Build your own Heart Garden The Munsieville Heart Garden is helping to improve the health and nutrition of the children in Munsieville. Why not you build your own heart garden in your school or at home? You will need: Rocks/stones of different sizes Chicken wire Soil, compost or a mixture. Chicken manure Straw (without roots) Cardboard Water Vegetable seedlings Tools e.g. spade, shovel, string (2 m long), trowel. 1.Find a good spot for your garden. You need a space around 4 m 2 which gets plenty of sun and has access to water. Mark out a circle with a radius of 120 cm. Draw the entrance triangle from the centre to the circle at a width of 60 cm. 2.Take a width of chicken wire (100 v 150cm) and roll it into a cylinder shape of 40 cm diameter x 100cm height and secure it. This will be your compost basket. Push the basket into the ground in the centre of your circle, deep enough for it to be stable. Half fill the compost basket with topsoil/compost to make a mound and line the inside with straw. 3.Lay the rocks around the perimeter of the garden. You may need more than one layer of stones to keep the soil in. Build the stones higher around the entrance triangle. Within the stone wall you’ve just built, put down a layer of small stone/broken pots/gravel. This layer will improve the drainage of water from the garden. Lay cardboard on top of this layer so that the soil doesn’t wash through on watering. 120 cm 60 cm © Project HOPE UK, All rights reserved. A strategic health initiative from Project HOPE UK

Build your own Heart Garden 4.Mix in chicken manure with the soil/compost and start filling the garden with layers of straw and compost, making sure the best soil goes on top. Keep layering the compost and straw until the garden is full and you have a mound slopping away from the compost basket. 5.Thoroughly water the surface of the soil and the compost basket. Add already composted material to the basket and continue to add compostable food-waste on top. A circle of carpet over the top of the basket will help speed up the composting process and protect against rain. As it breaks down, the compost will permeate the garden and give your crops lots of nutrients. 6.Plant your vegetable seedlings and cover everything with straw. The straw will protect the young plants against heavy rain and sun, and help them to stay moist. 7.Enjoy your garden! Make sure you keep the garden well watered, particularly in warm weather, and in just a few months you‘ll be able to enjoy fresh vegetables. © Project HOPE UK, All rights reserved. A strategic health initiative from Project HOPE UK

Composting Composting is a really simple way of helping the environment. By recycling waste from your kitchen and garden, you can create free fertilizer at the same time as reducing the amount of waste that goes to the rubbish tip. What should you put in your compost bin? Waste items like fruit and vegetable peelings, coffee grounds, tea bags, grass cuttings and old plants including weeds and nettles can be included in your compost bin. These items will rot very quickly, providing your compost with moisture and nutrients. Egg shells, paper (including newspaper), leaves, cardboard, sawdust and other animal bedding, and twigs and branches can also be included in your compost bin. These take a longer time to rot but increase the carbon and fibre content and provide air pockets in the bin. You need a combination of these for the perfect compost Ash, meat and fish, bread, dairy products like milk, yoghurt and cheese, cooked foods and packaging such as plastic bottles, packets and cling film should not be put in your compost bin. These either do not rot or will attract pests like rats or foxes to your bin Do not put these in your compost bin. When making compost, it is important that your compost bin is in contact with the soil so that bugs and worms can get into the waste and start to break it down. By sitting at the centre of the heart garden, the compost should break down and nourish the soil around it, helping the vegetable plants to grow big and strong. Topping up the compost bin from food scraps means there should be a never-ending supply of nutrients! Compost isn’t just good for plants. Compost bins often provide a great habitat for wildlife too, providing a home for insects and even larger animals such as hedgehogs. A strategic health initiative from Project HOPE UK