Tips for cold composting

 

 

Cold composting, sometimes called passive composting does work. It takes a little longer than hot composting, but if your compost bin or compost pile is full, cold composting is another way to recycle garden waste and table scraps. The same concepts apply, using a 3:1 ratio of browns to greens. Browns include leaves, shredded cardboard and newspaper. Greens include table scraps, grass clippings, coffee grounds and eggshells.  

Avoid adding meat or dairy, diseased plants or weed seeds (it won’t get hot enough to get rid of the seeds).

Worms are an important part of cold composting, just as they are for warm (active) composting, so add some to your raw compost. Worms are available for purchase. Yes, they will survive the winter. They will slow down just as the microorganisms slow down because of the cold temperatures and your compost will turn more slowly, but it will still work through the winter.

Organic nitrogen is also important and can be mixed into your compost ingredients. Organic nitrogen won’t harm any worms in your compost.

You can start with a pile of compost materials in the corner of your garden, layer your ingredients together, water the pile and cover it.

Another method is to dig a trench alongside the garden bed and shovel your scraps into the trench and cover lightly with garden soil.  Expect cold composting to take longer that “hot” composting. The temperatures aren’t there to accelerate the process of breaking down the raw materials. Composting doesn’t have to be complicated.

The main thing is to get started turning your scraps into compost instead of trash. As always, if you have questions stop in and see us. We can help you!  

 

Using fall leaves in the garden.

Take advantage of fallen leaves, to make improvements to your garden soil. Raking leaves and adding them to your garden to compost over the winter months will result in a much improved garden soil next spring. Leaves don’t contain a lot of nutrients, but composting them will produce leaf mold which will greatly improve the structure of your garden soil. Leaf mold is a dark, spongy material that results from microorganisms breaking down the leaf. It’s the stuff you find at the bottom of a pile of leaves that have piled up on the lawn or along the street curb.

As soon as leaves begin to fall and pile up, the process of decomposing begins. You can take advantage of this natural cycle by making a pile of leaves in a corner of your garden or simply digging them into your garden soil.  Leaves decompose cold. The process doesn’t require heat to work.

Smaller pieces will break down faster, so put the catcher bag on the mower and mow the lawn.

You can put the leaves, chopped or not, directly into the garden soil 

or start with a pile of leaves in a corner of your garden bed.

 

Add some Nitrogen such as Cottonseed Meal and water thoroughly. Turn the leaves once or twice during the winter.

By spring you should have rich leaf mold to add to your garden. If all of the leaves aren’t completely broken down by spring, leave them in the garden. The composting process will continue through the summer months. By fall you’ll be ready to start the cycle again. Your garden soil needs to be continuously improved and making leaf mold is an easy to accomplish this.