WORM FARM & SOIL FOOD WEB COMPOST OPERATIONS
The fastest way to make San Jose Organic Community Garden more productive, and its produce more nutritious, is to rebuild the original dense clay soil.
On one far side of the garden are the compost pits. Desert mesquite branches are collected and chipped, combined with the garden’s after-harvest leavings, then mixed with organic nutrients and manure from local cattle and sheep. After a few weeks, it’s all transformed into a rich humus that’s layered on garden rows.
Two more pits are home to thousands of worms. Every 21 days, those worms make babies. Their casting are a rich soil amendment in themselves.
“Teaching the small children is such fun. One day I was showing a group how we put vegetables in the worm farm soil to feed the worms. A 5-year-old started to eat a vegetable himself. I told him that’s for the worms. He smiled at me and said, ‘But I have an earthworm in my tummy.’”
NWI Promotora Yesenia Tarazon
NWI is committed to encouraging more Naco residents to begin gardening, and to sharing its garden development and wellness efforts with every interested person in Naco and surrounding Mexican communities.
Ready to Grow?
San Jose Garden is growing fast and we need support more than ever. As we continue to cultivate the land, we are also cultivating lives and transforming the community around us. Do you want to be a part of our journey? Become a Friend of Naco!