One of my favorite things to do as a weekend gardener is composting. Composting and the weekend gardener go hand in hand. It is one of the best ways for a weekend gardener to feed his/her garden organically. Basically, composting allows you to turn organic waste into rich nutrients for your garden and, while composting is a very simple process, there are some basic steps that you should follow in order to build a good composting pile. I hope that these tips will help the weekend gardener to develop a love for the weekend garden as I do.

The weekend gardener doesn't really even need a special bin or box to contain a compost pile. All you really need is the compost material (although some kind of container is recommended just for the sake of tidiness and for keeping rodents, flies and creepy crawler types away).

The weekend gardener such as myself can find material for composting in forms of dead grass, leaves, shrubs, and lawn trimmings as well as left over fruits and vegetables from the table.

Most weekend gardeners including myself keep home composts contained in old trash bins with lids or even boxes made from spare wood or wire frames. The most important thing is that the pile of compost be exposed to air.

Another key to successful composting is layering. Composts should have alternating layers of green and brown organic materials. The green organic material should consist of fruits, vegetables and grass clippings, for example, whereas the brown organic material should come from dry leaves, twigs or small pieces of wood. If the weekend gardener has too much green organic material the compost will become too high in nitrogen whereas too much brown organic material in the compost will make it too rich with carbon. Too much nitrogen may cause slime and too much carbon may cause the composting process to move too slowly.

Maintenance for the weekend gardeners compost pile or bin is also important. Don't let the pile dry out. It should be regularly checked to see that its moisture is maintained and it should be watered if there is not enough moisture. It must also be regularly mixed and fluffed to make sure that the entire compost pile is exposed to adequate amounts of air. Mixing the compost pile approximately every two weeks should be sufficient. It is also best, but not absolutely necessary, if your compost pile is directly in the sun and if your compost is not inside a container of some type, the best place for it is directly on the soil.

While knowing how and what should go into your compost pile is important, knowing what should not go into your compost pile is equally important. Chicken, dairy, fish, and meat products should never go into a compost and neither should human waste or pet waste, fats and oils, diseased plants, or even plants that have been sprayed with herbicide.

Composting for the weekend gardener is a simple process and easily learned. You will also reap many benefits from composting. Not only will you be enriching your soil when you mix it with the compost pile, but you will be disposing of unwanted materials in an earth-friendly way, thereby helping to minimize the amount of garbage dumped into landfills and aiding mother earth in the process. Good luck and happy weekends from my garden to yours!

If you would like a nice garden, you'll need a bucket of water and some garbage. That simple recipe is all you need to grow healthy, beautiful plants all summer long. But before you start floating a tin can in a some water, you need to know that there is a catch. The trick to this recipe is that you have to compost your garbage first. Compost and water are the only ingredients you need to create a powerful plant supplement known as compost tea.

Compost in the garden will improve your soil which in turn will reward you with strong plants that are better able to fend off droughts and diseases. Compost improves soil structure and drainage. It can also be used as a fertilizer or a mulch and it enhances the soil's ability to absorb water.

Compost tea provides the same benefits to a plant as compost but it doesn't stop there. Not only can compost tea can applied to the soil around plants like regular compost, but it can also be sprayed on the leaves. When sprayed directly on the leaves, it increases the amount of nutrients available to the plant and helps fight foliar diseases. It will even increase the nutritional value and improve the taste of vegetables.

There are many different ways to make compost tea but most recipes can be summarized by saying, if you steep compost in water you get compost tea.

Using rain water is the best way to make compost tea but you can get by with tap water if rain is scarce. Tap water usually contains enough chlorine in it to kill off all of the beneficial bacteria so it's best to let it sit for a few hours before using it.

The quickest and easiest way to make compost tea is with an old sock filled with compost. Throw it in a bucket and let it sit for a day and you've just made compost tea. Sure there are more complicated ways to make the tea more effective such as using air stones or fish tank bubblers to feed the mixture enough oxygen but the old sock in a bucket method works just fine. Some people add molasses to the mix and there are many other secret home recipes. But you'll do fine by using a sock filled with compost and a bucket of water. And actually the sock is optional if you have no plans on using a sprayer.

