Bugs on the Brain! Treasure in the Garden!
by Kathy Bego
In August, many of our now lush vegetable plants are growing in great abundance in the school gardens. This green wealth attracts many bugs, creepy crawlies, and insects of all kinds. Some come to pollinate, others to devour. These tiny creatures can fascinate, repel, or horrify us depending on whether they are flitting monarchs bringing beauty and grace or placid-looking bean beetles skeletonizing once verdant leaves. Pests or beneficials, these bugs and insects all form an interdependent web. The garden needs them all and so do we humans in ways that we are only beginning to fathom, distracted as we often are by our own equally absorbing world of people.
With the increasing heat, earthworms are less visible on the soil’s surface but their relatives are key players in an alternative type of compost. Luis Chen, founder of Wormies was the featured speaker for FitKids this past Wednesday night at FitKids. He described how Red Wriggles, (up to one thousand per square foot) intensively produce very rich worm castings while being fed on kitchen scraps collected from households and businesses across greater Grand Rapids. This process takes more than ten months.
Worm castings offer a rich, though costly, source of organic matter for gardens. Luis generously donated half a box to the Marquette Park community garden and promised to return in the fall and spring with more. He also assisted Maria, a FitKids mom, in resolving issues with her home compost project.
With the evening’s shadows lengthening, everyone beelined to the garden to harvest beans, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Fitkids participants and Hope Garden and Fitkids staff conferred together about the menu for the upcoming celebration. Next Wednesday evening, teens, siblings, staff and visitors will pick and wash produce, then chop and cook it up into dishes with a few outside ingredients. Hopes are high that the three Napoli melons in the garden will be ripe enough to make it onto plates. One teen pulled up oxheart carrots to bake into cupcakes for the event. We also admired together the giant candy roaster squash, another entree anchor.
