SWMOgardens
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Cover the pile?

I have a 6x6x3 compost bin. I put leaves, old annuals, ground up leaves, and a 5 gallon bucket of coffee grounds (weekly) into it. My question: Would it be beneficial to throw a tarp over it over the winter or just let the elements have at it? I live in zone 6 (SWMO) and we get about 6-12 inches of snow a winter, and the temps drop to about zero at the lowest.

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Halfway
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SWMO, I had the same concerns last year and ended up putting an old plastic kiddie pool over it. I did it to keep the sun from drying it out and to keep the wind from blowing the top layer off.

I noticed that without the cover, the pile would dry very quickly as the winter closed in, humidity dropped, winds increased, and the sun dried it.

It kept cooking until we got a foot of snow and stayed below freezing for a week. Couldn't bring myself to watering it, LOL!

Hope that helps a bit!!

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rainbowgardener
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I leave mine uncovered. It probably does dry out some and between that and the cold (I'm also in zone 6), it doesn't really do much all winter, just sits there. But that's ok, since I'm not gardening (outdoors) at that point and don't need the compost. I do keep adding to it all winter, kitchen scraps, fall leaves, coffee grounds. My wire grid compost bin also has a wire grid top, so stuff doesn't blow away.

I guess it depends on how important it is to you to try to keep it working as long as you can, vs. just letting it sit through the winter (with freeze/ thaw cycles and all the pile does get reduced through the winter, broken down some). In the spring as soon as it warms up a bit and some rains come, it starts right back to work again.

The Helpful Gardener
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Snow has water AND nitrogen in it. I want to let that get to the pile, not chase it off with a tarp. If only we had a specially made cloth that allowed moisture to pulled into the pile slowly...

There are special (very expensive) composting fabrics used commercially, but I have never seen [url=https://www.cvcompost.com/?p=ccovers]Compostex[/url] in the retail market, although it appears they might cover small orders on the web site...

Could it hurt to ask?

And Rainbow, I am just digging on the quote you taglined more and more everytime I read it... :D

HG

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applestar
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Last year, I *padded* the sides with generous flakes of straw, then cardboard, then more straw, and mulched the top with heavy layer of leaves then more flakes of straw to hold all the leaves down. My compost pile looked like a haystack, except In reverse design at the top -- a dimple in the middle with the straw of the flakes aligned to direct rain and runoff to the CENTER.

With the bokasi bin and worm bin going inside, there was minimum need to disturb the outside compost pile. But when I did, I just removed the flakes on the top and layered the material in with the leaves, then covered back up again.

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Halfway
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The Helpful Gardener wrote:Snow has water AND nitrogen in it. I want to let that get to the pile, not chase it off with a tarp. If only we had a specially made cloth that allowed moisture to pulled into the pile slowly...

There are special (very expensive) composting fabrics used commercially, but I have never seen [url=https://www.cvcompost.com/?p=ccovers]Compostex[/url] in the retail market, although it appears they might cover small orders on the web site...

Could it hurt to ask?

And Rainbow, I am just digging on the quote you taglined more and more everytime I read it... :D

HG
Nothing wrong with the snow in itself, but shoveling a foot of it out of the way to add to the pile is my problem. Easier for me to pull the kiddie pool (or tarp) off, add the scraps, scoop a hanful of leaves and grass cutting from their piles and cover it back up.

With the heavy snow last year, I would have had a mess with all the kitchen scraps. The other option would be to send them to the landfill or down the disposal of which neither appeals to me.

Just a couple things to ponder.....

:D

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soil
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I leave my piles open all winter, but after a good rain/snow always go out and turn the piles to make sure there not a sopping mess. in fact, winter is my most active composting season, nice and cool outside so hard labor is easy. they are also in VERY well drained bins. I love it come spring time and all the hard work ive done all winter gave me a huge 15 yard+ pile of compost. :D

DoubleDogFarm
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Halfway,

Re-plumb the disposal. Send the water and food waste out to a 55 gallon plastic drum. The drum is full of short sections of 3" perforated pipe. Add compost worms to the drum. The bottom of the drum has a exit hole, where worm water is collected. You need to run the system for awhile before adding the worms.

This would only work with a double basin sink. No detergents. Keep it from freezing.

Eric

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Halfway
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DoubleDogFarm wrote:Halfway,

Re-plumb the disposal. Send the water and food waste out to a 55 gallon plastic drum. The drum is full of short sections of 3" perforated pipe. Add compost worms to the drum. The bottom of the drum has a exit hole, where worm water is collected. You need to run the system for awhile before adding the worms.

This would only work with a double basin sink. No detergents. Keep it from freezing.

Eric
:lol:

Sounds good, but not really practical in my situation. I like the design though!!

The Helpful Gardener
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That slurry would be great for feeding a worm bin...

HG

DoubleDogFarm
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I'll be having breakfast over at the brother's house Sunday. I'll take pictures of his outdoor setup. He, one day, will be cutting the plumbing for gray water and worm system.

I'll post as a new topic. I've again taken this off topic.


Eric

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The aforementioned bin:

[url=https://img101.imageshack.us/I/compostbins7nov10300kb.jpg/][img]https://img101.imageshack.us/img101/7752/compostbins7nov10300kb.jpg[/img][/url]

Uploaded with [url=https://imageshack.us]ImageShack.us[/url]


The center bin is the current pile. It is nearly complete, but I will keep it in place throughout the winter. I just added a large batch of leaves to the top and front of it after giving it a pretty heavy soak.

The bin on the left is mainly layers of grass clipping and leaves that I will cover kitchen waste when it is added to the center pile. By next spring I will turn both of these onto each other.

The bin on the right was just emptied of it's completed compost and added to the raised beds and a portion of the yard that was needing thatched. It should help the breakdown and prep for spring.

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I do like the idea of PVC pipe with air/drainage holes inserted into the pile. Both for watering and for air circulation.

May have to experiment a bit while we are still on the warm side.

The piles hit 135 degrees this morning, so this beautufl fall weather is keeping it cranking along.

I may need to scramble for a bigger batch!!!! :oops:

toxcrusadr
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Rain and snow do have nitrogen in them, but if you've ever seen compost tea, it has much higher concentrations of nutrients and all that other good stuff. I submit that allowing that to leach out of the pile into the ground all winter (in a rainy/snowy climate) is a greater loss than the pile would incur by covering to keep rainwater out. I cover mine in the winter. The pile also dries out faster in the spring and can be turned and used sooner.

The Helpful Gardener
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Tox, you are correct that leachate is chock full of goodies (USDA had some grant money out for catchment for professional piles a few years back).

Still, some moisture to the pile is necessary, and the dark black color of Compostex helps to heat piles in cold weather, whil letting a controlled amount of moisture through. The devil is in the details...

HG

SWMOgardens
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Thanks for all your opinions and advice.



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