When applying compost tea with a sprayer you have to worry about clogs. Attach some cheese cloth or a piece of panty hose to the sprayer's intake with some rubber bands and you should be fine.

If you need more than a few buckets of tea, then an old fish tank or a plastic storage bin would make a great container for brewing compost tea.

After you've brewed a few batches and are happy with the results why not try aerated compost tea? You'll need to feed your mixture a constant supply of oxygen so a bubbler or air stones will be required. You need to keep it aerated so it doesn't grow any harmful pathogens. Some popular ingredients to add to bubbling compost tea are alfalfa, fish emulsion, powdered seaweed, corn meal, green sand and more. Don't use manure. Manure tea shouldn't be used as a foliar spray especially if you're growing vegetables and who wants manure floating around in their bucket anyway.

Ask a weekend gardener about compost and chances are they'll tell you it's powerful stuff with a lot of uses. But ask a serious gardener about compost and they'll probably tell you that it's the most important ingredient there is when making compost tea.

Gardening is a fun and invigorating activity. It keeps one busy and productive and brings the creativity and ingenuity in everyone. Gardening beautifies our homes but it also produces a good deal of yard waste. What better way to make this waste work out for you than to use it to enrich your garden through composting? You'd be making your soil more fertile for the health of your plants and at the same time, you'd be helping you community dispose of waste in the cleanest, cheapest and easiest manner. Here are some simple ways to make home composting successful for you:

1. Select the best compost material. Composting is simply simulating, if not imitatinag nature's natural process of breaking down dead matter and using it to replenish the soils nutrients. The best source would obviously be your own yard waste such as the dried leaves, straw and wood chips from your own vegetation. Experts recommend using browns and greens. Browns are rich in carbon while greens are rich in nitrogen.

2. Correct combination of compost materials. To make home composting successful, it is better to combine different compost materials that to use just one type. Combine some of the materials mentioned in the above tip and shred them into small pieces to make them easier to store in case you might want to pile them later.

3. Use of manure can also mean successful home composting. Manure is also a rich source of organic materials and may come from a variety of animals such as chicken, ducks, pigs, sheep, cow and goats. They are rich sources of nitrogen which plants need in building up their tissues. It is best to layer this manure with dried leaves and to not simply add it into the pile s that it is effectively decomposed and incorporated into the compost.

4. Cold composting. Cold composting is easy enough to do which involves piling all the materials you have chosen as compost materials. Put them up in a pile and give them time to decompose, after months or a year, you'd have a rich compost from the decomposition of these materials.

5. Hot composting is more systematic and laborious than cold composting but it works. The pile should be at least 3- feet deep and is made up of alternating materials. Water is sprinkled regularly on the pile keep it most for microbial growth and action. Once in a while, you may mix the pile to expose the lower layers to oxygen and promote further decomposition of organic matter. This should generate some heat in the compost as gases are produced with the breakdown of organic matter.

6. Stink management is also a key to successful home composting. If the pile is not aerated enough, it begins to give off a bad odor. To resolve this problem, turn and mix the pile once in a while. Do not allow your compost pile to simply stink up.

7. Keep moisture level up but not too much. Adding too much water will waterlog your microorganisms which will not be good for them too and will inhibit their decomposing activities.

8. If the pile is dry and is not heating up, one has to do the entire pile all over again and this time cut the materials into smaller pieces. Add enough water also to make the entire pile moist to stimulate microbial activity.

9. No matter how you are promoting the decomposition of organic waste, you compost should not be a breeding ground for flies and ants that can be sources of diseases and may hard your plants in the long run. Another key to successful home composting is management of these insects by covering the pile with dirt. It does not do if these insects would proliferate in your compost because they may do more harm than your compost may do you good.

