According to Treehugger.com — the go-to website for all things green in the world — the most popular environmental search on Google in 2011 was the phrase "How to Compost."

I looked into "popular." Turns out 1.5 million people a month are trying to find out how to do it. An equal number of web searchers want to know what compost is. Over a million people a month ask, "What is compost?" in their Google search bars.

That’s where it gets tricky. What is compost? In nature it is millions of years of fallen leaves, dead animals, dead trees, and conditions that include insect infestation, avalanche, rock slides, floods and freezing and thawing.

All of these combined materials and environmental conditions over millennia make a rich soil that is alive with microorganisms, bugs, worms, critters of all sorts, plus decaying matter that the plants in the forest community depend on to live.

Soil is what provides plants a place to park and draw nutrients and moisture through their roots. Soil anchors a plant to the landscape so it doesn’t fall over.

In urban landscapes we rake up or blow out anything unsightly and in the process render our soils sterile.

Then counter-intuitively, a small portion of us gather these raked and clipped ingredients and throw them into a pile where they can decompose. The finished product is called compost.

When we have compost we either dig it back into the soil or lay it on top as mulch. Pretty silly when you think about it.

I suspect one of the reasons many people don’t compost is that there is too much complicated information about how to do it.

Plant material decomposes without our help. Simple enough. You can let it happen organically on your own property — or rake your plant material and throw it in a pile. You can also make fancy compost bins and tumblers that make compost happen faster.

Anything that is plant-based can go into the pile. An equal amount of green to brown plant material speeds it up. The no-no is animal products that attract other animals to the pile and all the problems associated with mammals digging around in your yard at night.

The smaller the bits are, the faster they decompose. And that includes kitchen scraps — with kitchen composting a rising trend.

Here is the simplest way to provide organic matter to your soil. Gather your kitchen vegetable and fruit waste for a week in a large bowl in the refrigerator.

Every Saturday, say, pop it into the blender with a bit of water. Puree. Dig a hole in the backyard; pour your kitchen waste into the hole. Cover the hole with soil. Move on to another spot next week.

In a few months you will notice few things happening there. Earthworms will be everywhere. Bacteria will be turning your kitchen scraps into brown gold. Eventually, after weeks of this practice, parts of your garden will be very easy to dig. Plant will send their roots over to these nutrient-rich and easy to tunnel areas. Your dirt will start to turn into soil and the plants you purchase will actually want to live there.