Jackson County Master Gardener John Kobal will share how to turn kitchen scraps into valuable garden compost. Learn how to set up and maintain a worm bin using red wiggler worms. It’s fast, easy, personally satisfying, and beneficial to your gardening efforts. Subjects include: bin materials, acceptable kitchen scraps, worm ecology, ‘design dos and don’ts’, tricks to speed up the composting process, harvesting worm castings, and making worm tea. Worm boxes can be indoors or outside as long as a few precautions are observed. 

John Kobal has 30+ years of gardening experience in both urban and rural settings. His first garden was a 15-foot row of pole beans on a city lot. He enjoys living on a rural property with 16 raised beds and an orchard of apples, nectarines, plums, pears, cherries, and persimmons. John’s gardening knowledge has been fueled through numerous books and periodicals, lots of trials and experimentation, shared experiences in a community garden setting (his plot was a 20-foot square) and establishing his orchard. John retired to the Rogue Valley and is a certified Master Gardener.

The Oregon State University Extension Service Master Gardener™ Program is a voluntary educational program designed to meet the community’s gardening needs. Its purpose is to teach people more about the science and art of growing plants. Specifically, it aims to provide information and technical assistance related to general horticulture and sustainable gardening to the public through qualified, certified volunteers.