Pile it on: Garden pros praise benefits of compost

The virtues of growing plants in compost-enriched soil are well known by gardeners: Improves soil structure. Retains moisture. Provides a valuable source of minerals. Improves the health of plants. Saves money by reducing the need for buying other soil-building products, such as peat.

In recent years, the environmental virtues of compost are gaining increasing praise: Reduces both the quantity of waste in landfills and also the harmful methane gas that would otherwise be produced in these sites from un-composted organic waste.

Seldom mentioned is yet another reason I think every gardener needs at least one compost pile: It comes in very handy when you're cleaning up the garden in autumn. Where else could you so quickly dispose of frosted plants, fallen leaves, green weeds, rotting fruits and other garden wastes?

If you'd like to start a compost pile but haven't yet taken the plunge, you'll love the easy-to-understand tips in Ken Thompson's book "Compost: The Natural Way to Make Food for Your Garden" (DK Publishing, $18). You'll find complete composting information, including how to select or make your own compost bin, tips on what goes in the pile (and what should stay out), and how to use compost once you've made it.

Among Thompson's many useful points:

• A pile will stay hot only if it's really large, and most of us don't have enough space or ingredients to make it big enough. Not to worry: Compost happens anyway.

• Most gardeners are busy people who are easily put off by the thought of having to turn their compost pile to hurry up the decomposition of its ingredients. The good news: Within a year, all piles produce perfectly good compost whether turned or not.

• One of the few unbreakable rules is that you should put your compost bin on soil, not a hard surface like concrete. That way, it will be quickly colonized by beetles, millipedes and worms to help break down the ingredients. Also, any liquid that dribbles from the pile will soak into the soil rather than collect in a smelly puddle.

Although I've been making compost piles for 35 years, I never thought of making regular additions of paper or cardboard to them. Thompson, though, tells how materials such as used tissues, cereal boxes and birthday wrappings can be "the answer to a composter's prayer."

He recycles these wastes in the compost, mixing them with nitrogen-rich wastes such as kitchen garbage to create air spaces so the compost doesn't turn into a smelly, airless mess. Mixed with thick layers of autumn leaves, waste paper prevents the leaves from turning into huge wet slabs. Waste paper also soaks up excess liquid as softer materials start to decompose.