LIVERMORE, Maine — Concern that students in this area lack food security has led to the start of a gardening project at Livermore Elementary School that will provide food to the school's food pantry.
Aimee DeGroat is a UMF student serving as an AmeriCorps volunteer at Spruce Mountain High School (SMHS). She and Amy Gatchell, coordinator of the 21st Century Community Learning Center (21st CCLC) after school program, planned the gardening project. Through this effort, students will learn how to grow their own food and better understand the importance of eating nutritious foods.
On Monday afternoon, students in the 21st CCLC program helped remove sod from an area that will become the new garden. Several AmeriCorps volunteers and SMHS students helped out.
Rob Taylor, a teacher at the middle school, provided wheelbarrows to haul the sod away in. He also talked to the students about the importance of adding organic matter to the garden area and showed three different types to the youth eagerly looking on.
Taylor told the students that sphagnum peat moss is a material created by mosses living in boggy areas. Dead plants are harvested and used in gardening because of the material's light weight and ability to hold moisture.
The students were then showed a bag of worm castings. The 30-pound bag cost $18. Taylor also had some materials created by the worm composting project he maintains at the middle school. Thousands of red wiggler worms break down newspaper and appropriate food scraps to create a moist compost that is full of nutrients. Taylor said, "Worm castings are a great fertilizer - they're even better than cow poop." He also said it is much less expensive to do one's own worm composting.
Finally, a pail of dark brown liquid was shown the students. The worm castings tea is the liquid collected from the worm composting project. It makes a good liquid fertilizer.