Enabling Environments: Composting - Wasting time

Children from Buttercup Nurseries and Bullion Lane Children's Centre in Chester-le-Street, County Durham, got their hands dirty during a visit from a television gardener.

BBC 'Gardener's World' presenter Joe Swift gave a masterclass to the children on how to successfully make compost and the importance of home composting, as part of a regional tour to raise awareness. He explained the many environmental benefits of composting, including lowering pollution levels and reducing the amount of waste that goes to landfill sites.

The twoto five-year-olds, who already enjoy growing fruit and vegetables on their own nursery allotment, helped to collect a range of ingredients that are suitable to compost - from potato peelings and dead leaves to hair and the fluff from tumble driers (see box). They took them along when they met Mr Swift and he helped them each to choose a balanced selection of compost ingredients and mix them all together in buckets before putting them in a large compost bin.

The children learned that the ingredients will eventually decompose and break down with the help of tiny creatures. After two to three weeks the mixture will actually get hot as the matter starts to break down. Mr Swift showed them a bucket of compost so they could understand what it would look like once it had all decayed, a process which can take from six months to a year to complete.

He explained that the finished compost smells sweet and has turned into crumbly matter. The children were encouraged to experiment with what they put into the compost bin to get the mixture right. If it's too slimy, it's probably because there's not enough card. Or if the compost is too dry, that could be due to not enough green material, such as leaves.

'It's an educational thing,' says Mr Swift. 'Get kids involved in the process so they understand how plants break down and turn naturally into compost, which is the basis of all plant life.'

Despite a lot of rain during the two-hour session, nursery manager Dawn Crosby says the children had a lot of fun and were all covered in muck by the end. They particularly enjoyed getting hands-on and mixing all the composting ingredients together.

She adds, 'The children in our nursery have got a vast interest in growing and natural life. Joe Swift's visit linked with this and really captured their imaginations.

'They found making the compost really interesting, and it excites them that it will be used to help produce the fruit and vegetables that we grow and eat in the nursery. We will use our compost as a natural, organic fertilizer on the allotment rather than using pesticides. It also excited the children that they are involved in even the first stage of growing.'

The nursery has a small compost bin in the kitchen and the children now take it in turns to take it out to the large compost bin outside each day. They regularly check the compost to see how it is changing and will help to spread it on their vegetable patch when it is ready.

Children have also helped create wall displays in the nursery and children's centre to help to spread the message of the value of composting to their families. 'We have learned that composting is so simple for everyone to do, but educating parents is the hard part,' says Ms Crosby. 'If we can start to involve the children in their environment at such an early age, we can then help to change their future.'

WHAT TO COMPOST

For best results use a mixture of different ingredients, roughly equal
amounts of 'green' and 'brown' items.

'Green' nitrogenrich ingredients

• - grass cuttings
• - raw vegetable peelings
• - tea bags and coffee grounds
• - soft green prunings
• - herbivore and poultry manure

'Brown' carbon rich ingredients

• - cardboard, newspaper and waste paper
• - bedding from vegetarian pets, such as rabbits
• - fallen leaves
• - tough hedge clippings and woody prunings
• - sawdust and wood shavings

Other items include:

• - hair and nail clippings
• - crushed egg shells
• - natural fibres, eg wool and cotton

What not to compost

• - Meat, fish, dairy and cooked food which can attract vermin
• - Cat litter and dog faeces
• - Disposable nappies
• - Coal and coke ash

MORE INFORMATION:

Royal Horticultural Society, www.rhs.org.uk/Gardening/Help-advice/Videos/Making-compost