoil or make “compost tea” by steeping the material in water for a day or so and then spraying on the plants like a fertilizer, Thieme said. The worms create two to three cubic feet of compost over a four month period, Thieme added, noting that the powerful castings go a long way.
The registration deadline for the class is March 20. For more information or to register, call (703) 753-2631 or visit www.brmconservancy.org .
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