Best Composting Tips

[Branching Out]

Some of the dahlias have been blackened by frost, so I am starting to buck up the stalks to add to the compost. I still have some brown leaves from last autumn that I am layering in the bins, which is really handy. The leaves are mostly still intact, with some leaf mold developing. My goal is to store a lot of leaves again this year so I can add even more brown leaves each time I flip the compost piles; they have been fantastic to add in between the layers of green waste. When I was at a recent garden session and composting came up the moderator said 'just keep adding more brown.' I think that makes for really good compost. I am also going to keep my bins a bit drier this winter, because once the cold weather arrives they stay on the wet side. As with many aspects of gardening, composting is part art and part science.

In the past I rarely flipped my bins, but thanks to all of you I have learned what a positive difference it makes. Now I love being able to flip the bins, an outdoor activity that I can even do in winter. I even bought myself a compost thermometer.

 

[Branching Out]

It was nice and dry today, so I grabbed my garden fork and spent some quality time with my compost bins. Two were filled to the brim just a couple of months ago, and now they have shrunk down a lot. I flipped them and managed to fit it all in to just one bin, as well as turning a third bin full of winter kitchen scraps, maple leaves, bunny bedding, and bunny poop. The half-finished compost from the fall looked really good, and had lots of big worms. For the first time I have all three bins side by side, with two full bins and one empty one-- so now I can turn them quite easily. I just love compost. 😍