10. For a successful home composting, keep your compost pile within your yard. It should be contained within a particular space so it does not look like a dumpsite of some sort. Building a simple fence may do the trick. Your enclosure should also allow some air to get in through the sides.

Whether or not you are growing organic food as a hobby, or you have a full fledged organic gardening business, one of the most important ingredients that you can make for yourself is organic compost. Using terms such as mulch or a type of soil amendments, this natural fertilizer can improve the growth of your crops by making your soil more rich through added moisture capacity, increased aeration, which will stimulate healthy root growth due to the soil's fertility levels. This can include increased levels of microorganisms, nutrients such as potassium or nitrogen which can be made with scraps that you would throw away on a regular basis. Here are 5 tips on how you can generate rich organic compost on your own without it costing you a cent.

The process of creating compost is actually quite easy to understand. Life is about cycles and different organisms that serve different purposes. In the natural world, small organisms such as bacteria and worms break down organic materials on a daily basis all over the world. If you have ever looked at the ground in a forest, especially near the base of trees, you can see how natures system for decomposition works to replenish the soil using this reoccurring cyclical process. This same process of decomposition can be replicated in your home or on your property as long as you know a few simple things.

First you will need a source of material that can decompose on a regular basis. This could be food scraps that you normally would throw out such as vegetables and breads that can easily be found in any household. By saving these up, you will begin the first part of this five-part process for creating free organic compost.

The next thing you will need is an area where you can place your composting pile. This pile will consist of dirt, perhaps some initial composting material that you have left over or any soil that you have on your property that is dark and rich. This is where you will begin putting your biodegradable material which will serve as food for the composting process.

Next, you must consider aeration of this pile. This can be done in a labor-intensive way by using a pitchfork to turn your pile from time to time, or by adding PVC pipe with holes in various parts of the composting pile so that air can freely infiltrate this pile as the composting process begins and continues. This can also be accomplished by using some sort of the bin or drum that can be rotated easily from time to time.

Now you will need to gather some worms. Red worms are a great composting friend which will not only produce excellent compost for you on a regular basis, but they will reproduce themselves allowing you to create more compost as the population increases over time. Worms should only be added after the pile heats up and then cools back down. Some worms may enter the pile on their own.

The last thing to consider is the temperature and moisture content of the soil itself in which the worms will form their habitat. Within a closed area such as a composting bin or a covered mulch pile, with proper aeration, watering, and consistent food, you will be well on your way to a beautiful dark, crumbly, compost that is full of natural ingredients created by the worms within your composting bin.

There are of course a few things that could go wrong which are easily fixed. One of the most common occurrences is nothing occurring in your bin or pile despite having added the proper ingredients and worms to the mix. Always consider things such as not enough nitrogen or oxygen within the initial batch. Temperature levels and moisture levels are also very important to monitor when looking for an optimal production level for your compost.

Always remember that once you're organic compost is done, you can either mix compost with soil for plants that you are planting for the first time, or you can add the compost on top of existing plants, near their base (called top and side dressing), and water them as usual so that they nutrients percolate down into the soil itself to the roots of the planet.

Creating organic compost can be fun and rewarding depending upon how much time you put into it and what your goals are as far as creating an organic garden. Composting can be a very easy process, especially once you have tried it numerous times and have gotten the feel for how the ratio of carbon to nitrogen should be and the amount of worms that are necessary to create a proper composting environment. Using these five tips, you should be well on your way to creating all of the organic compost you will ever need.

If you're into organic gardening you probably know by know about compost and how it works wonders to your garden patch. But for the first timers, creating a compost pile is not really on the top of their to-do-list. The question of is composting worthwhile usually comes up and not knowing enough they usually arrive at the easiest answer and course of action. And that's a nope, I don't have time for making my own compost. I will settle with the commercially available organic fertilizers and stuff.

