Making compost
By Mary Whiting, keen gardener and early years consultant
Compost is the gardener's best friend. It's a kind of super-soil which makes plants thrive. It is essential for good soil structure and for encouraging micro-organisms that keep soil 'alive'. Making compost demonstrates how waste matter can be put to good use. As a routine, children can save such things as satsuma peel and torn-up paper in a special container to be emptied later into the nursery's outside compost bin. There, the heap of accumulated materials will gradually break down into dark, earthy compost.
Most local councils supply low-cost (or free) compost bins, but any sturdy, bottomless enclosures will do. You need two compost heaps: one you're making, and one that's finished and ready to use. Compost is made from roughly 50-50 'soft greenery' (to supply nitrogen) and woody fibre (to supply carbon).
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