Cindy Fulk, who led the Aug. 25 workshop, wants people to know that creating soil amendments is "supposed to be fun."

Fulk's workshops are hands-on events. Participants dig through finished compost to get an idea of what it should feel like, and they watch as a worm box is constructed layer by layer.

Campbell resident Carol Johnson was at Fulk's most recent workshop to update her composting skills.

She found the workshop "fun and interesting."

At the August workshop, San Jose City Councilwoman Linda LeZotte handed out food scrap containers to participants so they could collect and save what would ordinarily go in the trash or down the sink. At the end of the class one lucky participant won a wormbox composter, ready to go with worms and all.

Fulk is particularly enthusiastic about worm boxes, because the worm castings can be used for houseplants and mulch, and she says that many master composters use all they have for their vegetable gardens.

Fulk tells the class that when her daughter, Alicia, began her organic gardens, she used chicken manure for fertilizer, turning up her nose at Mom's worm castings.

It wasn't until Fulk brought both of her daughters to the Saturday outings of the master compost workshop at Prusch Park that Jessica realized people are willing to pay for what her mother's worms produce for free.

"Now she uses whatever I have for her garden," Fulk says.

For Fulk, her daughters, son, David, and husband, Bill, gardening and composting has become a family affair at their Campbell home. Fulk is in charge of the compost pile and the worm boxes in the family's backyard. David, 22, helps build worm boxes. And daughter Alicia, 19, started an organic vegetable garden, with three raised gardens beds last year.

Fulk, a long-time Campbell resident, has only been leading compost workshops for a short time, but she is no stranger to working with soil amendments.

Her knowledge of the process started about five years ago when she decided to redo her corner lot.

"I was redoing my yard and instead of putting the shrubbery on the streets for pickup, I knew I should be composting it," she says.

This realization led her to a two-hour workshop offered by the county where she learned the basics about composting.

She experimented with small batches of compost, learning as she went, but she wasn't satisfied.

"I decided I wanted to make my bins out of pallets. I collected pallets from behind where I work," she says. "I have four bins that I can adjust as I collect my materials and make my compost."

Eventually she began building her compost piles out of large pallets, but it took several years before she was ready to take the next step.

About three years ago she developed an interest in California-native plants and began attending native garden tours, where residents who have a majority of native California plants open their gardens to the public. She decided to rip out the front lawn and plant natives.

"Jessica really wants our front yard to be on the native plant tour," Fulk says.

The importance of good soil was continually emphasized, as Fulk learned more about creating a garden with plants native to California. She knew compost made an excellent soil amendment.

"In the back of my mind I liked the idea of being a master composter, and felt I could use what I learned in my yard," she says.

The county offers a 10-week certificate course, but one of the requirements is 50 hours of volunteer time. Fulk says she finally knew last January that she would have the time to give back to the community. She took the leap and become a certified master composter.

The course lasts 10 weeks and is offered once a year. After a midterm and final exams, master composters receive a certificate and are expected to volunteer 50 hours. Most master composters elect to teach workshops and work at one of the seven compost bins at Prusch Park, a working demonstration farm.

Fulk was able to learn her composting skills through the county, which has had a waste reduction program in place for about 10 years.

Ken Kelly, one of the directors of Santa Clara County's composting program along with Sara Smith, was instrumental in getting the composting program started, and now the county offers 100 composting workshops each year, a certificate program and volunteers who go into classrooms to teach children the benefits of recycling. The county program is also highly visible at home and garden shows where attendees can find information booths on waste reduction techniques.

The benefits of promoting home composting are paying off. The county has sold 5,000 bins in San Jose.

Kelly points out that if each household fills just one bin, 5 million pounds of waste are diverted from the county landfill. Instead the waste is turned into soil amendments that provide nutrients back to the earth.

Kelly says that when he took his first class, he "never saw anything so magical."

Fulk says she's not really making the compost.

"All I am doing is feeding the worms my vegetable scraps," she says. "It's fun to say, 'I made that.' "