First things first, composting is the process of decomposing organic wastes, which can be household wastes or plant remains or a mixture of both, and making them into a dark, earthy, and loose or crumbly substance. Because compost is rich in minerals which most plants need, compost can be made to replace your garden soil.

Most often, however, gardeners use compost to enrich their garden soil. When compost is added the soil, the overall structure of the soil improved allowing it to hold more water and letting air circulate within the soil.

Contrary to some of your perceptions, compost is quite easy to make and is especially easy to use. There are several methods that could be used when creating compost. The following guide shows how easy it is to create it on your own backyard.

I would suggest making your own compost bin to make everything confined to one place. You will avoid making a mess in your backyard if you do so. Plus, temperature and moisture can also be regulated if you construct a compost bin but allow the organic materials to be composted touch the soil. You need to allow your earthworm buddies and other organic microbes help out in the decomposing process.

Although, almost all organic materials could go into your compost pile, a good combination of greens and browns would be better. The greens refer to nitrogen-rich organic matter like fresh grass, leaves, and your scraps in your kitchen. The browns on the other hand refer to organic matter that contains a lot of carbon such as those dried leaves on your backyard, straw and, of course, wood chips or shavings.

A good combination of greens and browns can dictate how fast you will have a finished compost. Admittedly, you will have an edge in this area if you have piled up your experience in compost making. Why? Well, for starters you would probably have timed how fast the final compost is created from the different proportions of greens and browns.

Some, however, would suggest that the best proportion would be 25 percent of your compost pile is made of browns and 1 percent is made of greens.Take note that if you have a large part made up of browns the compost pile will decompose rather slowly. On the other hand, having too much greens on the pile could cause some serious smell.

Other elements that you should always consider when making compost are the air and the amount of water your pile will need. It is best to keep your compost pile damp. This will help in the decomposing process. Air is also needed so make sure your pile is properly aerated. If you do observe that no air is coming in, just turn over your pile. Observe and continuously aerate your pile every until you can already harvest the fruits of your labor.

It takes some effort in creating compost, that part I have to agree. But the results of composting are really worthwhile.

There is no need to let kitchen waste go to waste! Gardeners can spend lots of money buying good soil or compost to make the garden grow. There is, however, no need to do that if you eat at home more than once a week! Composting kitchen waste solves several problems simultaneously by converting kitchen scraps that would otherwise be thrown away into rich, organic soil for the garden. Incorporating compost into the soil helps keep the soil alive and life-sustaining. Creating your own compost saves money and helps the environment.

Composting 101 There are a few things that every new composter needs to know: · Kitchen compost can include any vegetable matter or paper. Do not add oils, meats or fats to your kitchen compost, as it will cause your compost to smell and attract animals. Additionally, you need certain conditions of heat and bacterial activity to properly compost these materials. · Shred your scraps or tear them up into the smallest pieces possible. This will help the scraps break down faster. · Compost operations need green and brown materials. Kitchen waste falls into the category of green materials. In addition to the kitchen waste, you will need to add dried shredded leaves or other brown matter. · One of the most efficient ways to compost kitchen waste is to use worms. Vermicomposting can be done outside or under the sink, depending upon the space available and the winter climates. (Worms cannot sustain chilling temperatures.)

Kitchen Composting Many successful gardeners make all of their compost in the kitchen! You can compost in the space under your kitchen sink, especially if you employ worms to help. This is how you build an under the sink worm bin: 1. Get a Tupperware or a small trash can and poke holes in the top for air. 2. In a separate container, soak a mix of grass clippings and dry shredded leaves overnight. 3. Put about two inches of gravel in the bottom of the container and fill with water up to ½ inches below the rock line. 4. Drain the grass/leaves mix and place it in the container. Let it sit for 48 hours. Once the temperature has stabilized to 100 degrees or lower for at least 24 hours, you can add the worms. 5. Let the worms become acquainted with their new space for about a week. At that point, you can begin adding food for the worms. 6. One pound of worms can consume about one pound of kitchen scraps per day. After about two months, you can remove some of the composted material and continue to add food.

