Sustainable Building Forum

The easiet thing that I do for gren living is composting. I have a compost bin. I put lawn clipings, egg shells, old newspapers, vegei peelings, weeds and raked up leaves in it. Just keep it moist and turn the heap every day or two. Every three months I get bloody good stuff for my garden. Also, I get the satisfaction that I amlocking up some of the carbon back in the soil.

What about in cold weather?  My compost been hasn't seemed to do much for a few months.  Our temps here range from in the 20's to 60's F.

Will it pick up again when the weather warms up?  I was really looking forward to having compost for my spring garden.

Also, I used to vermi compost and loved that, but now I live with the guilt of haven forgotten to bring my worms in one hot spring day. :'(

nitanae
http://adesignforliving.net/

Yes, it will pick up as the weather warms up. You can help your compost heap by turning it every few days. The bacteria that works the compost needs air. Aerating your heap will help the aerobic bacteria to keep woking even in low temperatures, although the process is much slower. Just take a garden fork and turn it in the heap a few times here and there.

If it is too cold, you can go for worm composting instead. But the worms need to be placed in a warm place.