The Ojai Garden

28 Ojai Valley residents came to Saturday morning's compost workshop in the City of Ojai Community Demonstration Garden. Master Gardener Jessica Craven engaged the group as she interspersed anecdotes from her own composting adventures with her well-structured composting lesson. Participants learned all the do's and don'ts of composting, as well as the pros and cons of different methods, and styles of bins. Jessica also explained how to make compost tea, grasscycle, make a worm bin, and add red wigglers to a compost pile. Workshop participants had a chance to see, touch, and smell finished compost that was made at last December's compost workshop. Jessica demonstrated building the first two layers of a compost pile in a bin fashioned from old pallets. All who attended received a handy gift from the City of Ojai — a compost wheeler full of useful tips for successful composting. Jessica received a gift, too, a Demo Garden mug featuring our local beauty, the Matilija poppy. With all these Ojaians making their own brown gold, our valley will soon be a little greener! Photos by Les Dublin.