Composting Kitchen Scraps Outside

If you have plenty of space outside in a part sun/part shade area, consider a compost pile to compost your kitchen waste outside in the garden. You can decide whether you want to maintain a hot compost pile or a cold compost pile. Hot compost cooks faster, but you do have to turn it and monitor it. With cold compost, you can employ worms to help break down your kitchen scraps. With either type of pile you will need a combination of green materials and brown materials to start your pile. If you are composting cold and not using a container, build a bottom framework of larger twigs and materials. Alternate layers of green materials (kitchen scraps and freshly cut grass) and brown materials (shredded leaves and straw). You can continue to add layers to the pile, occasionally building in a layer of sticks. The layer made of sticks allows oxygen into the pile that helps the bacteria and other soil organisms that will eventually break down the kitchen waste in the pile. Composting kitchen waste is a simple and rewarding way to recycle your green kitchen scraps and have rich, fertile soil for your garden.

When starting to compost, one must ask, which exactly is better the compost bin or the compost tumbler? Really, it all depends on who you ask and what their current lifestyle is like. For instance, does this person have the time to commit to their compost and garden? More importantly, do you? Whatever your answer will be may well dictate whether you’ll go with purchasing a compost bin or tumbler. Let’s take a few factors into considerations to help you decide:

Compost bins are easy to use and are just as easy to put together with little parts or none at all. Popular compost bins like the Garden Gourmet and the Expandable Worm Tower, both which can be found on Composters.com, require little parts and take no more than 20 minutes to put together. Those who use bins find it both therapeutic and satisfying to be personally turning their compost with a pitchfork; no one ever said that a little bit of the outdoors could hurt you! For composting bins like the Expandable Worm Tower, it’s the worms that do most of the work. All you would have to do is take the finished compost that the worms have produced (known as worm castings, black gold, or even just rich soil), distribute it around the soil of your garden, fill up the trays with more organic matter and dirt and repeat!

As easy and efficient that compost bins are, they can get a bit messy at times. What if you happen to have a compost bin unlike the Expandable Worm Tower or Garden Gourmet where it’s easy to evacuate the finished compost? You may have to manually dump the finished compost into a wheel barrel, where it can get a bit chaotic and messy. Unless you have no other commitments and plenty of time on your hand, compost bins may not be the way to go.

A bit more expensive but perhaps worth the extra cash, compost tumblers are ideal for those who don’t have as much time but would still love to have the resulting rich soil for their garden. What’s great about having a compost tumbler is that there’s no need to manually turn the compost. The whole point of a tumbler is that you can easily rotate it via a crank or just by spinning it, therefore aerating the compost inside. The con about tumblers, however, is that they too can get messy especially if you have to roll it around the yard when the compost it not yet ready. Additionally, you may have to purchase the compost tea collector separately, depending on the model.

When it comes down to it, it’s really about personal preference. I’ve mentioned repeatedly that things could get messy, but that’s the beauty of composting; you’re allowed to get down and dirty! Whatever the decision you make, be sure to take your lifestyle and commitments in consideration to ensure a successful composting experience.

Compost is basically organic matter that has broken down any sufficient manner that the mineral and nutrients with in the compost can be readily absorbed by the plants that you are attempting to grow in your organic garden. Organic gardeners from all over the world have used similar practices in order to stimulate the growth of their plants by naturally enriching the soil. Here are a few tips on how to create and use the best organic gardening compost for your garden.

Composting is a very complicated process in and of itself, but for everyone that tries to do it the first time, it will be a very easy process. What is difficult is the process that we cannot see underneath the tarp or in the bin. Tiny bacteria and an assortment of mites and, if we are using worms, red worms will work together to create compost for you.

