When you do not have naturally available rich, fertile dirt for gardens, you have to make your own. We demonstrate and teach two ways of doing that at our Agricultural Training Center (ATC). One way is composting organic material and biomass by “aerobic and anaerobic composting,” which relies on microbes and organisms in the soil to digest the organic matter into basic fertilizer. The second way we make our own soil additives is by “vermicomposting,” using “red wiggler” worms (Eisenia fetida) to eat and digest the organic matter. The worms’ waste, or “castings,” is then a concentrated source of rich nutrients that can be added to growing plants as a side dressing or even dissolved in water for a liquid fertilizer.

The anaerobic composting is done in long trenches or pits of organic matter covered by soil. The material inside the covered trenches does not get oxygen so “anaerobic microbes” do the work of breaking down the organic matter.

The aerobic composting is usually done in mounds of organic material layered with dried leaves, then green vegetation, then a layer of soil, repeated until your mound is full. The mound gets watered about every three days, and it gets “turned” every 14-15 days to provide aeration or oxygen for the aerobic microbes.

The science is basically the same for both types of composting, both using the soils’ microbes to digest organic matter, yielding a nutrient-rich product high in humus with an excellent soil structure that serves as a great medium for new seeds and tender roots.

We do the vermicomposting in re-purposed tires that hold a food source for the worms, like manure and biomass.

Vermicomposting produces a slightly different nutrient-rich product that is added around plants like fertilizer.

When you are gardening in rural Haiti, you must make your own fertilizers, and it is probably a good thing because these natural organic products are always available and affordable.

Thank you to those donors who support our Sustainability outreaches. Your gifts are improving lives for generations.

Rad Hazelip, Assistant Executive Director