There's a lot about composting that makes sense. Rather than stuffing garbage bags with lawn clippings, weeds and other garden refuse for weekly garbage pickup, isn't it more responsible to compost them in the backyard? And instead of adding kitchen wastes to your household trash so that they will eventually contribute to the overflow problems at a local landfill site, shouldn't these organic materials also be added to your home composter? It's a fact that compostable materials are a valuable resource for gardeners. Composting can readily convert organic matter into humus which is an essential soil conditioner that adds nutrients, increases moisture retention and improves soil texture.

Composting is easy in the spring, summer and fall. It's as simple as creating a care-free compost heap in some back corner of the yard or it can require nothing fancier than an inexpensive compost bin constructed from snow fencing, chicken wire, recycled wooden pallets or concrete blocks. The plastic composters that are available at garden centres or hardware stores are also appropriate containers.

The fungi, bacteria, insects and worms that break down the organic matter in a composter will do their work faster if an equal ratio of carbon rich and nitrogen rich materials is provided for them to digest. Dry, "brown" organic matter that is carbon-rich includes coffee filters, tea bags, old hay, straw, wood chips, wood ashes, dead leaves, peat moss, or old pine needles. Fresh, "green", nitrogen-rich materials include newly mown grass clippings, vegetables and fruit peelings, eggshells, hair, seaweed, flowers and barnyard manure. When layers of "green" are sandwiched between layers of "brown", and when these layers are kept moist and turned frequently so that fresh oxygen can be incorporated into them, a finished compost is achieved in a matter of months. But even if organic matter is just tossed onto a compost pile or into a bin at random, decomposition takes place. It will just take a bit longer for that crumbly, dark-coloured humus to be created.

Composting in the winter time is a bit more difficult. Because there will be no decomposition taking place when temperatures are below the freezing point, anything added to a composter during the winter months will remain intact. If a bin is being used, it will fill up quite quickly because the materials in it will take up much more room than they would if microorganisms were able to begin their work immediately. There might also be an access problem, especially if the compost pile or bin is a fair distance away from the house. It's not much fun wading through snow and slush with a bucket of kitchen scraps. A simple solution, therefore, is to make sure that there will be lots of holding capacity and that the composter is easy to get at, even if there are huge snow drifts in the back yard. Try devoting a number of covered plastic garbage buckets to the task of compost collection. They can be kept just outside the back door all winter and dumped in the compost pile or bine early in the spring. No shoveling...no wading, but a continued attempt to turn garbage into a valuable commodity and to keep landfills from overflowing.

Anyone can compost. It's one of the few painless ways that people can dispose of organic waste. And the benefits of the process make it worthwhile whether you're a gardener or not!