Small-Scale Composting: Suburban Homesteading Adult Workshop Series

You don’t need to own multiple acres outside of town in order to dabble in the heart of homesteading.  You can explore “handmade and homegrown” right here in the suburbs.  We invite you to join Prairie Crossing Learning Farm staff as we share with you some of our favorite homesteading topics during our suburban homesteading workshop series!

"Feed the soil and the soil will feed the plants - and people." It's an old adage, and an important truth.  Nowadays we call that "organic, sustainable practice."

How to do that? Adding quality compost to our gardens is the best thing we can do for our soil and for the plants that grow in it.  Composting is not difficult to accomplish - as they say, compost happens! - but there are some things that you can do to encourage the process to happen faster and/or more effectively, and to improve the quality of the final product. There are also things you can do wrong and we will help you prevent those.

Following an overview of the composting process, we'll get our hands dirty (just a little!) while we explore a variety of composting techniques (including worm composting!) that you can put to use at home to feed your soil - which will in turn feed your flowers, shrubs, vegetables and fruit.    

Participants should wear clothes suitable for farm work, and bring work gloves.  Participants will bring home a resource handout on composting and a sample of worm compost. The registration fee is $30 per person.

Instructor:  Eric Carlberg, PCLF Farm Manager

Assisted by:  Sharon Gaughan, PCLF Education Program Director

If this workshop is filled and you'd like to be added to the wait list, please email sgaughan@prairiecrossing.com. Register early to save your spot!

These Saturday morning workshops are for adult participants. All workshops will begin in the Yellow Farmhouse at the Prairie Crossing Farm, located at 32400 N. Harris Road in Grayslake. Enter Prairie Crossing via Route 45 at Jones Point Road and follow the signs to the Farm. Free parking is available in the small parking lot just past the Yellow Farm House.

Starting in January, we will offer workshops covering additional Suburban Homesteading topics.  We welcome suggestions and requests, and will try to accommodate those in our ongoing series of homesteading workshops.  For inquiries and suggestions contact Sharon Gaughan, Prairie Crossing Learning Farm Education Program Director, at sgaughan@prairiecrossing.com or 847-548-4062 x12.

Workshop Policies 

Payment. Payment must be received in full for each workshop you have registered for within 1 week of your enrollment date, or the date of the workshop – whichever comes first. Registrations without corresponding payment within 1 week are subject to cancellation. Payment is available online via PayPal, or you may mail a check made payable to the Liberty Prairie Foundation to 32400 N. Harris Road, Grayslake IL 60030 (Attention: Sharon Gaughan).

Cancellation.  Cancellation 5 days prior to the workshop is refunded at 90%, less the PayPal transaction fees if payment was made through PayPal. Cancellations less than 4 days prior to the workshop are non-refundable. Refunds are not given for missed workshops. The Prairie Crossing Learning Farm reserves the right to cancel workshops due to low enrollment; these cancellations will be fully refunded.