Fall/Winter composting

[JoshRobbins]

I was thinking about starting up a compost pile of some type, but it's getting late in the year, and winters in Maine tend to be on the snowy/cold side.

Can I start now, or will it be too cold and just start up my pile in the spring?

[Marlingardener]

There is no bad time to start a compost pile. Go ahead and start a pile using leaves, grass clippings, kitchen scraps (I personally don't use meat or dairy because of varmints, but some folks include them) and torn up cardboard and/or newspapers.
Your pile won't get hot and steamy over the winter, but there will be some decomposition going on, and the snow cover will add the necessary moisture when the melt comes. Your garden will thank you come next summer!

[thepumpkin]

We started our compost last year during this time. It wasn't ready for this summer and even now there is no ready compost. But did we lose anything? No We have the volume sitting there and slowly decomposing. Otherwise we would have thrown all this matter into the trash bin. Just go ahead and start!

[JoshRobbins]

Holy crap! An entire year and it's still not ready? Were you good about mixing it and stuff?

[thepumpkin]

Holy crap! An entire year and it's still not ready? Were you good about mixing it and stuff?

Not that much I think. And it's dry most of the time as I can't manage to water it. So I guess that must be the main reason. (We also had a very cold winter that literally froze it for 2 months)

[rainbowgardener]

Yes, ordinarily would not take a year to have finished compost, but if the pile dries out, it stops working. That's not a disaster, it will start again when it gets moistened again. But for best results, you want to keep your pile damp all the time ("like a wrung out sponge"). I water my compost pile when ever I water my garden. If you are not able to do that, at least make sure it is where it can get rained on.

And I agree with everyone else, do go ahead and start your compost pile now. I add kitchen scraps etc to my pile all through the winter. It just freezes and sits there. But by spring some of the stuff at the bottom of the pile has decomposed and the rest starts decomposing as soon as the weather warms.

Do some browsing in the Compost Forum here and be sure you are aware of browns/ greens. I cover my kitchen scraps with a layer of fall leaves, whenever I add them.

[treehopper]

Like everyone has said, starting now is good- we still have a few weeks to add greens to your pile and what you have next spring will give a jump start to next years production.