Take a moment and consider the raw materials your family throws away. The trash guys cart off bags of grass and other garden clippings. Dinner plates are scraped into the garbage disposal. Out of sight out of mind.

I did a survey in my home and found that my family of five creates five gallons of vegetable matter that would normally go down the drain, through the pipes and ultimately end up in the municipal wastewater treatment center. Next, it's filtered out along with other "stuff" and trucked somewhere as sludge that is then put in a landfill.

The items above are the raw materials for an awesome compost heap, or an earthworm bin. Either way you can recycle what we've traditionally thought of as waste, and turn it into one of the most amazing substances know to man, COMPOST!

Compost is nothing more than decayed organic matter, and nothing less than the best soil additive in the world. If you ever been in a forest back east or down south where it rains often, you may have smelled the rich earthy smell of the soil. That's compost.

In those forests, leaves are always filtering down through the branches and landing on the ground along with dead trees, fallen blossoms and myriad of old ferns, mushrooms, bird feathers, etc. As they lay there, tiny bacteria, earthworms and millions of decomposing insects set to work breaking it all down until there is a rich fragrant mat covering the earth.

That compost feeds the forest, holds moisture for the roots, and becomes habitat for billions of earthworms. The trick is recreating the forest floor model at home.

It's easy. Make a pile in an out of the way part of your yard. You can dig a trench or hole to place it in. You can use a commercial compost bin, or do like I do and just pile it up.

For compost to "cook," you need a ratio of carbon (branches, wood chips, leaves) and nitrogen (grass, weeds, horse, rabbit, cow manure etc.) water and air. Don't sweat the carbon to nitrogen ratio. Just make sure you add some from each category to the pile.

Do worry about water. The pile needs to be evenly as wet as a wrung out sponge. And if you worry a little about air, your compost will be ready sooner. Add air by turning the pile. The more you turn it, the more it stays aerated, and the quicker it will change into compost.

There is no need to add any of the so-called compost starters that garden stores sell. All they are is the bacteria that will transform the debris into compost. They ARE important, but why pay for them? They are already present in nature and free for the taking.

Just take a shovel of garden soil or a shovel of your last compost pile and add it to the new one. That will be enough to get things started.

When you turn the pile you'll notice several things. The pile should be steamy and hot. That means the bacteria are hard at work. As they eat, they create heat. As you turn and add more air, they heat up even more.

In the outer reaches of the pile where it's cooler you may see some bugs. Pill bugs are common and are helping to break down the compost. Spring tails, which are tiny little jumpy creatures are normal and okay too.

Earthworms will move in as compost cools, and are welcome creatures. They break down a huge amount of organic matter and work 24 hours a day. It may take 6 months to get a good healthy crop, but trust me, it will change your life. Making compost will make you feel empowered.

Spread it around your gardens, under trees and into houseplants. It will make a huge difference in the health of your plants. The best part is knowing that you're responsible for diverting waste from the system, and turning it into something with value.