Every holiday season we seem to have an abundance of food leftovers. Often these food leftovers are thrown out or left to spoil, which contributes to the nearly 38 million tons of wasted food in the United States.

Composting is simply the process of organic material decomposition.

The resulting substance is called compost. If we composted many of the things we throw away, such as kitchen scraps, grass clippings, leaves, and other landscape debris, we could divert 20 to 30 percent of the trash currently going into landfills. By composting these materials, we can reduce the amount of waste we generate and produce organic matter and nutrients for our garden, landscape and yard.

Every garden benefits from the addition of compost because it supplies many of the nutrients plants need. Composting also:

• Improves the soil’s physical characteristics
• Increases the soil capacity to hold water and nutrients
• Increases soil aeration

To learn more about how to compost and help reduce wasted food, check out the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension’s Easy Gardening Series.

Source: Joseph Masabni, Assistant Professor and Extension Horticulturist, and Patrick Lillard, Extension Assistant, Easy Gardening – Composting.