Doing this can be summarized in a few words. Taking your remaining organic waste and placing it in a container or under a tarp will start the process. You have a few other items to mix in, such a grass clipping from your weekly mowing or it can be newspaper and a touch of saw dust from a project that you may be doing on the weekend like fixing your home. If you work at a place such as a saw mill that creates an abundance of material each and every day, you can use that as part of you bedding in a sparing way. Or if you are a restaurant owner, or know someone in the business, even a coffee shop, you will have enough free organic material to make this work in no time.

Overall, you just add a pile of waste together and the magic begins. There is much more to the process, but to make it simple at first is a good way to draw you into or sell you on the idea that it will not take much of your time and that it will help you and the environment. Each person, by doing their share, and not using materials that can cause environmental harm, are helping fix our world. Now, here is a bit more on the composting process.

As a rule of thumb, what ever soil you may be trying to grow your organic garden in, it can never get enough compost because soil can only be improved by the addition of organic matter. Compost is basically organic matter that has broken down any sufficient manner that the mineral and nutrients with in the compost can be readily absorbed by the plants that you are attempting to grow in your organic garden. Here are a few tips on how to create and use the best organic gardening compost for your garden.

Organic gardening compost can be purchased locally or you can create your own kind of compost by using the left over food that you have on a daily basis. By purchasing a composter bin or simply creating an area where your scraps can be thrown, this material will decompose over time and can be used as fertilizer for your organic garden.

Typically, an ideal blend for any kind of organic compost would be equal amounts of soft and green material such as maneuver and leaves that are readily available at most households. Additionally, hard and brown material such as dead leaves or chopped up twigs can be used to help balance your organic gardening compost mixture. A simple things such as taking the clippings from your lawn and the pruning sprung your tree can add to your compost pile quite quickly.

The ideal size of a compost pile could be anywhere from three to 4 feet high unless of course you are using and organic compost bin. The key is to make sure there is significant air for aeration of the compost. Using a large stick or a pitchfork to continually aerate were pile will help the organic composting process along quite nicely. Other people have used PVC pipes to help aerate larger compost piles with great success.

A nice bonus to creating your own compost pile is that the high temperatures that will occur will help sterilize many of the diseases brought by spores or other pests that may be lurking in the compost itself.

To accelerate the decomposition process of your compost pile, you can add some of it to the garden soil. Basically, the more scraps from your home, the more trimmings from your surroundings that you add, and the more aeration that the pile receives, all of this will help accelerate the decomposition process. Other possible additions could be peat moss, seedless weeds, and even fruit and vegetable peels from your household. All of this will help create a magnificent organic gardening compost pile in no time at all.

Compost is a collection of different organic matter, such as yard clippings, small twigs, leaves and organic kitchen waste that have gone through the process of decomposition. Numerous people do composting so that they can make good use of the available organic material that is around their property and even in their home. This gives composters a chance to make use of the nutrient rich muck that is produced and which is very beneficial to garden soil.

In fact, to avid gardeners, compost is highly regarded and considered the "black gold" of garden fertilizers. Material that has gone through the composting process ends up producing a wonderfully rich material that is filled with minerals and nutrients that are well suited to encouraging lush and healthy growth of new plants.

The end result of composting is a very rich organic substance that is able to mix with and improve virtually all types of soil. Clay soil is easier to work with when compost is added to it and a wider variety of plants can be supported. When dealing with sandy soil, the addition of compost helps the soil retain moisture much better.

The composting process involves four different components that are required to create a mixture that will deliver the sought-after benefits. These four key components are organic matter, correct moisture, sufficient oxygen and bacteria.

The organic materials suitable for composters include various plant materials, food scraps, and some varieties of animal manure. Good compost should include a mix of brown organic material and green organic material. The brown organic matter includes such as dead leaves, twigs, and manure. The green material will be comprised of things such as grass clippings, hedge trimmings, coffee grounds, fruit rinds and vegetable waste.

The brown materials provide carbon for the mixture, while the green materials bring in supplies of needed nitrogen. As much as possible, it is best to try to maintain a one to one ratio of brown material to green material to produce the best final compost. If you have a compost pile that contains more brown material than green, then you can add in a handful of 10-10-10 fertilizer. This will add nitrogen and will speed up the decomposition process.

