Compost Workshop
The City of Ojai Community Demonstration Garden is offering a Fall Compost Demonstration Workshop. Learn how to make compost like a pro, in your own backyard. Turn your kitchen and yard waste into a valuable soil amendment that your plants will love! Master gardener Jessica Craven will teach all the ins and outs of composting at this free, hands-on workshop. 
You can help the earth by keeping trash out of the landfill, and by using compost in your garden instead of expensive, chemical fertilizers that pollute our water. Plus, you can save water by adding moisture-retaining compost to your soil! If possible, please bring a bag of kitchen scraps (fruit and vegetable trimmings only) to the workshop. The workshop will take place on Saturday, December 1, 2007, from 10:00 A.M. to 12:00 P.M, in the Ojai Community Demonstration Garden, 401 South Ventura Street, behind Ojai City Hall.
Hummingbirds and other dinner guests enjoyed the Mexican Bush Sage (salvia leucantha) in the hummingbird garden today. 
Photos by Les Dublin.
A shredder isn't necessary to make compost, of course, but it is one way to speed up the process. Shredding the compost material helps the decomposers break it down. It also provides a more uniform finished product, if the entire pile is made from shredded material. 
Some drawbacks to shredding include the expense of buying or renting the machinery, the use of fossil fuels or electricity to run the machine, and the noise. Photos by Les Dublin.
A large crowd of 35 people came to hear horticulturist and landscape designer Kathy Nolan speak about landscaping with California native plants.
Kathy brought native plants with her to show during her talk. 
After answering the groups's many questions, Kathy gave a tour of the demo garden's established native plantings.
Photos by Les Dublin. 
Learn how to landscape with native plants at a free workshop in the City of Ojai Community Demonstration Garden. California native plants are beautiful and many need little or no water once established. Learn about native plant selections, plants that are appropriate for Ojai, and natives suitable for planting under oaks. You will also learn when and where to plant natives, planting techniques and irrigation at this hands-on workshop with expert horticulturist and landscape designer Kathy Nolan. The workshop will take place on Saturday, November 10th, at 10:00 A.M. Photo by Les Dublin.
Weeds and plants that spilled a little too far over the edges of beds were dug out of the paths, and new mulch was spread.
Photos by Les Dublin.