I first began composting a few years ago.  It has so many benefits:  1)gets rid of our kitchen scraps without putting them into a landfill, trapped in a plastic garbage bag for all eternity, 2) gets rid of our garden waste (tops of plants, end of season plants), 3) best of all, gives us free fertilizer for the garden when the composting is done breaking down into humus.

I learned how to compost from reading books and web sites.  You can, too!  Don’t be intimidated, it’s so easy.  All it takes is a space in your backyard, away from your house our your neighbor’s houses.  (This is because of the smell, which if you keep your compost heap correctly shouldn’t happen, but from time to time (if you’re like me), you’ll end up with too much of one thing and not enough of another and occasionally have a bit of smell.  This happens for us particularly around corn harvest time, when we’re putting up bushels of corn for winter and the dozens of husks end up in the pile at once.

So… what is composting?  Well, it’s taking organic matter such as plants (grass clippings, garden plants, even weeds are okay so long as they haven’t gone to seed – you don’t want seeds in your pile if you’ll be using it in your garden as they can sprout), leftover fruits & vegetables (think peels, tops, skins, or spoiled), paper, newspaper (check first to make sure it’s printed with soy ink, you don’t want chemicals in your compost), grains, etc.  We don’t compost meat because I’ve read it attracts animals (personally I already have squirrels galore feasting on my compost pile, but maybe the meat would attract more ominous animals).  Egg shells are okay, as are coffee grounds.  The things you put into your compost pile with slowly decompose down to a rich, black, crumbly dirt-like substance called humus.  This is like black gold to a farmer or gardener.  It’s great organic fertilizer, made by simple recycling.

How do you keep all this rotten food from from smelling?  You have to keep the ratio of food to plant in check.  By food, I mean any leftovers, spoiled foods, peels, egg shells, etc.  By plant I mean grass, paper (okay, not technically a plant but it came from a tree), and other plant materials.  By keeping it in balance you will cut down on any smells.

Here are a couple of our very simple backyard compost piles.  One was constructed from leftover plastic lattice fencing, and the other from farm fence wire.  You don’t even need to use any fencing – it is possible to just make an informal pile on the ground.  Once your pile is made, just toss in your materials when available and stir or turn the pile occasionally.

To learn more about composting, you can search the internet for articles, or visit this web site: http://www.howtocompost.org/

Penny Peterson’s blog can be viewed at http://all-natural-mama.blogspot.com/.