Winter Composting by David Soper
 
One of the things I like best about composting is that it is virtually impossible to screw it up. In its simplest form, if you just throw your clippings and trimmings into a pile and forget about it, Mother Nature would convert it to compost. Sure, it would probably take a couple of years or more, but it would happen.

It is a little late for this, but this simple idea is nearly fool proof.  Take 30- or 40- gallon black plastic bags and fill them with garden wastes.  During the process, mix in one tablespoon of high nitrogen content garden fertilizer. You're going to seal the bags, so the process is going to be anaerobic (without air) and that means there'll be extra acidity, so add one cup of lime per bag. Lastly, add one quart of water. Now it is time to tightly seal the bags. If you live in a really cold area you may want to put the bags in your basement or heated garage.

However, thought, for most of the country, just stash them out of sight somewhere. Forget about them. Mark your calendar to check them out in a year. When you open the bag, you'll be presented with fresh-smelling ready-to-use compost. You'll be surprised about how the material shrank, that's because, of course, microbes have been feasting all year. If you live in an area that is pretty temperate, it may only take 6 months for the process to complete.

Not to get too technical, there are three primary types of bacteria present in your compost pile. You have psychrophiles, mesophiles and thermophiles.  Each is happiest at a different temperature range. Cold weather does have the effect of slowing down the process but if you continue to put your green household waste on a pile, you'll have compost for your garden by mid-summer. Be sure to throw some brown leaves on the pile, just to maintain balance.

If you are totally committed to the idea of not wasting any vegetable material, you can always grow red worms in a bin in your basement, but that is another story for another day.
 
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David Soper, The Garden Guy, writes and lectures on gardening topics. Read more on his website, Adventures in Gardening, www.gardenguy.com