Amending the soil in our planter boxes – by Ellie

Posted on January 21st, 2024.

During my CCI (co-curricular activity) this autumn I amended the soil in the planter boxes in the Clarion community garden with Ms. Nina and my classmates because we wanted our plants to be healthy.

We learned that when you amend old soil you add worm poo, cow poo, compost and organic fertilizers to make the soil richer. Amending the soil is important when growing food because it gives the plants extra nutrients, so the plants are healthier, and that makes the food they produce healthier for people to eat.

We also learned how to compost. You can mix left over food (we use bokashi) and dried leaves in the tumbler to add to the soil. A tumbler is a large cylinder that that turns and mixes the dried leaves and left over food together. The resulting compost is called gardener’s gold.

Since we have a worm farm for our composting, we also learned what to feed the worms, what they like and what they don’t like. They like to eat anything green, fruits, vegetables, coffee grounds and filters, newspaper, and crushed eggshells. One day we will have vermicompost to add to our planter beds.

After we amended the soil, we planted seeds in our planters making sure there is correct distance between each seed. Since then we have been watching and helping the plants grow. After that we will harvest them. That is what we do in Clarion Diggers!