Howdy seven. Happy Highs ... I'll try to be succinct as I can tend to rail on a bit somtimes. Herr Jerry offers great advice about having multiple piles composting so that at some point in the future one will always have a heap of finished compost. Perhaps the most important thing he said was one word - patience. Seems we can help fuel the compost heap by continuing to monitor the C:N ratio, heating it up with green, cooling it off with brown, even in the winter, but I kinda think it won't be much fun digging in the compost heap in sub-freezing weather. The only practical solution is to keep the pile thickly covered with hay/straw which will act as an insulation barrier. If you've already dug the pit and have begun adding compostable materials I'd stay on that track but go now and get enough hay to cover the pile at least 12" if not more! This will help tremendously as the pit style of composting takes advantage of the natural heat of the earth to help keep things in the zone. If the pile is well insulated in should help. Also, the addition of true composting worms into this pit will keep the pile very active as long as it's kept insulated. On a fair winter day one can pull back the straw covering and continue to add kitchen scraps et al for additional compost material. I've taken these ideas directly from the Roadale institute's suggestions for winter composting so I can not speak to the veracity of the claims as there are a lot of individual variables that also include the human factor - you, me, etc. "We" have to keep treating the compost during the winter closely similar to what we do in the milder months; keep it mosit not wet. Keep the C:N ratio (brown:green) in the preferred zone, keep it warm via insulation, add composting worms, have patience. Above all never ever apply unfinsihed compost to your container plants because it can cause some real problems ultimately perhaps death of the plant. The key thing I think is to get started tomorrow! Whatever you do will be alright because in the world of composting there are wide margins to play up against. Insulate it with straw .....
Thanks a ton Possum! I haven't dug that pit yet, but bales of straw are cheap and I'll definitely be insulating it that way. I'm also sitting here thinking another bale of straw to add to my compost in the spring would be awesome, since the volume of my pile is down to about half, so I've stacked it to one side of its pen. Do you think it's a good idea to dig a pit, given that it might go anaerobic since I won't be out there turning it? Also, where does bokashi fit into the C:N, brown/green, scale of things? I'm using all my scraps right now for the bokashi bin, so they're not making it into the heap quite yet. EDIT: It says I gotta spread some rep around before I give more to you. But dag nabbit, you deserve it.
Thanks Jerry! As long as things go to sleep instead of eating themselves into oblivion and using up all the oxygen, I think I'll be fine. When the leaves start coming down, I'll put everything together in another pile, probably around the same time I insulate the other one, per Possum's suggestion. I've got a whole roll of wire fence, just need some more stakes. Actually, I just had a thought. Would it be possible to use leaf litter to insulate it over the winter?
I've been tending to the pile, giving it a good turning (moving it from one side of its pen to the other, making sure to get the outer parts into the center) every 5-7 days or so. A couple turnings ago, I layered a leftover bag of Epsoma Flower Tone into the heap. Might as well do something with it. This time, since it's looking like a dark mulch, but it's really slowed down, I dumped in 40 lb of alfalfa pellets to bring up the nitrogen level and 80 lbs of cow manure, layering manure, then alfalfa, then compost, and repeating until I ran out of everything. To this point, there hasn't been any manure (I know! Too much other life to get around to...), but now it's got what I think to be a healthy amount. I should have used chicken manure, but I was going from memory and didn't have the handy dandy compost book to consult. Turns out, chicken manure is super-rich. Next time... I'm hoping this will heat up again, and then I'm going to start thinking about when to insulate it for the winter. P.S. Feed store told me their new company doesn't stock kelp meal for them to order from. Replacement suggestions?