Compost: A Family Guide to Making Soil from Scraps

by Ben Raskin

Overview

Set your family on the path to a planet-friendly lifestyle with this fun guide to compost—what it is, how to make it, how to maintain it.  Includes games, stickers, and more!

Teach your kids that composting is fun with this funky guide that takes you from the nitty-gritty of compost composition and care to Worms and Ladders, a fresh take on a traditional board game. Find out the rules for setting up your very own Worm Lovers' Society, learn all about the garden-to-plate cycle together, and get your family's feet firmly set on the road to a planet-friendly lifestyle. Includes information on both kitchen and garden composting.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781611801279
Publisher:	Shambhala
Publication date:	03/11/2014
Series:	Discover Together Guides
Pages:	62
Product dimensions:	8.62(w) x 7.40(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

BEN RASKIN is the Head of Horticulture at the Soil Association in the UK, and a father to two. He runs courses and training on organic growing and launched the Soil Association's flagship Organic Apprenticeship Scheme in 2007. Ben developed an interest in gardening while working on an organic vineyard in northern Italy and has worked in horticulture for eighteen years.

Table of Contents

What Is Compost?
What Is Soil?
Your Compost Friends (micro and macro organisms)
Compost Enemies
How to Build a Compost Heap
Compost Activators
Different Ways to Look at Your Heap
The Compost Doctor
Starting a Compost Community
Compost Tea
More about Nutrients
Extras

Editorial Reviews

03/17/2014
Raskin's delightful new book will change the way your family looks at kitchen crud. In this small volume, the author, a botanist and the head of horticulture at the Soil Association in the U.K., has compiled an eclectic system for teaching kids and clueless adults how to create new life-giving ecosystems in their homes and kitchens. Through activities and such learning tools as stickers, charts, pockets, diagrams, and a fascinating program of learning about worms, the book introduces kids to the benefit of ecological living as a normal and dynamic lifestyle. Do you know how to play "Worms and Ladders"? Bring only the dice—the book outlines the rest. The worm game is one of the many activities outlined in this captivating guide that will generate family fun out of kitchen garbage. Homeschooling parents will love this book. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Raskin’s delightful new book will change the way your family looks at kitchen crud. . . . A captivating guide that will generate family fun out of kitchen garbage.”—Publishers Weekly

“Ben Raskin shows us how to take the stuff other people throw away and turn it into something quite miraculous – compost. Follow Ben’s advice and you’ll find out all about our compost friends, and learn how you, too, can make the world grow green.”—Alys Fowler, author of Garden Anywhere
 
“In this fascinating and compelling book, Ben Raskin conveys the truly magical and healing powers of composting to a new generation who are about to inherit our precious Earth.”—Patrick Holden, CBE, Sustainable Food Trust
 
“Unplug your kids with this super book that will get them outside, hands in the soil, having fun and learning. Ben Raskin leads the way with enough gee-whiz facts, sound science, and creative ideas to inspire kids of any age that healthy soil = healthy planet = healthy life.”—Ethne Clarke, editor-in-chief, Organic Gardening
 
“This book will really engage families to get their hands dirty and make compost together. With plenty of easy-to-follow advice, it will help you make your garden a healthier and more biodiverse place.”—Christina Harrison, editor, Kew magazine, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

From the Publisher