If you have a yard or garden, you know that grass clippings, leaves, dead plants, tree branches and shrub trimmings can add up fast--especially in late summer. An alternative to having it hauled away is to turn all the organic waste into compost.

The first thing to know about composting is what can and can't be composted. The simple answer is--any plant material that was once alive can be composted:

• fallen leaves
• grass and lawn clippings
• hay
• old fruits and vegetables
• annual weeds before they seed
• remains of garden plants
• woodchips and sawdust
• fruit and vegetable peels and scraps
• tea bags
• coffee grounds
• eggshells

Do not compost the following materials:

• painted or chemically treated wood
• diseased plants
• annual weeds that have gone to seed
• roots of perennial weeds
• human and pet waste, including litter
• meat scraps
• fatty foods
• milk products
• bones

On a smaller scale, starting your own home composting system is pretty easy. You can either buy a commercial composting bin or build one yourself. The choice really depends on how much material you have to recycle and how fast you want to make finished compost

A good compost pile should get hot enough to poach an egg, but not so
hot it would cook a lobster.

Vermicomposting or Worm composting is a great way to compost. I found two really good books on the subject. One is "Worms Eat My Garbage" and the other is The Worm Digest.

The basics to getting started are:

Food. Small pieces are best. You can feed them most anything including tea bags, coffee grounds (including filters), bananas. The worms are really going for bacteria, mold, and other byproducts of decomposition. Go easy on oranges because of the acid and avoid meat or other greasy food.
Bedding. The worm box is best filled with 50% shredded newspaper and 50% leaves, all slightly wet (squeezed out), and some dirt.
Temperature. Cool but not freezing. A basement works during the winter. The worm box can go outside from now until fall, but not in direct sunlight.