Tips for Maintaining Your Compost Heap in Winter

Composting is one of the most important things you can do for your home garden as well as the environment. A compost heap gives you the chance to keep your kitchen scraps out of the garbage while making rich compost to add to your vegetable garden beds every spring. Because compost is not made overnight, you need a designated spot, usually a compost heap that you can add to and maintain year round. Maintaining your compost heap in the winter is especially hard, because of the special needs a compost heap has to constantly decompose.

During the cold months of winter extra steps must be taken in maintaining your compost heap to guarantee that the food scraps will be constantly breaking down. The composting process is accelerated and encouraged with heat, and it is possible for your compost heap to lose a lot of heat in the winter.

Here are some simple steps that I use to make sure that my compost heap will keep decomposing through the winter.

Find A Sheltered Location
The first thing you need to establish for your compost pile is a sheltered location to keep it. It is best to keep your compost pile from the elements in winter because it will help with insulation and be easier to maintain. Find a spot that receives sunlight, but is out of the rain and snow. Also, a location that is sheltered from the wind will help your compost heap maintain the heat that it generates and needs to drive decomposition.

Provide Insulation
If you already have a designated compost container that is not already insulated, or if you are making your own container, it is important to make sure you provide insulation. This is actually very easy to do and cuts down on a lot of time and energy when it comes to compost being ready and maintenance. For the winter I like to partially bury my compost bin, this gives it some natural insulation in the winter and helps the heap maintain a constant temperature. I then take bales of hay or straw, you can purchase these at gardening centers or farmers markets, and pile them up around the compost bin to trap any heat that the bin would otherwise lose.

An alternate idea is to create a storage container to place your bin in during the winter. This aids in keeping animals out and keeping the compost area tidy looking. You can then pack the area around the bin with straw or leaves, which are also a good insulator.

Allow for Ventilation
Even during the winter months, your compost heap is going to need ventilation. Air entering and leaving your compost bin is what helps the decomposition process along, and the lack of it is why so many compost heaps fail or take forever to produce compost. Do not completely fill your compost heap over the winter and then leave it rest till spring comes around. Instead, make sure there is always room in the compost heap for more and choose a bin that has ventilation holes around the top, bottom and sides of the bin. Finally, regularly turn your compost to give it a chance to breathe and accelerate production.

Feed Your Compost Heap
Once you have your compost pile set up for the winter elements it is important to feed the pile to get it started for the long winter months. As you add your kitchen scraps and garden waste to the bin, do so in alternating layers adding a handful of blood meal to each layer as you go. It also helps to sprinkle each layer with water to bring on the decomposition.