It’s well known that composting is a great way to create a potent mulch for your lawn or garden. But some say the confusing rules is what holds them back. Like do add kitchen scraps just not tomatoes. Cow patties are okay but the contents of your cat’s litter box are not. Grass clippings are fine but only in moderation.

Such a list of do’s and don’ts may give you pause. But that’s no reason not to compost. Let’s see what we can do to help get you started.

Composting Defined: A process that uses micro-organisms to convert decaying vegetation and manure into a humus-like material commonly referred to as compost.

Now if you need an excuse for composting let me give you three.

Composting this kind of waste gives you a cheap way to improve the quality of soil in your garden immensely. Plus it is a practical way to dispose of household waste saving landfill space. Also by composting you reduce the need for commercial fertilizers which are chemically based and do nothing to improve the quality of the soil.

Just about anything plant based such as grass clippings, to kitchen scraps like potato peels and apple cores, to coffee grounds and tea bags can be composted. Those contribute the nitrogen element to the pile. If it helps think green. As a lot of these will be green in color.

Woody materials like leaves in the fall to sawdust even wood chips can also be composted. That’s the carbon component. With this you want to think brown.

A mix of both carbon and nitrogen, or brown and green, is required to speed up the natural breakdown of the component parts into a crumbly soil amenity. And if you’re short on nitrogen you can always get some cheap lawn fertilizer on sale and use that. Paying attention to the amount of nitrogen in the bag. I’ve also used ammonia too.

Having spelled out what to use you want to avoid the following:

Meat, bones, grease, dairy products. Also fatty foods like cheese should not be dumped into your pile. These slow down decomposition and tend to attract rodents and pests. They can also be the source of unsavory odors.

Dog and cat droppings should also not be composted as doing so can spread disease.

Weed seed heads and some plants that are diseased shouldn’t be composted either The seeds and disease organisms might not break down completely unless you’ve got a really hot compost going. Meaning you’d just be sowing problems when you spread the compost onto your garden.

Same thing applies for tomatoes and morning glories. Both produce vigorous volunteers that become a pain when they hitch hike from the compost to the garden or lawn.

The best location for composting is near the garden. That way you won’t have to haul the results any distance. Ideally you want it situated in at least partial sunlight can help heat the pile. The pile or bin should also not be exposed to winds. As that tends to blow heat needed for decomposition away.

Anyway this is a good start toward creating your own soil enrichment program. Anyone will a bit of time can set up a compost pile and in no time start to reap the benefits. If you’ll but remember to mix the brown and green you’ll soon have crumbly black gold to spread on your lawn, flower beds and garden.

As a lifelong lawn lover Dewey J Capasso has been on a lawn tractor or two. He can also advise you as to the best riding lawn mowers, kibitz on electric mowers and share his two cents with detailed reviews of zero turn lawn mowers. This and more on related topics of interest can be found at your site for lawn care, MowerMania.com.