unnecessary contributions of kitchen garbage to the sewage treatment
system. Similarly, modern home owners want to stop sending yard
wastes to landfills. These days householders may be offered
incentives (or threatened with penalties) by their municipalities to
separate organic, compostable garbage from paper, from glass, from
metal or from plastic. Individuals who pay for trash pickup by
volume are finding that they can save considerable amounts of money
by recycling their own organic wastes at home.

The first audience is interested in learning about the role of
compost in soil fertility, better soil management methods and
growing healthier, more nutritious food. Much like a serious home
bread baker, audience one seeks exacting composting recipes that
might result in higher quality. Audience two primarily wants to know
the easiest and most convenient way to reduce and recycle organic
debris.

Holding two conflicting goals at once is the fundamental definition
of a problem. Not being willing to abandon either (or both) goals is
what keeps a problem alive. Different and somewhat opposing needs of
these two audiences make this book somewhat of a problem. To
compensate I have positioned complex composting methods and the
connections between soil fertility and plant health toward the back
of the book. The first two-thirds may be more than sufficient for
the larger, more casual members of my imaginary audience. But I
could not entirely divide the world of composting into two
completely separate levels.

Instead, I tried to write a book so interesting that readers who do
not food garden will still want to read it to the end and will