What have you heard about composting?  Maybe you’ve heard it’s smelly or that it attracts bugs.  Well, there is some good news in the fight to reduce your carbon footprint: Composting doesn’t have to be scary or tough to implement. 
compost
Why compost?
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But why compost, anyway?

There are many benefits to adding compost to your flower and vegetable gardens.  If properly created and applied, you should see an improvement in the nutrients in your soil.  In turn, you may grow better-tasting veggies and healthier, heartier plants.  While you can buy it at the store, making your own helps your environment by reducing the amount of organic material that literally goes to waste, and becomes waste, in your local landfill. Composting can reduce yard waste that needs to be hauled to the dump by anywhere from 50 to 75 percent.

Here are the top ten tips to composting. 
  1. Mix brown and green to your compost.  Grass-only compost will eventually start to smell bad.
  2. Avoid composting pet manure, fats or animal products.  They can spread disease. 
  3. Shred newspaper and plain, white paper before adding to compost.
  4. When finished, the compost should look and feel like rich, dark soil. 
  5. Do not put plants treated with herbicide or pesticide into your compost. 
  6. Worms love coffee grounds, and they are so good for your soil!
  7. Store your compost in a black, plastic bin and in direct sunlight.  That should allow you to continue to compost throughout the winter months. 
  8. Regularly aerate your compost to cut down on any unfriendly odor. 
  9. Anything that was once alive can become compost.
  10. Speed up the process by placing compost in direct sunlight and use a compost turner every other week.