# Winter Composting- What do you do with that goo in freezing weather?



## Sarah H. (Oct 11, 2017)

Good Evening Everyone!

In my experience the family just kept tiny composting buckets on the kitchen counter and then pitched it straight into the garden to roto-till and incorporate into the garden the following year. 

Is there a better way to go about this?
Where are you storing your coffee grounds and banana peels all winter?
I have an unfinished basement, does anyone use the heavy duty compost cyclers I have seen online indoors?

Thanks!


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## hunter63 (Jan 4, 2005)

Storing and using compost tumblers is a just too much work for me....
I just use a outside compost bin....the 4 pallet style.....
Or an outside "Pile" works as well.
Or just spread in garden.

Just pitch scraps in when you have some......
You can even store a couple of bags of leaves,... shredded work better,... to just dress the top of the pile.
If it's working correctly it get hot and steams .....mine never do...but with start up again in the spring.


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## light rain (Jan 14, 2013)

We have two tumbling composters, one in front of our house and one in back. While I might consider a worm composter in the basement I wouldn't want a tumbling one. I put in kitchen trimmings, coffee grounds and spent mushroom compost. Also thrown in grass clippings, cow and pig poop and leaves. Just bought the 2nd one a few weeks ago and am considering putting a little throw together greenhouse to heat it up a little bit for the next month. It is amazing the dark, rich compost one of these tumblers produce...


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## mzgarden (Mar 16, 2012)

We have a wire cylinder staked in the garden - about a half length of cattle panel with the ends zip tied together and staked to keep it from tipping over. Year round, all garden clippings, kitchen scraps go there, along with layers of leaves, and some waste hay from the goats & chickens. In winter it stacks up, spring we unstake it, spread and rototill in. Some years we have a couple cylinders staked in different areas of the garden.


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## rininger85 (Feb 29, 2016)

we just boxed in a small area next to the chicken coop so when I clean the coop I just open the window and scoop out the coop and throw it in the compost pile. My wife keeps a gallon ice cream bucket under the kitchen sink that she puts stuff in until it either starts to smell too much that she doesn't want to open it indoors or until it gets full then we carry it out and dump it in the pile. It's not a huge pile yet, just been slowly adding to it for a couple years now... if I get time before it gets too much colder I need to go dig it out and put it in our raised beds in the garden so the garden is ready to go next year, but I'll probably run out of time and find myself digging it next spring instead.


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## Skandi (Oct 21, 2014)

We do two things, one is a "Normal" compost heap, you can add to it all winter, it won't do anything untill it thaws, but better than breeding flies in the kitchen. And I dig trenches in the veg garden, and slowly fill them over winter, I can only do that though because our soil doesn't freeze deeply or for weeks at a time, so I can still cover it up as I go.


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## Sarah H. (Oct 11, 2017)

Does anyone have much experience with worm composters? What are the results? 

I question how quickly the worms compost the materials? 

My household is just my husband and I, so I can't imagine this would overwhelm the composter very quickly?


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## hunter63 (Jan 4, 2005)

mzgarden said:


> We have a wire cylinder staked in the garden - about a half length of cattle panel with the ends zip tied together and staked to keep it from tipping over. Year round, all garden clippings, kitchen scraps go there, along with layers of leaves, and some waste hay from the goats & chickens. In winter it stacks up, spring we unstake it, spread and rototill in. Some years we have a couple cylinders staked in different areas of the garden.


THis is a great idea....Thanks for posting.
My brother uses this method....places the roll in the garden about 4 ft high...1/2 a panel.....fills it.

Get full start's the other one...tears down the first bin......and compost not done yet go into the bottom of the second bin.

Contents of the first bin then spread right in that area.....
Move the bin to another spot.....starts the process over.

Sarah H.......
Is there a reason you don't want to compost outside?


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## Clem (Apr 12, 2016)

My garden is fenced in, and from last harvesting day up to planting day, I turn the chickens out in it. They do 3 things: clean up, dig for bugs and grubs, therefore both pest control and turning over the dirt, and turn everything they eat into fertilizer. So, I throw all of the sort of stuff you'd compost over the fence, and the chickens do it for me.

