Com­post is used as a soil con­di­tion­er. It im­proves your soil's struc­ture so that it can re­tain mois­ture and hold it at the roots, where your plants need it the most. It al­so adds nu­tri­ents back in the soil. Adding com­post to your veg­etable or flower gar­den will help your plants' root sys­tems grow stronger and pro­duce more. You can cre­ate a com­post pile in your back­yard or in­doors, de­pend­ing on your avail­able space. Back­yard and in­door com­post­ing are most suit­able for house­holds to con­vert small quan­ti­ties of or­gan­ic ma­te­ri­als, such as yard trim­mings and food scraps, in­to com­post that can be spread in gar­den beds, un­der shrubs, or use it as pot­ting soil for out­door plants. Be­fore you be­gin com­post­ing, you should un­der­stand the com­post­ing process. View what ma­te­ri­als to com­post and what ma­te­ri­als not to com­post and read up on the sci­ence be­hind com­post­ing about which vari­ables must be con­trolled dur­ing com­post­ing.

All com­post­ing re­quires three ba­sic in­gre­di­ents:

• Browns - In­cludes ma­te­ri­als such as dead leaves, branch­es , twigs;

• Greens - In­cludes ma­te­ri­als such as grass clip­pings, veg­etable waste, fruit scraps, and cof­fee grounds;

• Wa­ter.

Hav­ing the right amount of greens, browns, and wa­ter is im­por­tant for com­post de­vel­op­ment. Ide­al­ly, your com­post pile should have an equal amount of browns to greens and al­ter­nate lay­ers of or­gan­ic ma­te­ri­als of dif­fer­ent-size par­ti­cles. The brown ma­te­ri­als pro­vide car­bon for your com­post and the green ma­te­ri­als pro­vide ni­tro­gen, while the wa­ter pro­vides mois­ture to help break­down the or­gan­ic mat­ter.

There is no one "right" way to com­post, but you may want to fol­low one of the ap­proach­es be­low:

Back­yard com­post­ing (op­tion one)

Help­ful com­post­ing tools:

• Pitch­fork;

• Square-point shov­el or ma­chete;

• Wa­ter hose with a spray head.

1: Se­lect a dry, shady spot near a wa­ter source for your com­post pile or bin.

2: Add your brown and green ma­te­ri­als as you col­lect them, mak­ing sure larg­er pieces are chopped or shred­ded.

3: Moist­en dry ma­te­ri­als as they are added.

4: Once your com­post pile is es­tab­lished, mix grass clip­pings and green waste in­to the pile and bury fruit and veg­etable waste un­der ten inch­es of com­post ma­te­r­i­al.

5: Op­tion­al: Cov­er top of com­post with a tarp to keep it moist.

6: When the ma­te­r­i­al at the bot­tom is dark and rich in col­or, your com­post is ready to use (this is usu­al­ly oc­curs in two months to two years).

Back­yard com­post­ing (op­tion two)

1: Se­lect a dry, shady spot near a wa­ter source for your com­post pile or bin.

2: Be­fore you add your brown and green ma­te­ri­als, make sure larg­er pieces are chopped or shred­ded.

3: Cov­er your com­post­ing area with a six-inch lay­er of brown ma­te­ri­als.

4: Add a three-inch lay­er of green ma­te­ri­als and a lit­tle soil or fin­ished com­post.

5: Light­ly mix the two lay­ers above.

6: Top with a three-inch lay­er of brown ma­te­ri­als, adding wa­ter un­til moist.

7: Turn your com­post pile every week or two with a pitch­fork to dis­trib­ute air and mois­ture. Move the dry ma­te­ri­als from the edges in­to the mid­dle of the pile. Con­tin­ue this prac­tice un­til the pile does not re-heat much af­ter turn­ing.

8: Your com­post will be ready in one to four months, but let the pile sit for two weeks be­fore us­ing.

In­door com­post­ing

If you do not have space for an out­door com­post pile, you can com­post ma­te­ri­als in­doors us­ing a spe­cial type of bin, which you can buy or make your­self. Re­mem­ber to tend your pile and keep track of what you throw in. A prop­er­ly man­aged com­post bin will not at­tract pests or ro­dents and will not smell bad. Your com­post should be ready in two to five weeks.

What to com­post

• An­i­mal ( cow or horse) ma­nure;

• Card­board rolls;

• Clean pa­per;

• Cof­fee grounds and fil­ters;

• Cot­ton rags;

• Dry­er and vac­u­um clean­er lint;

• Eggshells;

• Fruits and veg­eta­bles;

• Grass clip­pings;

• Hair and fur;

• Hay and straw;

• House­plants;

• Leaves;

• Nut shells;

• Saw­dust;

• Shred­ded news­pa­per;

• Tea bags;

• Wood chips;

• Wool rags;

• Yard trim­mings.

(www.epa.gov)