They are the self-fertilising toilers of soil and every gardener's friend, but there's something about worms that makes them kind of "icky" to most people.
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Unless the "people" happen to be students from Barrington Public School.
The Barrington students have created artworks to accompany the worm farm installed at the Gloucester Community Garden site that displays a sense of fun regarding the wriggly little creatures.
For the community garden members - most of whom are retirees - it was a chance to invite some youthful participation into their developing "passion" project.
"We like to involve children so I approached the school and asked them if they would like to do a picture of worms," community garden club member, Pippa Robinson said.
"It was up to them on how they did it and this is what they came up with, and they had great fun doing it."
Organised by Pippa together with Barrington Public School principal, Amy Sansom, the project involved students from years 3 and 4 who followed their own artistic vision for the colourful creations.
The paintings were created at the end of the 2023 school year and have provided a cheerful multi-generational boost for the community garden project.
"Because it's a community garden you want all demographics from the community to have an interest in it, so we see that as part of our reason for being there.
- Gloucester Community Garden president, Pat Burrows
"We've always wanted to get kids involved because it's great for kids to know about gardening and what the community is doing," Community Garden president, Pat Burrows said.
"They're actually lovely paintings. They look really colourful and the worms are speaking to each other and saying, 'Oh, I can't eat citrus' and stuff like that in these little speech bubbles."
DIY gardeners
In line with the DIY ethos of the community garden group, the worm farm was created from a repurposed old bathtub donated by Greg Jones. Greg also constructed a wooden cover and surrounding enclosure that allows the structure to be used as a bench as well as a seat when required.
The tub has been elevated with a removable tray that collects fluid - commonly referred to as "worm wee" - which is then used as liquid fertiliser and sprayed on the gardens.
Next up for the group is the installation of their new "frog bog" - an improvised pond that created from a donated small plastic wading pool.
Once completed the structure will have water plants added to maintain the health of the pond which provides an attractive water feature for the area.
"We've set it a little bit down into the ground and we've made a rock garden around it, and we've added gravel and a little bit of water into it and we've got some plants that we're going to plant in it," Pat said.
"It's an ongoing project but we've been busy with it - and hopefully it will attract frogs."
For more information regarding the community garden group, visit: gloucestercommunitygarden.org/
