Theo bounced along behind her, a big grin on his face. "So what do we do now? Do we have to dig dem out now Nia?"

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.

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."

If Jean Raoul was not fond of Herbology, Willow could not blame him, really. Where was Juniper Goodwin when you needed her, eh? She was chasing animals in Africa. Right. Shaking her head, the girl listened intently to Jean Raoul's reply to Erikson's question.

She blinked at this. Sure she believed him when he said he was not good in Herbology... Not.

Her eyes set on the planter in front of her.

"What are we supposed to do with this, sir?" the girl muttered to her partner.

"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."

Maddox raised his hand, not knowing why, but said, "Wouldnt the composting of the unwanted plants make the soil richer, and therefore helping the transplanted plants to grow better?" He wasnt sure but was hoping that was the answer.

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

"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 "

"Hey!" Miranda whispered behind a first year ''wanna be partners?'' she asked smiling, eyebrows raised ''Im Miranda'' she held her hand out hoping Qaz would shake it.

Raising her hand again, "Professor, it will aid the other plants with the nutrients it has received in it's own life. Won't it?"

"Sure, no problem." Liz whispers back.

"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."

Qaz took the proffered hand and said, 'Sure...my name is Qaz'

"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.

Nia raised her hand. "All plants have nutrients in them, Professor, even if there's not enough for the plant to survive. By composting them, microorganisms break them down, and then the nutrients can be recycled as such and be used to help other plants grow big and strong. If I remember rightly, this is the only way that nutrients occur in soil...by decomposition. Its a natural process, but composting can help it along." Boy was Nia glad that she had read her textbook last night. Even if Theo somehow managed to wreck the practical work, she'd still look pretty good.

"Not quite yet Theo," Nia said with a sigh. He was still bouncing! Gah. "We gotta wait for Professor Carracio to tell us how to do it. So we don't kill them."

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.

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.

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.

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

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."

Miranda smiled and shook her hand ''nice to meet you! This is going to be fun'' Miranda hadnt dropped the grin from her face, looking around at all the plants she asked Qaz ''you know what the professor's talking about?'' she asked now looking down at the plants on the desk

Lillianna looked around. She still didnt have a partner.

Maddox smiled and mouthed Your doing good. He could tell she was just as bad at herbology as he was. But hey why not have some fun once they were allowed to dig in. He looked at the plants infront of him and started to categorize what plants would stay and what would go.

'Yeah,' Qaz replied. 'My mother has always had a vegetable garden, so I'm used to playing in the dirt.'

Chris sighed the ravenclaw boy didn't answer him and he did need a partner. He looked around, he saw Lillianna didn't have one either. He went up to her. "Need a partner." He asked her in sorta a whisper.

Nigel sat quietly in his chair, very unlike him. He absolutely detested the subject. He found it quite boring, even though he was quite good at it. He assumed some of the more...interesting specimens were being saved for his later years. He sat in his seat quietly, trying his hardest not to fall asleep, he paid as much attention as he could.

He looked around him and noticed several students sitting on the edge of their seats like such good little children. Nigel barely supressed a grin. He was becoming very sorry that he had denied the temptation to skip class and go take an afternoon nap.

Nigel sat back quietly and awaited further instructions.