Congratulations go to Paul Bichener from St Ippolyts who won a composting wormery and children’s book as part of our climate work and International Compost Week, 7-13 May. He also got a bag of ‘Ace of Herts’ compost from Cumberlows, the product of residents’ food waste, along with eight runners-up.
The free prize draw, with the winner picked at random from subscribers to our Climate Hive, was organised by Herts author, Polly Owen, whose children’s book ‘Darwin's Super-Pooping Worm Spectacular' has been featured in The Guardian and The Observer as well as selected as a ‘best book’ by teachers’ blogs. Illustrated by Gwen Millward, the book highlights the importance of earthworms on our planet, telling the story of how Charles Darwin discovered the power of earthworms' poo when he studied them 150 years ago and declared them to be one of the most important creatures on the planet!
The composting wormery, worth £95 and kindly supplied by Hitchin based company Original Organics, is an environmentally friendly way to turn food and garden waste into ‘vermicompost’, which is compost made by worms.
Author Polly Owen said: “I loved what the council did last year with promoting the importance of bees and encouraging wildflowers, and wanted to do something similar with highlighting worms, as without them there would be no soil for flowers to grow!
“I wrote Darwin's Super-Pooping Worm Spectacular after my daughter showed an interest in worms. The book is a really good way for families and children to get involved using their food waste for compost and discovering a love of worms and nature.”
Councillor Steve Jarvis, Executive Member for Environment and Leisure, said: “Worms and bees are so important to our ecosystem and the way we live. Protecting our natural world and improving biodiversity is vital alongside working to limit climate change.
“If you haven’t already, please sign up to our Climate Hive to share tips about living more sustainably, find community events and dates of meetings and get all the latest news about how we are meeting our biodiversity and climate targets. The council is currently working to make our operations net zero by 2030, and we all need to work together for North Herts to be net zero by 2040.”
How does a composting wormery work?
Food and garden waste goes in the top tray, ideally mixed with twigs and leaves (to make sure it's not too acidic) and the worms in the bottom follow the food upwards through holes, leaving their rich, organic poo in the tray below! Once up and running, it's quick and easy to maintain.
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