To help celebrate International Compost Week, 7-13 May, we’re giving North Herts residents an opportunity to win a super-duper composting wormery and a signed copy of ‘must read’ children’s book ‘Darwin's Super-Pooping Worm Spectacular'.
All you have to do is sign up to our new Climate Hive, which will keep you up to date with what we are doing to address climate change, and enable you to get involved and share your ideas and activities. We also have 10 bags of Ace of Herts compost from Cumberlows for runners-up, which is the product from residents’ food waste! Winners will be announced w/c 15 May.
The two-tray Tiger Wormery, worth £95 and kindly supplied by Hitchin based company Original Organics, is an environmentally friendly way to turn food and garden waste into ‘vermicompost’, which is compost made by worms. Waste goes in the top tray, ideally mixed with twigs and leaves (to make sure it's not too acidic) and the worms in the bottom follow the food upwards through holes leaving their rich, organic poo in the tray below!
Darwin's Super-Pooping Worm Spectacular, by Herts author Polly Owen and illustrated by Gwen Millward, highlights the importance of earthworms on our planet and has been featured in The Guardian and The Observer as well as selected as a ‘best book’ by teachers’ blogs. Polly’s book tells the story of how Charles Darwin discovered the power of earthworms' poo when he studied them 150 years ago and declared them to be one of the most important creatures on the planet.
Author Polly Owen said: “I noticed North Herts Council did some great work last year around the importance of bees and encouraging wildflowers. So I wanted to do something similar with highlighting worms, as without them there would be no soil for flowers to grow!
“I wrote Darwin's Super-Pooping Worm Spectacular after my daughter showed an interest in worms. The book is a really good way for families and children to get involved using their food waste for compost and discovering a love of worms and nature.”
Sarah Kingsley, Place Director at North Herts Council, said: “Worms and bees, in fact all nature, is so important to our ecosystem and the way we live. Protecting our natural world and improving biodiversity is our strongest natural defence against climate change.”
“We really need local residents to help and get involved, especially if we’re going to meet our climate targets to be net zero in our operations by 2030 and for North Herts to be net zero by 2040.
“We’d like to thank Polly and Original Organics in Hitchin for putting together such a fabulous prize to help raise awareness of the importance of nature, and get young people interested in it.”
Composting your food waste at home creates a super-boosting fertiliser for your plants. And ‘vermicompost’ (compost made by worms) is thought to be better than regular compost because of its high nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium content. Once a wormery system is up and running, it's quick and easy to maintain and takes care of all your food and garden waste. But if you don’t have a garden the wormery we’re giving away can be used on a patio or balcony.
Competition Terms and Conditions
1. Closing date is 11.59pm Sunday 14 May 2023.
2. You must live in the district of North Herts – to check, North Herts Council would be who you pay your council tax to, and who collects your recycling and waste.
3. You must be 18 or over.
4. There is a main prize of a wormery and children’s book. There are 10 runners-up prizes of a bag of compost. There is no cash alternative to the prizes. Prizes can be delivered within the district or collected.
5. The winners will be picked at random. You must have registered on the North Herts Climate Hive: North Herts Council: Climate Hive (civilspace.io).
6. Registering on our Climate Hive means you will be contacted, usually via email, from time to time about what we are doing to address climate change. You will also have the opportunity to get involved in what we are doing and share your own ideas about improving the environment around us.
7. Winners will be contacted using the details registered on the Climate Hive, and will be asked to take part in publicity, including a photo with their prize.
8. The wormery is manufactured in the UK from high quality plastic which is fully recyclable and comes with a five-year warranty. The colour may vary – could be green, grey or black.
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