How to Compost During the Winter Months
As the winter months approach, gardeners in cold regions put their gardens to bed for the winter. Compost systems, however, can remain productive through freezing winters. Compost includes fully decomposed organic materials--such as food scraps, leaves, grass clippings and most animal manure--that gardeners can use as a soil additive. Although all organic matter eventually decomposes, gardeners can speed up the process with a managed compost pile. With some preparation and attention, you can build your compost pile or even continue the composting process through the winter and have extra material for your garden the next season. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Large plastic garbage can
- Insulating material, such as straw bales or bagged leaves
- Finished compost for starter material
- "Brown" organic matter, such as leaves, shredded newspapers or straw
- Or:
- Several 5-gallon plastic buckets
- Sawdust
Instructions
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Pit Composting
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If you want to try to keep the composting process active throughout the winter, you must maintain enough heat for the microbes in your pile to keep working. Composting naturally creates heat, so if you insulate a bin well enough, you can maintain an active compost system even through cold winter months.
Cut the bottom out of a large plastic garbage pail with a saw or utility knife and drill 1-inch holes around the top two-thirds of the can for ventilation.
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Dig a hole the diameter of your garbage pail and at least 6 inches deep. For more insulation, dig a deeper hole. Set the garbage pail into the hole.
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Surround the top of the pail with straw bales or bagged leaves and stuff more leaves into the openings. Avoid blocking the ventilation holes as much as possible.
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Use two or three shovelfuls of finished compost as a starter, then add kitchen scraps mixed well with dried leaves or shredded newspaper. Keep the mixture moist but not wet.
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Cover the bin and strap down the lid to keep out animals. Composting will slow down in the winter, but if your bin is well insulated, it should remain above freezing. Even in sustained freezing temperatures outside, the compost will continue to break down.
Store Compost or Build Your Pile
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Another winter composting option is to simply store food scraps to compost when warm weather returns, or to build your pile.
To store your food scraps, use containers with tight-closing lids, such as 5-gallon buckets. Line the bottoms of the buckets with sawdust and place them outdoors. Simply fill the buckets with your food scraps through the winter and combine them with immature compost or leaves to start a new pile in the spring.
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To build your pile, set up a covered garbage pail near your existing compost pile. Fill the pail with dry brown material, such as leaves, dry garden plants and twigs.
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Set at least a 12-inch pile of dry brown material on top of the compost and dig a hole for food scraps. When you add scraps to your pile, cover them with a few inches of the dried browns. Create new piles of browns as needed.
When spring sets in, the new food scraps and dried brown organic material will begin to compost.
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Tips & Warnings
You can add extra insulation to your pit compost bin by nesting a smaller garbage pail inside a larger one and filling the space between with insulation.
Occasionally adding blood meal to the compost bin will help keep the compost process active through the winter.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit outils de jardin image by Claudio Calcagno from Fotolia.com
