Hedgend

Worm Farm and Composting

hedgend — Mon, 14 May 2012 07:43:01 +0000

Creating your own worm farm or compost area is a simple project which can be done where ever you live. Composting garden and kitchen waste will result in a reduction the amount of landfill sent away and instead these valuable minerals and nutrients will be put back into your own garden as organic fertiliser.

There are numerous types of boxes and containers that can be purchased to set up composts and worm farms, but using recycled containers, boxes or polystyrene containers can do just as good a job.

When finding the right location for your worm farm you need to remember that you don’t want them to get too hot or get filled with water if it rain.

There are a vast number of different types of worms found in our earth, but the Tiger Worms, Red Wrigglers and Indian Blues are the best worms for composting as they thrive in the rich, warm, moist conditions and can eat up to half their body weight a day. You can get your worms from others who already have a thriving worm farm or purchase them from gardening stores or on line. To start off your farm you will want about 2,000 worms, with the right conditions these will multiply to about 8,000 in ½ a year.

Worms love to eat just about anything, but there are a few rules to follow;

Cardboard including egg cartons
Vegetable, fruit peelings and waste
Hair clippings and vacuum cleaner dust
Stale biscuits and cakes
Coffee grounds and tea bags
Crushed washed egg shells
Saw dust (non treated wood)
Soaked cardboard
Green grass cuttings can be added thinly, too much generates ammonia & excess heat which kills the worms.

Food the worms DON’T LIKE:

High protein foods (tofu)
Animal products (fish, seafood, beef, chicken, dairy, egg yolk)
Chili
Large amounts of tomato
Uncooked onion and garlic
Uncooked rice and dried food
Acid fruits like citrus and pineapple
Dog poo

Every time you add new food, place it in a new location, moving round the box. This way you can see how much of yesterday’s food they have eaten and if you need to give more or less. Remember, don’t feed them too much. Too much food will just rot on the top and become a problem.

Lynbrook PS

hedgend — Thu, 03 May 2012 04:45:41 +0000

Year 2 students from Lynbrook PS visited Hedgend Maze on Thursday 3rd May. The over 130 students explored the Bush Tucker Walk, discovering indigenous plants of Australia and how they can be used in the kitchen. They investigated erosion and the effects it has on the land and ways of how they can reduce the effects in their own school or home gardens. The students also explored the Kitchen Garden, discovering plants that we use in our kitchen. They looked at how to read packaging to find out where foods were made and how to reduce food miles in their shopping. The students also had the opportunity to run through Giant Hedge Maze and unearth giant dinosaur bones in our Fossil Dig. The students were very keen to be apart of all the activities and keen to share their learning with us. What a great day! We wish all the students and staff the best as they continue to explore the topic ‘Our Earth’s Resources’.

Illusions

hedgend — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 11:13:03 +0000

Exercise your brain. Challenge your mind with these illusions. Illusions

Beer in the Garden

hedgend — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 02:22:27 +0000

Beer can be put into plastic containers and put in the garden as environmental friendly traps. The snails are attracted to the beer because of the sweet, sour and yeasty smell. Snails and slugs crawl in and then either drown or are poisoned from the alcohol. Make sure the containers are emptied regularly and be aware of children around the beer.

Organic Seasonal Vegetable Frittata Recipe

hedgend — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 22:37:45 +0000

We have been very successful in our food yield these recent months, as our Kitchen garden has been mass producing. El has found that she has odd bits of vegies today. Not quite enough to make a menu item from each variety of food for our cafe, so she threw this amazing concoction together. She called it her Organic Seasonal Vegetable Frittata. It was sooo delicious, we had to get her recipe on the blog. And it wont matter what sort of odd vegetables you have in your pantry, just keep the quantities roughly the same and you too will have a fantastic feast to share.

Serve hot or cold with your own fresh garden salad or simply by itself.

Organic Seasonal Vegie Frittata:

You will need:

Please note, we had these veggies growing in our kitchen garden, so make changes accordingly to the veggies you have growing in your patch.

Fresh seasonal vegetables, I chose to use:

¼ pumpkin

1 pale green squash

1 zucchini- medium sized

handful green beans

1 onion

125gm Fetta- small chunks

½ cup sundried tomatoes

½ cup oil + extra for frying

1 cup grated cheese

1 1/3 cups self raising flower

1 Preheat fan forced oven 160 degrees, line large round baking dish with baking paper.

2 Chop all vegetables, including onion into small chunks.

3 Steam the pumpkin until half cooked.

4 Put a large saucepan on medium and add a splash of oil, minced garlic and thyme (broken up).
5 Then chuck in onion followed by the rest of the vegies, add some salt and pepper to season.

6 Once lightly cooked remove from heat to cool.

7 In a large mixing bowl hand beat eggs, add flour, 1/2 cup oil and grated cheese.

8 Combine and then add all the vegies plus sun-dried tomatoes and fetta (chopped into small chunks)

9 Mix together and place in your baking dish. Season with salt, pepper and thyme leaves.

10 Bake for 40-50 minutes or until golden brown on top and a skewer from the centre comes out clean.