"Do you have a partner?", lillianna whispered ot Nigel. She hated this subject.

Allie raised her hand.
"Because they won't survive to be transplanted and their compost would be beneficial to the bigger plants as fertilizer." said Allie.

Allie looked around...she still needed a partner.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Waddles

Jean Raoul raised his hand again. "If you compost the 'unwanted' plants, they eventually decompose and make an excellent fertilizer to use. If you use the compost on the already healthy plants, they should grow even healthier due to the extra nutrients," he said.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kaZombie

Valentien raised her hand once again. "There is no need to attempt to raise a unhealthy plant that has no hope on surviving. It is just wasted time and energy. If we compost the plant now we can at least use it in the future to help other plants that do have a chance."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jenster

"Cos dey can den be used later to make ovver plants grow," Theo smiled, "All da planty goodness will still be in dem when dey are compost."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Torchwood

Qaz raised her hand and replied, 'Composting makes use of the nutrients in the discarded waste...as my mom said....Waste not, want not...'

Quote:

Originally Posted by n1fanharry

"Oh ok if thats all" said Barry and he said "Wht don`t you do the first one?"

Barry heard the professers question and said "Well sir if a plant is "Unwanted" by composting it you are putting it to better use then just um killing it so they are actually being used. so thats one reason I guess "

Quote:

Originally Posted by FoxFire

"So they won't go to waste?" Gwen asked. "They may not be very healthy and able to survive on their own, but they still have nutrients that can be helpful in a compost."

Quote:

Originally Posted by MeredithRodneyMcKay

"Composting the plants that won't survive,will,in the future,help others' to survive.They will decompose and can be spread into the other pots,which will spread nutrients to new plants?"
Sarah was sure she wasn't quick enough with her answer.Everyone else always got there before her.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NicoT

Nicholai shot a grin at Anna, clearly this wasn't her greatest subject either but they both managed to scrape through.

He turned to look at the professor again, listened carefully and raised his hand to answer, "Survival of the fittest, sir. If you can't save them, why not use them for compost so that the nutrients in compost can be used to grow other plants?"

He eyed the planter box and flexed his hands slightly. Dirt time soon. Nicholai licked his lips nervously.

Quote:

Originally Posted by LisaPotter1125

Astrid looked over the plants in front of her and said, "Composting the smaller, weaker plants is a way to use all available resources. We would want to make sure that nothing goes to waste, and the compost we produce, would help the the other plants grow even healthier, when applied to the soil as fertilizer." She glanced over at Maddox and mouthed the word, Sorry. She had no idea what she was talking about and she hated to let him down.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MuggleBornWitch3

Anna smiled at the point she received. True, Herbology wasn't her greatest subject, but at least she could make an honest effort and hope to walk away with a point or two.

"I'd guess that we would do that to keep the nutrients they provide, even though the actual plant itself won't survive. It would be a shame to waste the entire plant when there are actually parts of it that can be saved and used," she said.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cora

Lauren thought about that question for a moment. Then she raised her hand again. "Plants that are unwanted are usually the unhealthy ones and you don't need to bother trying to care for them when they are going to die soon anyways. Also, it will give you more room to grow new plants and the composted plants will help create more soil that you can use for planting."

"Very good. Two points to each of you. Though it is a loss, these losses will not go to waste."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Torchwood

Qaz raised her hand and asked, 'Professor, are there any plants that should NOT be composted? Ones that would be detrimental to other plants?'

"There are some which produce toxins that will kill other plants. Some trees, for example, have leaves which produce a toxin to kill all that which grow beneath it."

"Now, please start by culling the smallest undergrown plants. Anything with yellow leaves, that droop, or are obviously not going to survive. Please be very choosy in this to start with. I do not want only the healthiest left. And be careful as you pull them from the soil, so that you do not disrupt the other plants too horribly much."

ooc: I gotta head out for a short time. Please just rp pulling the smaller plants and I will get back to you!

Valentine nodded as she listened to her teacher. Pull out the unhealthy ones, but be careful. That was pretty straight forward. She smiled at Jasmine before reaching into the mess of plants, pulling out the most obviously unhealthy ones. The ones which were basically dead already.

Following the professors directions. Liz first grabs a pair of her gardening gloves from her bag.

"Ok, then." Liz pulls the plant toward her, and starts looking at the underside of the plant, and clipping off yellowed and dried up parts off the plants.

"Do you see any that need to be clipped," she asks Barry.

Sarah looked over at Gwen before she started following the professor's instructions.
"Do you want to start or shall I?" she asked her timidly

Camira sighed and started gently pulling a small semi-alive plant out of the dirt, trying desperately to ignore the fact that dirt was getting under her nails. She used her fingers to gently dig around it so it would be easier to pull up. It worked rather well since her hands were so small.

Lillianna walked over to Allie and said "I will be your partner"

Miranda laughed ''well thats good''. She listened to the professor and heard her instructions. Looking down at their little plant she started to examine how it looked and how much she would need to cull. ''hmmm...the whole plant is yellow...this should be easy...'' she murmured ''you take take that side and i take this one?'' she suggested looking at Qaz

'Okay, Miranda...time to get our hands dirty. Lets start with the sickly yellow ones first, okay? Qaz offered. 'I'll show you the easiest way...' Qaz found a dismal looking specimen, held down the soil with her pointer finger on one side and middle finger on the other side of the stalk, and gently wiggled the plant until it was completely uprooted. 'Now, you try...'

