Composting in the winter

Right now my garden is covered in a layer of snow and the ground is frozen. Not much is going in it but I am able to continue composting all winter. Or I should say I can continue adding stuff to it all winter. Biological activity begins again in the spring but in the meantime I’m able to keep adding stuff to it.

I practice lazy composting, which I learned from an organic farmer roommate I had once. In the picture above you can see my composting area along the back fence. On the right (slightly cut off) is the leaf bin, next is the current year’s composting area and beside that is the turned and the finished compost.

For most of the year its a fairly simple process. We have plastic garbage can in the kitchen for putting all of our kitchen scraps in. It has an airtight lid and we line it with newspaper to absorb excess water and cut down on odours. Each week I take this can out and dump on top of the pile (newspaper included). I use a shovel to move them around, cut up any big pieces, and mix in with the leaves on top.

I usually add a few litres of water or snow and then top off with a layer of leaves. In the winter I rinse inside but for the rest of the year I rinse outside and let it dry.

That’s the simple, lazy part of it. However — once a year it takes a bit more work. By the end of the summer the compost bin that I’ve been filling with leaves, kitchen scraps, weeds, and other plant material is full. The bin to the left of it with the first turn has matured over the year. The bin on the far left is now empty because I’ve been using the finished over the growing season in the garden.

Next week I’ll post about how I turn the composters.