Why Compost in the Cold during Fall or Winter?
- Thinking about green grass, hearty gardens and blue skies of spring can help ward off the winter blues.
- Remember your garden needs you now to be great in the spring.
- Give indoor composting a try.
- Turn down the heat, and try to reuse paper products.
- Start a car pool and reduce commute stress levels.
Benefits of Sticking with Your Composting in a Cold Climate
We’ve learned about the wonderful benefits that a compost pile can bring to our gardens, lawns and greenery, and while that’s fine and dandy when we can trip out to the bin in 60 degrees at dusk to maintain in, it’s a no brainer. However, it’s a little harder to find the motivation when the wind is howling through your back yard, you can’t find your snow boots because they’re piled out in the shed somewhere under the kids sleds and you’re fighting a drippy winter cold. Buck up, o great composter that you are, and have heart that while taking some effort, the benefits of composting in winter outweigh a little cold.
Once you’ve overcome the impulse to ignore your bin until the thaw, you’ve found your boots and taken some cold medicine; sit back down on your sofa and relax. There is less maintenance outside for composting in the winter because the whole break-down process slows in the cold. No need to turn the bin so frequently, because it needs to maintain warmth. The only real increase in work is with your brown and green products. These should be chopped small and added more often to the bin to maintain your nitrogen levels and heat. Keep it indoors in a bucket or bin by the back door until you have enough to blanket into your bin.
Composting in Winter can be Mentally Rewarding
Think about it. The sky is dark more than its light, you can’t do much outdoors without ski-pants or boots and the sky is a sickly gray a lot of the time. People can get depressed over these conditions, but composters have a remedy. Thinking about your compost bin keeps its benefits, that rich, dark soil, in the back of your mind with every chop of a green or brown material, every trip to the pile itself and every check on your red worms, if you use them. You get to think of spring every day. And “state of mind”, says many a psychoanalyst, adds more to our reality than environment, right? So think of spring as you’re carrying your materials out to your bin, and smile knowing that you’re doing good for the environment and your yard. Now go back in and don’t forget to leave your boots by the back door. Mud in the house is not eco-friendly. nor will it be appreciated by other members of the household!
Worms.com recommends The Worm Factory
The Worm Factory is a multi-tray worm composter that helps manage the composting process.
Fill each stacking tray with food scraps, junk mail and other household and garden waste. Worms start in the bottom tray and migrate upward as they break down the waste. This allows worms to separate themselves from the finished compost making it easy to add nutrient-rich fertilizer to plants and gardens without sorting worms.
