Jasper and Manuel filtered the finished compost with a large sifter. They shoveled scoops of the compost onto the sifter, and shook it back and forth, allowing the finished compost to fall through, and the unfinished, larger pieces to be separated and added to other compost piles. They did it to separate the bigger, not quite decomposed bits of compost from the finer, totally decomposed pieces. This benefits the garden because the parts that aren’t finished decomposing get a chance to finish decomposing. They said it was pretty simple, and shaking it around was fun. They also said it was also a whole upper body workout moving the undecomposed compost from it’s spot to another place. Pieces that we filtered out often got stuck in the filter, requiring them to rip them out over and over, which was tedious.
Kylie and Leslie extended the irrigation using the connectors so the potatoes can get more water. They also used their hands to spread the compost mixture around the potatoes. They did this because the connectors helped the water flow through the tubes. Something that was challenging for them was making sure all the potatoes were getting water from the irrigation system.