In this section of Hometips for Home Improvement, we learn about composting and how to make compost from food and wastes and how to use this compost in the lawn and garden.

You need to learn how to compost if your garden has started looking dull and depressed, or if the trashcan is filling up too fast or if the flowerbeds are lacking the luster that you expect.

Lawn & Garden: Lawns and gardens connect our homes with nature. Trees, shrubs, flowers, grass in our garden and lawn bring natural beauty to the outdoor areas of our homes. A beautiful garden and lawn is a places for retreat, relaxation, and recreation. But you need to take proper care of your garden and lawns in order to get what you are expecting.

Let us now learn – what is composting? How composting works? What are the stages of composting? What you can compost and everything else regarding composting for a green and beautiful garden and lawn.

Several methods of composting are there. Regardless of the method you use, composting your yard waste is good for both you and the environment. Once the composting process of recycling waste and adding the finished product to gardens and flowerbeds, most homeowners will realize that no fertilizer is required and lawn and leaf bags no longer clutter the driveway on garbage day.

Infact, composting in the backyard is a great way to reduce the amount of waste going into landfills, create rich fertile soil for gardening, and encourage healthy biology. Now there are new compact composters available in the market. With these composters, almost any home can generate top-quality and fertile soil quickly and easily.

We all know that almost everything rots with time. But in order to kick-start the process of breaking down organic materials, we need bugs. These are tiny, very tiny bugs.

80% to 90% of the microorganisms that do the work of breaking down the grass clippings and orange peels and other food wastes in your compost bin, consist of bacteria. A very complex process needs to happen in order for the material to break down and change into soil.

Therefore, the best composting process is building and maintaining a bin or pile that encourages the growth of these microorganisms. These microorganisms will help you on the way to creating rich humus for your garden. These microorganisms devour the waste on a cellular level and create water, carbon dioxide, and heat for the composting process. A healthy compost pile heats up to about 140 degrees in the core as the microorganisms do their work.

In the composting process, breaking down materials takes place in three stages - Mesophilic Stage, Thermophilic Phase and Cooling Stage.

Mesophilic Stage of Composting: The first stage of composting i.e. Mesophilic stage starts when the materials are first heaped together in a compost bin or pile. During this period, the temperature of the core begins to rise and microorganisms start to form colonies and multiply within the pile. To help encourage this process, make sure that everything you add to the pile is broken down into small chunks. The more surface area available to the bacteria, the faster they will break it down. The mesophilic stage lasts for less than a week, and during this time you should see your compost "sag," or settle. When you see your compost “sag” or “settle”, you can start the second stage of composting.

Thermophilic Phase of Composting: The second stage of composting is the thermophilic phase. During this period, things really heat up and the temperature of the compost reaches up to 140-degree. When organic materials reach that level of temperature, seeds from weeds are killed, harmful bacteria die off, and the pile starts to break down rapidly. During the thermophilic phase, you should make sure that your compost pile is damp and that there is sufficient air reaching the core of the pile. Some gardeners also suggest that it should be as wet as a wrung-out sponge. Keep turning the pile once or twice during this stage to help get oxygen to the center, and turning the garden hose on the pile will supply enough water to keep the heat in. This second stage can last up to three months depending upon how time and care you pay to the job. The time limit of this stage also depends on what you are trying to compost, and what kind of bin or pile you are using.

Cooling Stage of Composting: The final stage of composting is known as the cooling stage. This is the phase when the final humus matures and the pile settles into a uniform mix. This can take up to 4 months depending on what you are composting and your own hardwork. You know your compost is ready to use when it is a rich brown color, earthy smelling, free of large pieces of debris, and has a crumbly consistency. Turning the compost occasionally is important in this stage.

The key to good compost is to have understanding of what you can compost and which material around the home can be composted. Some of the materials that you can compost are grass clippings, leaves, brush, spent flowers, vegetable plants after harvest, and wood ash.

Materials for the kitchen that can be compost include - eggshells, produce peelings, coffee grounds, leftover pasta, stale bread, and past-its-prime fruits. It is wise to shift waste to the compost bin instead of the garbage bin.

20 to 25% of the materials hauled off to landfills each year could easily be composted at home. This saves on space at the dump and will also reduce fuel usage for transporting the refuse and return nutrients and fertility to your soil, and will reduce the amount of fertilizer you must buy and apply each year. This way you are also helping the environment by not buying chemical fertilizer.

Many serious composting experts include meat, fat and bones in their compost bins. But I think these ingredients could attract critters, bugs, and odors, and you, as novice composters would rather not be able deal with. Be sure to check the local laws before composting any such material because many municipalities have ordinances against backyard composting for this very reason that they attract critters, bugs, and odors.

Composting neutralizes any fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides you might have applied to the soil. So it is safe to use compost in almost every application. Mature compost can be used on flowerbeds, hedges, gardens, and bare spots in the lawn.

You can rotate out your compost every six months, which means you are supplying rich humus to the soil and also controlling the yard waste. There are 3 ideas of composting; you simply have to pick which method you want to use.

There are three basic methods used for composting – bibs, heaps and tumblers.

Bins: Build the perfect composting bin to your specifications is easy if you can measure, saw, and nail. It is a great way to use up short pieces of lumber from previous construction or home projects. You can also you can purchase a composting bin in a range of sizes and materials in the price range of $50 to $100. The basic design for a compost bin is a box with air slits on the side. Bins made of wire mesh and cinder block designs also work well. Bins are a good choice for composting because they provide protection from animals, mainly rodents, like rats, mice, and raccoons. Bins keep the compost area tidy and contained and allow for higher heaping which helps increase heat by insulating the core of the pile thus helping the composting process.

Bins should be designed in a way so that you can easily access the pile to turn and easily remove the final product. If you want to go the bin route, build two on them and place them side by side. This will allow you to establish one bin and get it to the cooling/maturation stage and then start the second one. Just like when making sourdough bread, use a few shovelsful of the cooling compost as a "starter" for your new bin and you can watch how quickly your clippings break down.

Heaps: Heap method is the easiest path to composting and there is nothing more basic than this. You just dump your clippings and kitchen scraps into an out-of-the-way spot downwind of the home and let nature take its course. Keep in mind that the heap method of composting takes longer because less heat is generated due to the lack of enclosure. This may be problematic if you want to use your compost on your vegetable garden because the end product won't be as sterile as with the bin method. Still, pile composting can be successful if you don't generate that much waste and have plenty of time to wait.

Tumblers: Tumblers are the way to go for composting if you are looking for the cleanest way to compost, or if you are limited in backyard space. Tumblers look to a small concrete mixer. Tumblers are compact, easy to operate, pest resistant, and produce high-grade compost in less time than traditional bins. However, tumblers can't handle that much material and are most effective when the refuse is added all at once. This also means that you may have to save up a few rounds of lawn clippings, depending upon the size of your yard, before you have enough to get a strong batch of compost going.

• Gardening Tips to Grow Organic Vegetables in Your Garden

• How Composting Works