Composting is a safe and natural way to make your garden grow. It may be your best bet for healthy, delicious vegetables and gorgeous flowers. It's is as simple as collecting organic waste, such as food scraps and leaves, and storing it in container or a pile while it decomposes. Microorganisms break down the waste and convert it into a nutrient-rich material you can use for mulch or potted plants. So, start composting now for great plants later.

Compost includes a balance of so-called green mix and brown mix. Greens include food scraps, grass clippings, coffee grounds and more, all of which is high in nitrogen. Browns, such as leaves, wood chips, straw, sawdust and even newspaper, are carbon- and carbohydrate-rich. The combination of these mixes builds up soil structure and texture. It also increases airflow and water retention, allowing plants to effectively use nutrients and promoting heathy growth. Once the organic matter has fully decomposed, the compost can be either worked into the soil by hand or tilling, or sprinkled on top of seeds or new plants.

Iris Lami and Zach Nathan are co-directors of Gingerhill Farm Retreat in Hawaii, which practices a communal model of sustainable agriculture and gourmet organic food. They explain that compost differs from, and is far superior than, fertilizer in many ways. "Though fertilizer may be excellent for nourishing your plant, it doesn't cover as many bases as compost," says Nathan. "Compost contains many of the same nutrients that fertilizers do. However, compost also contains a broad array of beneficial organisms, such as earthworms and microorganisms. ... In fact, microorganisms and humus, or decomposed plant material, actually communicate with plants and form networks to transfer other nutrients from the soil to the plants."

Longtime gardeners Barb and Mark Tschacher live in Wyoming, a very different climate than Hawaii. But they, too, have great luck with natural gardening, using compost in a large garden near their log home. Since the growing season is short -- usually from the beginning of June until mid-September -- it is important that plants flourish in just a few months.

"We actually have two compost barrels -- black barrels so that the sun naturally heats them to make them work," Barb says. "To start compost you can use a shovel full of dirt, sand and compost starter. Leaves collected in the fall act as natural fertilizer. We put almost anything in it except for milk products and meat -- and we turn it occasionally." Turning involves mixing the pile to aerate and speed up the decomposition process. "Since we have two, we can alternate," she says. "After one is full, we put it in the garden." Even in somewhat-harsh weather, they successfully raise squash, pumpkins, green beans, tomatoes, horseradish, carrots and radishes, all of which they eat fresh or store for use over the long winter.

When it comes to compost, one day's organic waste is another day's blooming garden. It gives your garden a boost like nothing else. "(L)ike a multi-vitamin and a probiotic rolled into one!" Nathan says.