"Go ahead," Gwen replied. "I guess he wants us to only cull the very weakest plants." She peered down her nose at the smaller plants, gingerly feeling their leaves to test their health. "The more middle-of-the-road plants will get repotted."

"Eurgh," she said, digging her glove-less hands into the soil around a plant. "Dirt."

"Lets get started then," Lauren said to Mandy after the Professor was done talking.
Lauren hoped that she wouldn't end up messing something up.
Lauren observed the plant, looking for any dead parts of the plant.

"Yes" said Barry at the very side of it there was a flower that was drooping he slowly pulled it out of the rest "And theres a few yellow leaves there"

Mandy reached into her pocket and pulled out a green ribbon. After securing her curls back with it she turned to inspect her plant. She looked sideways and saw Lauren doing the same. She wrinkled her nose. "Here goes nothing," she said. She pulled gently on dead and yellowing parts of the plant, seperating them from the rest.

Chris sighed he still didn't have a partner. And he didn't know if he should start working on the plant by himself. He kept looking to see if anyone was there by themselfs.

Freya moved the plants closer to her, it was obvious that some of them would be dead very soon, if they weren't already, and a couple of others had a few yellow and brown leaves on them as well, they would be the ones she would spend a lot of time trimming. Carefully removing the dead plants, Freya took a pair of clippers and began to cut off the discolored leaves, the 'bad parts'. 'Ugh, I'd still rather deal with animals.' She thought to herself as she continued to trim the plants, 'At least they fight back sometimes...make things interesting. But at least I'm getting my hands dirty.' She looked at Claira, "See any others that need cleaning up?" The selection of plants in front of her did seem to improve dramatically, they looked much healthier now as a matter of fact.

Jack looked up, and saw there was only one person (Chris) that he could see left. He got up and over and asked "Wanna be my partner?"

Just to be sure, Nicholai again charmed his hands to protect the skin from coming in contact with the dirt, he shot a look at Anna and turned to glance over at Maddox, who used to find it incredibly amusing back at Durmstrang.
He couldn't help but smile to see Maddox earnestly helping the young gryffindor girl, but at the Professors instructions he turned back to the task at hand.

Pointing at the smaller, less healthy plants Nicholai turned to Anna.
"Alright Kitten; those ones are the ones that look...huf...yellow." Nicholai caught himself; it had actually sounded like he was about to sneeze, "I guess we leave the ones that are borderline and see whether the professor thinks they can be saved." His tone was slightly doubtful.

He reached his hand into the planter and carefully pulled out a particularly sick looking thing, examining the roots in disgust before throwing it in the compost bin. He checked his hands and was satisfied the charms were holding up nicely before continuing with the other sick and stunted plants.

Maddox listened as the teacher finally let them get their hands dirty. "Alright Astrid, you ready to get dirty?" He smiled and pulled the plants a bit closer to them.

Jean Raoul listened intently to the professor's instructions. Only pull up the smallest and closest to being to dead. He could do that, he thought. He turned to Willow. "That makes sense, yes? We start with pulling up the ones that are very nearly dead already, and leave all the ones that have even the slightest chance of survival. I... I'll start on this side, and you start over there. Is that alright with you?" Jean Raoul rambled at the fourth year.

He bit his lip, waiting to see that she did not oppose his plan. Then he moved to the corner of the planter that had already been closest to him and began peering through the plants, searching for droopy plants with yellowed leaves. He spotted a tiny plant that could barely stood upright, whose leaves even looked sickly. He reached carefully to the base of the plant, and pulled gently, wincing as one of the yellow leaves fell from the plant and landed on his wrist. He was not enjoying this one bit.

And gross! Dirt from the nearly dead plant's roots was stuck to his fingers. Jean Raoul resisted the urge to grimace, and continued searching for and removing plants that were on the edge of death.

Allie looked around and saw a older Gryffindor boy, standing there, looking around, Maybe he didn't have a partner either? Allie walked up to him.
"Hi, I'm Allie." she said. "Do you happen to have a parnter?"

When he heard the professor's next set of intructions, Remy knew he had thought to long about his answer but he ran over again in his head, "First, by culling the weakest plants, we give those that in the middle range a better chance. Second, by turning those plants into compost, they provides more nutrients and minerals needed by the plants than commercial organic or synthetic fertilizers. Another good reason would be the benefits of compost to the soil structure. When applied to the soil, compost can help the soil be more resistant to erosion, and improve its retention of water. It also help prevent soils that containing clay or other hard dirt types from being to compacted and this help farmers and gardeners when they try to work the soil. Other reasons include the reduction of plant diseases, and improved resistance to pest or insect attacks."

He began to work in his area of the planter. He looked for yellowing leaves first. He was careful to pull the plant straight up so the roots would follow. He wiggled it a bit so that if the plant's roots were entwined with other roots they would work loose and not disturb the other plants.

"OK then" she smiled.
Looking around the opposite side of the pot,Sarah gently placed her fingers on the soil and tugged at a yellowing plant.It came out rather easily.She put it to one side to be composted,and carried on looking for more.

"This is actually quite fun." she said aloud. "I didn't think it would be!"

''oh!'' well that looked easy enough for Miranda ''ok ok i think ive got it'' she looked concentrated and took a yellowing plant between her fingers. With her tounge sticking out of her side of her mouth she forcefully plucked the plant making it brake in the middle...''oh no...'' Miranda said embarrassed grimacing as she looked at Qaz

Spotting a few more drooping ones, that seemed to be twisting themselves in the stems of the healthy plants. Liz carefully starts untwisting a few of the leaves.