Nursery World - Enabling Environments: Composting

Children learned from a TV gardener about a vital stage in plant life and an environmentally useful practice when growing their own food. Annette Rawstrone hears all about it.

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.

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