Sometimes it is helpful to shred, chop or mow the available materials into smaller pieces. This will serve to speed up the composting process because the smaller the pieces of material are the greater the surface area.

The proper moisture levels are important to a successful composting process. It is said that the compost pile should have about the same amount of moisture as a sponge that has been wrung out by hand. If the compost pile is too dry, then the decomposition slows down. You can simply add some water to the pile during dry weather periods or any time when a lot of brown material has been added to help keep the process moving along.

Should the compost become too wet, simply dig in and turn the pile to mix the materials and spread the moisture. You can also add some brown organic materials that are very dry to help balance things out.

Sufficient oxygen is also a key element that is necessary for decomposition. Oxygen supports the breakdown of the organic materials by the bacteria. Supplying oxygen to the compost pile is as simple as turning the compost so the materials at the outer edges of the pile are moved to the center. This also helps to control odors that can develop. The pile should be turned about every two weeks for best results.

It is the bacteria, and other types of microorganisms, that do the real work involved in the composting process. With the other needed elements in place, the bacteria can go to work breaking down the organic components into the compost that will benefit the organic garden.

When the composting cycle has turned the organic waste matter into a muck that is rich in nutrients, you will be able to easily add it to your garden soil. While preparing your soil for a spring planting, simply cover the ground with about 3-4 inches of the compost and then till the soil to mix it in well. In no time you will start to see a healthy and vibrant garden.

Composting has occurred since plants first existed on the earth.  When leaves and fruit fall from trees, and when plants die, they drop to the ground, enriching the soil through the process of natural decomposition.  This is nature's way of composting.

Humans have been composting for decades, maybe even centuries.  In our recent history, agricultural communities have used composting as a way to enrich their gardens and farmland.  In the last two decades, a much larger movement of composting in urban areas has begun, and in recent years, composting has taken on its own popularity as a new way to "go green."  City dwellers are becoming more aware of the benefits of compost in their gardens and flowerbeds, and they are realizing that it is best to recycle natural products back to the earth.

Municipalities have had a major influence in this movement with programs to dispose of recyclable waste.  These programs allow, and sometimes require, citizens to collect their organic waste such as leaves, branches, grass, and other yard trimmings for composting.  These programs vary in season and structure but they all have the same goal of recycling natural material to the earth's benefit.  In many cases, after the material has been composted, the city sells the compost back to citizens who wish to purchase it for their yards or gardens.  In this way, city composting programs provide two services: they allow city dwellers to compost their organic waste, and they also make compost material available for sale at reasonable prices.

A municipal composting program may seem simple, but it can be a large project to manage.  First, the citizens of the municipality must be educated about what types of products can be collected and how they are to be contained.  Some city composting programs only collect yard waste, while others also allow food scraps.  Second, the city must decide how they wish to collect the waste.  Some municipalities use bulk collection, where leaves and waste are piled in the street or yard and trucks come collect the debris.  Another way to collect the waste is through drop off sites where citizens can take their waste to a central collection area.  Other communities use container collection, where the waste is put in specific types of containers such as biodegradable brown paper bags or in reusable containers and is collected by trucks.

After trucks have picked up the organic waste, the material must be transported to a central composting site to be processed and composted.  Several months later, the waste you threw out will be available again for resale to citizens as premium compost.  Compost can be used in many ways.  Premium compost is a great way to enrich your soil, control erosion, or simply help your plants grow bigger and stronger!

The US Environmental Protection Agency indicates that 24% of the United States' solid waste is made up of yard trimmings and food scraps.  Just think how much waste we could keep out of landfills if more cities began composting programs!  With the ability to convert all this waste into premium compost and return it to the earth, these programs are hugely beneficial.  If your city doesn't have an organized composting program, contact local officials in your area and prompt them to begin one.  This is a way to get involved and give something back to this planet that we inhabit.