Hello and welcome to The Compost Bin. I'm Compostwoman and I live with my family in rural Herefordshire. We have nearly four acres of garden and woodland, all managed organically and to Permaculture principles, which we share with Chickens, Cats and assorted wildlife. We also grow a lot of our own food, run courses in all sorts of things and make a lot of compost!
I am a Master Composter and have spent more than a decade as a volunteer Community Compost adviser with Garden Organic and my local Council.
I'm a self employed Environmental Educator so I run workshops and events where I talk about compost, veg growing, chicken keeping, cooking, preserving and sustainable living. I also run crafts workshops and Forest School/outdoor play sessions in our wood.
We try to live a more self sufficient lifestyle here, as best we can, while still having a comfortable life and lots of fun.
To learn more about us click on the About Compostwoman tab and remember to click on the photos to make them full size!
Thursday 11 October 2007
Harvest Festival
here are some photos from Harvest Festival at compostgirl's school yesterday.....
Apart from running Eco Club at compostgirl's school, I also help the children with the School Organic Garden. I go in during the spring and summer term nearly every week usually for a Wednesday morning and Fri for an hour or so. On Wednesdays I take at least 2 classes ( first RECEPTION for an hour and a half before assembly, then Yr 1 for an hour after morning break) in groups of 5 or 6 at a time out to the garden and we plant seeds, weed and harvest veg and plant companion flowers. We also talk about compost, how things grow, bugs, compost and a whole host of sustainability issues....its a LOT of fun !! (Did I mention we do a lot of bug hunting in the compost heap???) On Fri I have an hour where I alternately take out yrs 5 and 6 from the senior class to garden before morning assembly.
Above are some before and after pictures of our Organic garden....
I started doing the gardening for compostgirl and her class (reception ) in spring 2006 and it has grown from there!!!(oh sorry that is a DREADFUL pun!!)
This year I drew up a planting scheme for all the organic raised beds in the school organic veg garden. Each class has its own bed and there is a herb bed in the middle for Eco club ( and 4 compost bins!) , plus an eco club bed in the playground with insect attractant plants in it ( and a compost bin!) I basically organise the Organic veg garden for and with all the children with the help of the brilliant Yr 2 teacher and Mr compostwoman and with the support and help from the members of staff at the School.
These Harvest festival photos show how well all the children have done!! Their produce was wonderful and was eagerly bought by parents at the Harvest festival auction to raise money for victims of the Floods in Africa this year. The very first photo shown just SOME of the produce donated to the Harvest Festival and includes the class veg boxes...and there was even more outside the main hall!!!
I do this, as well as co-running Eco club twice a month. all as a volunteer, because I want children to grow up knowing about composting, reducing, reusing and recycling, growing their own food and also to have a feeling of respect for our planet, its inhabitants and our shared environmnent.
And its fun!!!
Wow, You must be very proud of your achievements. If only more schools could/would follow your lead. Keep it up CW
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThanks B!!
ReplyDeleteit is hard work and I don't get paid ( well not in money ;) )
BUT it is SO worthwhile.....
Thats brilliant CW, they did so well and had some amazing things there. Well done them and you too.
ReplyDeleteI agree a lot of schools need to start something like this.
This is fantastic CW!
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff!