I am relatively new to composting. The volume we have is not conducive to a bin of any sorts, but to a large pile. A few challenges I have is that the pile will be frozen most likely by mid October, and may not be accessable from November to April, and/or thaw until April to May ( depending on snow volume and weather). The piles need to live where they are and can't be relocated. Some questions I'm struggling with, is when to stop adding organic matter to the pile that I wish to use in the spring? Which leads to when do I start a new pile? Do some people still have lumps and chunks of plants etc when they use their compost in the spring, or should it all be completely broken down? Which leaves me to leaves. ....I only learned of leaf mold this year so I am brand new to it. We have a tremendous amount of deciduos trees along the borders of our accessible property. My hope, if mother nature allows it, is to use the grass collector behind the lawn tractor and try to scoop up as many as often as I can before they freeze to the ground. I plan to mow them a couple of times and collect the bits. Most often they are accessed in the spring when the snow melts, and have already dried a fair amount. I realize they won't be as valuable, so those ones will probably go into the compost?? I'm thinking newly gathered leaves should perhaps be a seperate pile?? But I'm not sure. And I'm not sure if I should put it on plastic and bundle it up with another sheet of black plastic for the long winter? Or do I let the snow get at it and melt into it? It will remain frozen for quite a while if I don't cover it. But it also will not get the moisture. There is so much information on line, that it gets overwhelming at times. I'd appreciate suggestions and knowing what others may recommend. I can do my best to adapt it to the climate here. Thank you. Mel
Wotcha Mel Our compost is all in a big heap this year, none of it rotted during the summer because of the drought. No water, no rotting down. Now it's had a good soaking it's started to go down but too late in the year for anything significant. We'll have to leave it where it is and give it a turn next spring. Last autumn we gathered about 9 builders bulk bags of leaves, normally by this time of year they'll have gone down into one bag but they're still taking up 2, same story, no water, no fungus to rot the leaves down. It'll be a full year before any of this year's compost or leaf mold will be of any use. In the meantime we've got a dumpy bag of last years leaf mold and one of compost. We'll add composted tree chippings to that to make compost for the plants and cacti. Hope that helps, would you like to see my video of our composting area?
Yep, always keep leaves separate to the rest of the compostable material as leaves rot down by a fungal process as opposed to a bacterial process with the other material. Leaves are mostly lignins (cellulose) which fungus can get it's teeth into.
While most oganic processes will slow down or stop when it freezes, the heat generated by the bacteria in a compost heap should carry on decomposing slowly thru the winter but in an extreme climate you may be looking at 2 years as opposed to a year before you get something usuable.
If i'm using compost for potting I sieve it and lob the bigger bits back in the next compost heap. If it's just gettting dug in as a soil conditioner then the whole lot goes in
@Zigs that was amazingly helpful - thank you so much. I really appreciate it. I think next year I'll shut down one heap in August, and start on the next years. I'm also thinking that I will have three piles going to make up for the long cold winters, then start rotating use. A little planning and patience, but it will be worth it. My leaves are beginning to fall, and with a high of 9 today and a low of -2, so I'm thinking leaf-aggedon will begin soon. It gives me time to pick out a spot for them to go. Do you think the leaves that winter on the ground should go into the leaf mold pile as well? Or have they lost their mojo by then, being dark and relatively dried up. I would appreciate seeing the video - thank you.
No worries, glad if it helps It's been an unusual year for us compost wise so last years heap will stay where it is and I'll need to clear a place for the new heap. Leaves will be ok as they go in bulk bags so can be dragged around at a push. No probs with adding the leaves on the ground to the pile but leave some for the worms to drag under in the spring, they need food too
I mulch-mow my leaves and use a towed sweeper behind the mower. Mulched I can get so much more in the sweeper bin. I wet them as I pile them for a fast start. A pile needs to be a cubic yard or meter to begin holding the heat it can generate. I separate because different materials like sticks can take years and leaves take 6 months here.
@Dirtmechanic - that is great thanks! I'm planning the same strategy with the sweeper, but was thinking I would have to collect first as the leaves gradually fall. I'll watch the weather and wait for some accumulation as your suggestion makes a lot more sense, a lot less work and less fuel Good to know about wetting in between layers. My leaves will more than likely be a frozen pile before they start to do any magic, but if I wet the layers they will be all ready to do their thing as things melt in the spring. I'm guessing I will be on a two year process for the leaves possibly as well. ( this fall's leaves for use at the end of summer or the following spring) I would love to have the leaf mold for my greenhouse.
@Zigs - that was a great video - thank you so much. I have some of those type of bags but a bit larger, from when we would buy bulk grain for our animals. I think they are under the barn. I'll have to mull that one over, I didn't think of that.
If you have any meaningful quantity of leaf debris It will self insulate. One never gets to use the whole pile, because the outside layers are last to compost. So get a PhD (piled higher and deeper) in compost.
So....a meter square minimum and as high as possible. ( PhD as much as I can) That's interesting....and if I get a big snow year instead of just COLD that would also insulate. So perhaps in the spring, I could dig into the middle of the pile and see what happened, not judge by the outside layers. Thanks DM. That's hopefull and encouraging. I'll work on that PhD .
Always useful Took a few shots of this years heaps... Leaves in the 2 bags were in about 9 bags but still have a way to go. The general compost behind hasn't broken down at all in the drought. I started to run these branches thru the chipper but was worried about the friction starting a fire so I stopped till the rains came, only chipped a small amount...
