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I realized I needed a refresher course on compost when I recently dreamt I was interviewing for the job of head composter for Buckingham Palace and I was not able to explain to the committee why you cannot compost meat. That is one of those facts that I should have been able to give, well, in my sleep.

When I saw a composting workshop advertised, I jumped at the chance. Besides, I could not resist the tagline “Compost — the exciting part of the garbage world.”

It turned out the class was designed for folks who are completely new to composting, so the information was not particularly helpful to me. What was good for me, however, was to spend a day around brand new composters, and not just because they rekindled my enthusiasm for garbage. Being with them reminded me that I needed to do a compost column or two aimed at the folks who are just learning how to turn the remains of this year’s dinners turn into nourishment for next year’s tomatoes.

So, judging from the facial expressions of my classmates and what bits of the instructor’s wisdom prompted the most furious note-taking, here are the facts that seemed to be of most interest to new composters, presented in no particular order.

• The benefits of compost are that it adds organic material and nutrients to the soil, reduces the need for fertilizers and pesticides, enhances the water-holding capacity of soil, increases biological activity in the soil and reduces the amount of material sent to our community’s landfill.

• Clopyralid is an herbicide found in some professional and home garden and lawn care products — especially those designed for dandelion and thistle eradication. It takes longer to break down than most other herbicides, so can be found in finished compost. If significant amounts remain, applying it in your garden can affect carrots, eggplants, lettuce, pansies, parsley, petunias, potatoes, sunflowers and tomatoes. In other words, if you plan to compost, make sure the materials you add to your pile were not exposed to clopyralid.

• The quality indicators for finished compost are a dark, crumbly texture, an earthy odor, not too dry or wet, not too stinky, and not extremely hot.

• When you say compost or manure compost is “aged” you mean that the decomposition process has stabilized.

• Do not throw the following into compost: meat, poultry or fish (flesh or bones or fat), bread, oil, dairy products and pet waste. Some people do compost meat, poultry and fish by burying it deep into the middle of the compost heap, but it is slow to decompose and attracts wild and domesticated animals.

• One more thing about pet waste: the teacher strongly cautioned against flushing cat waste down your toilet if you have a septic system. As part of her job, she studies poop and has found that the bacteria that attacks human waste does not go after cat waste, and is not compatible with what does. This Battle of the Bacteria All-Stars can end up reducing the effectiveness of your septic system. I pass along her cautionary words for those folks who have e-mailed me about the miracles of scooping cat litter into their commodes instead of the garbage. This also applies to the woman who wrote about the device she is using to teach her cat to do its business directly into the toilet.

• If you are throwing away food leftovers, you are throwing away money. You are also adding to environmental degradation because it took petroleum products to produce and get the food to you — all for nothing, if you toss it out instead of eating it. The Washington Post recently reported, “The average American household wastes 14 percent of food purchases. Nationwide, that adds up to $43 billion worth.” At least throw them into your compost heap instead of our growing landfill.

• Compost happens no matter what you do or don’t do — all you are doing is speeding up the process.

• One organism’s waste is another organism’s food.

• It is better to leave grass clippings on the soil, since they decompose quickly and add nitrogen back into the lawn. Weed-and-feed products have several problems, chief among them being that they treat your entire lawn as a weed and smother it in weed killer. While it doesn’t kill the grass, for the first few days its toxic components are tracked into your home by children, pets and your own shoes. Additionally, the feed part of the equation is in the form of chemical nitrogen — but the grass takes up only a little at a time, so the excess washes away into the ground water. It is far better to feed your lawn with clippings. Cheaper, too.

• Don’t waste money on commercial compost accelerator. Throw in a bit of compost or dirt to get the process started.

Next week: wisdom from the rest of the class.