African Wildlife and Environment Issue 67

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

Vertical farming technology for schools Growing populations, higher temperatures and less frequent and erratic rainfall challenge South Africa to find ways to grow food more efficiently. Rustenburg Early Learning Centre (RELC) agreed to run a pilot project for the WESSA Eco-Schools programme at the beginning of 2017 to grow food in a vertical garden.

Dr Cathy Dzerefos

spinach, parsley, tomatoes, turnips, nasturtiums and beans have been grown successfully. The unit is water efficient as excess water is captured in plastic buckets for re-use and very little soil is exposed to the hot sun or available for weeds to seed in. Following the success of the tower garden at RELC it was introduced to three additional rural schools in North West Province, namely the Groot Marico Academy (Groot Marico), Pitso Tolo Primary (Lehurutshe) and St Catherine Primary (Marikana). The tower gardens have been sponsored by Bakwena Platinum Corridor Concessionaire – N1N4 and the Department of Water and Sanitation. The towers have created much discussion and interest on vertical farming technology from teachers and the community. The suggestion has been made to run competitions amongst learners to build vertical gardens from waste materials. Numerous examples can be found where vertical gardens have been made with cool drink bottles, tins and even wooden pallets. These can be attached to walls or hung in trees. A second benefit of the tower garden is that it is easy to feed the red wriggler worms and access the compost. This has helped change negative mind-sets around worms and demonstrates the production of healthy soil. Moreover, it is convenient to work on the tower garden with young children as they cannot trample or accidently sit on a plant.

The idea appealed to school principal Colleen Purdon, whose 20 plus years in the education field has shown her that children learn best from seeing, touching and doing. Growing and eating food off-the-vine while learning the nutritional benefits of individual plants is a revelation for many children. From the carroty taste of vitamin-A rich parsley, to the peppery nasturtium flower which is planted with cherry tomatoes to improve the flavour, the children were delighted and eager for more. RELC is currently doing two themes to earn their Silver Eco-School accreditation in ‘Waste’ and ‘Health and Wellbeing’. The locally made tower garden has a central column which is filled with raw veggie peels and fruit scraps to feed red wriggler worms also known as Eisenia foetida . Red wrigglers are the best compost worms as they thrive in close, highly populated conditions, tolerate temperature extremes and don’t burrow deep into the soil. The worm population will double every 90 days or so if they are getting enough food and water. A neat experiment for schools is to weigh the worms before putting them in the column and then to reweigh them three months later. The central column has a screw-off top at the bottom so the worms and the dark rich vermicompost can be easily accessed for the experiment. Red wiggler worms can eat about half of their weight in food every day which could provide an exponential Maths problem to have fun with. Like all worms red wriggler worms breathe oxygen through their skin. This means that they require a moist, but not saturated bedding material. A moist environment also facilitates the breakdown of organic matter by other microbial and fungal life forms. The children at RELC could see that the level was dropping by the day, as the red wriggler worms were munching away, and this encouraged them to separate their lunch box waste. The only raw foods that the red wriggler worms cannot tolerate are citrus and onions, but even tea bags and coffee grounds can be consumed. The red wriggler worms are free to move throughout the unit and enrich the soil by aerating and providing nutrients from the food waste they are given in the central column. A lid prevents fruit flies and other unwanted creatures from feasting on the scraps. After three months, the vermicompost was ready to be removed from the column. The tower garden is equivalent to a 3x3 metre plot of land and houses 64 plants. It is not suitable for large plants such as maize but strawberries,

To order your garden and worm farm contact John Kelly on 082 694 6716.

RELC learners getting the tower ready

Dr Cathy Dzerefos Project Manager: WESSA Schools Programme www.wessa.org.za

39 | African Wildlife & Environment | 67 (2017)