Drifts of leaves piling up in the yard?

Don't haul them out to the curb in garbage bags. Instead, put them in their place in your compost pile.

Composting is the process of turning waste organic materials from the yard and kitchen into nutrient enriched soil and natural fertilizer. It's the most natural way to recycle. Mother Nature does it every day. So why do humans toss all this potential free fertilizer into the garbage?

"Because they don't understand composting," said Gail Everett, environmental education coordinator for the city of Richland.

Some misconceptions people have are that it's difficult, looks bad and smells. But with proper instruction and location, composting is a breeze and chances are your neighbors will never know it's there, she said.

Instruction is key. Without it people tend to add grease and oils, fish, dairy products, meats and bones.

"Aside from the fact that those materials begin to smell as they decay, which makes the neighbors mad and attracts critters, they can prevent the organic matter in the pile from decaying properly," Everett said.

Learn how to compost at a free workshop Oct. 27. It's taught by Marianne Ophardt, a Washington State University Extension horticulturist, and you'll take home a free plastic composting bin and 60-page instruction book (one per household).

The bins are a circular piece of plastic, with no top or bottom, so organics will break down quickly from contact with the ground and the air.

"You can actually make compost by just piling everything in a heap on the ground," Ophardt said. "But most people prefer to contain it somehow. One inexpensive way is with four wooden pallets tied together to make a sort of box, with everything piled inside."

If you're not planning to use the compost on your garden or landscaping, but just want to reduce the volume of waste your household produces, simply toss your yard and kitchen waste into a heap and ignore it. Over the seasons the pile simply will molder away.

If your plan is to produce compost for use, you'll need to pay attention to how it's layered, watch the moisture level and fluff it occasionally to let air into the center and mix the materials. If well managed and put together, you should see things begin to break down in a few weeks and have totally decomposed compost ready for use in a couple of months -- just in time for spring gardening.

Just about any organic material can go into a compost pile; some just take longer to break down than others. To speed up the process, chop or chip plants with heavy rinds such as cantaloupe and squash, or woody stalks such as rose canes.

Egg shells, tea bags, coffee grounds -- the filter too -- and even shredded paper and newspapers (but not glossy paper) can be added to the pile.

But if you plan to use your compost in your garden, avoid adding raw potato, onion or garlic peelings. They can contain certain plant diseases. Even though they're safe to eat, they can contaminate your soil and make it impossible to grow certain plants, Ophardt said.

Some other things to avoid are diseased plants, weeds with seed heads, cat or dog waste and weeds like Bermuda grass, which will happily grow in your compost.

Here are other composting tips:

-- Build your pile in loose layers. First a thick layer of old hay, straw or leaves (browns), then grass clippings and kitchen waste (greens), then manure and repeat. If you don't have a source for manure, add alfalfa hay or pellets or a handful of nitrogen-rich fertilizer.

-- Don't spend your money on compost additives. All the microbes necessary to break down organic materials are already present on the surface of the plants.

-- Keep the pile moist but not sopping wet. The microbes breaking down the organic materials are living organisms and need moisture.

-- They need oxygen too. Fluff up the pile frequently with a pitchfork or physically move it from one bin to another.

-- If nothing seems to be happening, dig into the center of your pile. Dry, white fungal threads means your pile is thirsty. If it smells like manure or rotten eggs, it's too wet and you need to add more dry materials.

-- Use compost just like the bags of fertilizer you buy at garden centers. To feed outdoor plants, sprinkle the compost on top of the ground in gardens and around established plants, work it in with a shovel or tiller. For lawns, simply scatter a thin layer over the top and water it in.

Compost tea is a good way to water plants in containers -- just swish a handful of compost in a bucket of water, strain and water as usual.

* Loretto J. Hulse: 582-1513; lhulse@tricityherald.com

Composting workshop

When: 9:30 a.m. to noon Oct. 27

Cost: Free but advance registration is required. Call: 942-7730

Where: Mid-Columbia Library, 1602 S. Union St., Kennewick.

Sponsors: The cities of Richland and Kennewick, solid waste departments of Benton and Franklin counties, Benton Clean Air Authority and the Washington State University Cooperative Extension office.

More information: WSU Cooperative Extension, 735-3551; or www.ci.richland.wa.us -- click on "living" and look for "environmental education."