Easy Leaf Based Compost:
With freezing temperatures and snow settling in for the winter your compost is done working right? Nope even though it has been -40 our compost is still going strong.
Although outside might be brisk the inside of your compost pile is nice and hot. The bacteria responsible for breaking down the green and brown materials in your hot compost. produce heat as a waste product. As long as your pile is large enough the trillions of bacteria will continue to work away.
As they do the pile will get smaller. This is a great opportunity to continue to add to the pile. Today we are adding some used coffee grounds and tea leaves, spoiled leafy greens, egg shells and the pulp from strawberries and rhubarb that have come out of the brewery. These are all good nitrogen rich materials. Top it off with some more fall leaves we have tucked away in the shed and the pile will continue to work well into the winter.
Later on in the winter if you don’t add more oxygen or raw materials the pile will cool off once the majority of the active decomposition has finished. the freeze thaw cycle will continue to break things down until the spring when a quick turn will send the pile right back into a hot compost finishing off the process.
I hope you enjoyed this quick episode on winter composting. For a more detailed discussion on creating a leaf based hot compost check out our episode by clicking on the screen or finding the link in the description below.
Some of my favorite childhood memories are of gardening with my parents and brothers. This channel is about low cost organic urban gardening in zone 3. I am by no means an expert gardener however I love to share my experiments and journey garden year round. Please feel free to join the conversation and if you think you might like this channel subscribe. Have a great day!
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