Composting During Winter

Trying to make compost during the winter months presents it's own challenges! Spring is just around the corner and having your own supply of great compost is ideal.

Get your compost tumbling now.


Composting during winter is possible, follow this great advice from Jason Bacot.

Composting During the Winter

By Jason Bacot

If you use an outdoor compost tumbler, or otherwise do your composting outdoors, then you may wonder if you should bother with composting over the winter. The answer is a definitive "Yes!" Composting speeds up the natural decomposition process, allowing organic matter to break down quickly, and it happens during winter too, just at a slower pace. What you're doing when you compost matter is promote the health and propagation of the aerobic bacteria that breaks down plant and other matter to create rich, nutrient-filled compost.



No matter the type of compost bins you use, composting will continue over the winter, generating heat as the bacteria breaks down the organic matter. If you keep up with rotating, turning, or otherwise mixing up the compost matter over the winter, you'll keep the process moving along at its fastest pace. Rotating compost bins make it easier to keep the items inside mixed up, because you only have to turn the crank, rather than get into the bin with a shovel or pitchfork and break it up.



Winter composting won't happen at the same pace as warm weather composting. But even when it's cold outside the microbes that break down organic matter to make compost remain active, and the core of the compost can remain quite warm because of the heat generated by the process. Outer layers, however, will be affected by the ambient temperature.



One thing you may have to worry about over the winter is your compost getting drenched by winter rains and snow. This shouldn't be a problem with many of today's plastic compost bins for sale, because they will keep most of it out. If you're using a traditional compost heap out back, you may need to throw a tarp over it to keep the water from drowning the bacteria that are hard at work creating compost.



When you add to your outdoor compost during the winter, you'll keep the pace of the process going better if you shred the stuff you compost, such as leaves. This will also help keep the pile from succumbing to extreme temperature swings. People who live where there are cold winters find all sorts of ways of coping with extreme temperature. Some will gather compost materials indoors in sealable kitty litter buckets, then simply set them outside until spring. Even during an upper-Midwestern winter, the contents will start to break down and get a head start on springtime.



Some people keep a compost tumbler in the garage and find that it's convenient and efficient. And some people go old school and simply create a contained pile outdoors and let nature work at its own pace over the winter. Whatever method you choose, don't stop composting over the winter. You may not be able to use your glorious compost until warm weather arrives, but you'll be very glad to have it when it's time to start digging in the garden next year. Let your compost bins serve you all year round. Nature may slow down over the winter, but composting can continue as long as you have the right ingredients, the right moisture levels, and regular agitation of the contents being composted.



About the Author: Jason Bacot - Are you looking to save some money when it comes to your home gardening? Then I suggest you check out our Rotating Compost Bins and Compost Tumblers for a natural fertilizer at "Compostbins.Nixtie.com" as soon as possible.



Source: www.isnare.com

Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=671893&ca=Gardening

Compost Materials - How Do You Make Good Compost?

Like anything in life, the quality of your home compost will reflect the compost materials you put in. There are many products around the home that can be safely composted. It is estimated that around 40% of trash in your household dustbin can be composted.

How do you make good compost?

Compost happens naturally, anything that was once alive biodegrades and rots down. Getting it to rot down to great compost and not a smelly mess takes a little thought.

To make good compost you need approximately a 50/50 mix of "brown" and "green" compost materials. Technically, you can compost anything that is biodegradable but avoid meat, fish, dairy products and faeces from carnivore animals.

Brown compost materials:

• Straw
• Wood shavings
• Wood ash
• Sticks
• Paper (shredded confidential paper is ideal for composting!)
• Cardboard
• Crushed eggshells
• Bedding from vegetarian pets – mice, hamsters, rabbits etc
• Woody prunings
• Bracken
• Hair and nail clippings
• Natural fibres – wool and cotton

Brown materials are carbon rich and slow to rot. They give your finished compost "body". Shredding or finely chopping the materials first helps them to break down quicker.

Green compost materials:

• Vegetable peelings
• Teabags and coffee grounds
• Green prunings
• Grass
• Weeds (avoid weeds with seeds)
• Nettles
• Poultry manure and bedding
• Animal manure – herbivores e.g. horses

Green materials are nitrogen rich. Without the brown ingredients and regular turning, they will often decompose to a slimy mess.

The secret to how to make good compost is air. Aerating your compost pile or bin is essential and helps to break down the compost materials much more quickly. This is why compost tumblers are such a great investment; they save on the backbreaking work of manually turning your pile with a garden fork.

Other benefits of using a compost tumbler:

• You'll find you won't have to add water as often as moisture is retained
• They help produce "fast" compost – if your bin stays warm, you can expect to see useable compost in around 12-15 weeks.
• They are animal (and kid!) proof
• They're less work. Throw in your compost materials, turn and leave it.
• They are not an eyesore. If you are composting at home in a built up area, the last thing your neighbors want is a compost heap on their landscape!

As a side note, there is no need to buy compost activators if you are composting grass cuttings or animal manure as these are natural activators. Other natural activators include:

• Comfrey
• Nettles
• Urine (yes, a tip an old composter gave me! Dilute it down aprox 4 parts water, 1 part urine before adding to your compost pile or tumbler)

An Urban Compost Tumbler - The Secret to Great Home Compost?

Is an urban compost tumbler the solution to your home composting problems?

Composting your garden waste in an urban garden has been difficult until the development of the rotating compost bin. These great compost tumblers totally remove the previous issues of: Limited space Odor Pests such as flies, rats, raccoons, foxes A well managed compost heap rarely has issues with pests other than a few flies. Unfortunately, many gardeners do not understand the process of composting and find themselves with a heap of stinking, rotting vegetation and kitchen waste that attracts the local unwanted pests!

The introduction of a tumbling composter makes it ideal for all gardens and yards. It is an efficient way of disposing of your biodegradable garden and kitchen waste and producing fantastic home compost that is perfect for your plants and lawns.

The natural odor of compost is a quite pleasant earthy smell. Bad odors mean that something is going wrong with the composting process, usually because the compost mix is too wet. A tumbling composter is enclosed with just aeration vent holes, which minimizes the escape of even the natural compost smells. Since the home compost tumbler is enclosed, it does not attract any pests that you may normally associate with compost heaps.

The secret to great home compost is aeration.

With a rotating compost bin, this is so easily achieved without the backbreaking work of turning a compost pile by hand.

The urban compost tumbler model still requires manual turning of the drum, so it is not suitable for those with fitness problems. Even so, it is still far easier than forking a compost pile!

Compost tumblers efficiently remove all the downsides of making your own organic compost at home. Being so easy to use, it is difficult to go wrong.