If you’re starting to dabble in gardening, or even if you’ve been a tried-and-true green thumb for some time now, perhaps you’ve been intrigued but unsure about the whole idea of composting. After all, you can just buy fertilizer at the store, so why spend all the time and energy composting?

Well, there’s more to it than just making your own garden fertilizer. The EPA says:

Did You Know That Compost Can…

• Suppress plant diseases and pests.
• Reduce or eliminate the need for chemical fertilizers.
• Promote higher yields of agricultural crops.
• Facilitate reforestation, wetlands restoration, and habitat revitalization efforts by amending contaminated, compacted, and marginal soils.
• Cost-effectively remediate soils contaminated by hazardous waste.
• Remove solids, oil, grease, and heavy metals from stormwater runoff.
• Capture and destroy 99.6 percent of industrial volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) in contaminated air.
• Provide cost savings of at least 50 percent over conventional soil, water, and air pollution remediation technologies, where applicable.

It’s not just about your garden; composting can be just plain good for the environment. But for many people, having the great garden soil additive is the big draw. So, courtesy of our friend P. Allen Smith, here are some great starter tips on composting for yourself:

One of the reasons I’m attracted to gardening is that it allows me to use and reuse materials. This has a lot of appeal for a pack-rat like me. It gives me a good excuse to hang on to things because I often find another use for them later. Nothing goes to waste in the garden.

A prime example of this is my compost bin. I can take material that I might otherwise throw out, such as leaves and grass clippings, and turn them into big dividends next year in the way of healthy soil for my vegetables and flowers.

Many people I talk with are intimidated by the whole process, but there is really nothing to composting. It is all about getting the mix right.

The recipe is simple. The only ingredients you need are organic materials such as autumn leaves, grass clippings, and raw vegetable scraps from the kitchen. Items to avoid are woody stems, weeds, diseased plants, cooked food and meat products. These items either take too long to break down or have the potential to spread pests and disease. The final two ingredients needed for compost are water and oxygen.

I find it works best if you layer green, nitrogen-rich clippings with brown, carbon-rich material — such as the autumn leaves — at a ratio of about 1 part green to 1 part brown. The nitrogen will help speed up the decomposition of the dead leaves.

You can further accelerate the process by adding a source of nitrogen in the form of granular fertilizer high in nitrogen or well-rotted cow manure. At one time, manure could be obtained from a local farmer, but with the risk of E. coli and diminishing access to farms, I recommend using bagged, commercial cow manure.

Combining all these elements generates heat, which is the final ingredient needed to create compost. When your compost heats up, you know it’s working. It’s no surprise that weather plays a factor in how quickly your compost heats up. The process works best when outdoor temperatures are 50 degrees F or higher.

Of course, if you are starting your compost pile in fall when leaves are most abundant, you won’t have this advantage. To keep your compost going strong through the cold months, there are a few things I recommend. Make sure your pile is at least three feet high, that it stays moist (not sopping wet) in dry weather, and that you turn it about every two weeks. Covering it with plastic will also help to hold the heat in when it is cold.

By taking advantage of all of the garden trimmings and leaves available in the fall, you can have plenty of rich compost in about six months — just in time for summer planting!