There are several ways to compost. In nature, tree branches, leaves, needles, etc., fall to the ground and slowly decay. That is composting in its most natural form. Composting in our yard is the same process, but with our input we can speed up the natural process. A good working compost pile contains millions of microorganisms, fungi, bacteria, and little critters that break down the organic matter into basic nutrients that plants can feed on. All of these microorganisms have the same needs as we do: water, air, and food. A handful of good compost will have a moist feel to it. Too little or two much moisture will adversely affect the natural process of your compost pile. Periodically, you should stir the pile to allow air in. The food source is the plant material you contribute to the pile. The addition of animal manure - whether worm castings, bat guano, or horse manure - speeds up the composting process. A new compost pile will start breaking down slowly. The microorganisms need to find your pile, and then they need to reproduce in order to build up a population large enough to drive the decomposing process. Worm castings or some compost from a working pile contain lots of these beneficial microorganisms. By including these in your pile, you`ll jumpstart your composting efforts. We maintain a compost pile next to our vegetable garden, sometimes simply a pile on the ground and sometimes contained in an orange clam basket. When the basket is full, we dump it out and start again, adding some working compost to our kitchen vegetable waste and yard debris. We apply the finished compost around plants or incorporate it into the ground before planting. When we first started our vegetable garden, we built a raised bed and added store-bought soil. Now we use only compost. Our resulting sand-plus-compost soil is a rich, dark brown. We save kitchen scraps for composting in a container next to the sink. Another way we compost is by simply burying those scraps next to a plant or digging the scraps into an area where we plan to plant something. Once the kitchen waste is buried, you don`t have to do anything else. Nature takes over. Whichever methods we use, we are certain that plants grow better with compost. We`ve seen the difference as we`ve added compost to our vegetable garden over the last few years. Not only do the plants look healthier, but there has been a drastic reduction in the number of harmful bugs - and our yields have gone up. The added benefit is that we have turned "waste" into a RESOURCE, right here in our yard. -- Pat and Tom Deverin | 