In return for their hard work, I eat all their eggs, and on a cold, lonesome winter morning, I'll quite possibly take an older one, chosen at random, into the promised land.


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## Sarah H. (Oct 11, 2017)

hunter63 said:


> THis is a great idea....Thanks for posting.
> My brother uses this method....places the roll in the garden about 4 ft high...1/2 a panel.....fills it.
> 
> Get full start's the other one...tears down the first bin......and compost not done yet go into the bottom of the second bin.
> ...



Oh I wouldn't mind it ordinarily, but since I am starting this late in the year I wasn't sure if there is a better way to go about it.


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## hunter63 (Jan 4, 2005)

Sarah H. said:


> Oh I wouldn't mind it ordinarily, but since I am starting this late in the year I wasn't sure if there is a better way to go about it.


Gottcha......


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## rininger85 (Feb 29, 2016)

I've seen where people use 4 plastic totes... tote #1 you leave empty with no holes just to catch any worm juice that drops down so it doesn't go on the floor...set a second tote inside of it. Tote #2 Drill holes in the bottom, start filling the second tote up with compost, toss your compost worms in there. Once it is half full (to the point where when you stack another tote on it the bottom of the next tote will be sitting on the compost in the tote below) Tote #3 drill a bunch of holes in it, start filling it up. As the worms finish composting the lower tote they will travel up into the tote above it, tote #4 repeat... by the time your forth tote is full your second tote should be broke down and the worms should have moved in to the tote above it, so you can pull that tote and go use it for whatever, then move it back to the top... they say this composts much faster than traditional compost piles.

example for sale on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01NBG2Y9...t=&hvlocphy=9017194&hvtargid=pla-351474790715


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## MichaelZ (May 21, 2013)

Kitchen scraps can be composted sooner by being mixed in with a lot of grass clippings, leaves, and some old compost - in 3 weeks they are nearly ready and there is no bad smell. Or you can compost later. In the winter we put them into a large chunk of leftover road culvert with a cover on top to keep the dogs out of it. It smells REALLY bad by spring, but once mixed into the regular compost pile it is fine.


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## Sarah H. (Oct 11, 2017)

I was looking at one just like this!  

I think I will test this out and see how it goes. I read up on quiet a few articles and I think this will be a bit of an adjustment getting used to but will be fun to monitor if I can keep those crawlers thriving. 

Thanks.


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## hunter63 (Jan 4, 2005)

Sarah H. said:


> I was looking at one just like this!
> 
> I think I will test this out and see how it goes. I read up on quiet a few articles and I think this will be a bit of an adjustment getting used to but will be fun to monitor if I can keep those crawlers thriving.
> 
> Thanks.


Just a note......watch it pretty regular.....really stinks if they die....
Just saying.


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## mosepijo (Oct 21, 2008)

Sarah H. said:


> Does anyone have much experience with worm composters? What are the results?
> 
> I question how quickly the worms compost the materials?
> 
> My household is just my husband and I, so I can't imagine this would overwhelm the composter very quickly?


We started a worm bin a few years ago and love it! My husband took a 6’ Rubbermaid water trough and put in on top of straw bales and placed bales all around it. (For winter). We started with 2000 red wiggles. I cannot believe how fast they compost the food. Over the last 40 years we have tried so many Composting ways and this is by far the best way. No smell whatsoever. You can use about anything to start one. We just happened to have this sitting around. They are suppose to double in Numbers ever month or so. I have no idea how many there are. To tell you the truth, we don’t ever see them, but they must be there because whenever I go out to dump more waste, the previous waste is gone.


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## lmrose (Sep 24, 2009)

Since we have to establish a new garden this year we fenced the area. Outside the fence in one corner we have started a compost pile. All cooking and peeling scraps are kept in a covered pail and added when we get out to the farm once a week. We have also added leaves and sometimes a shovel of dirt to keep food waste from blowing around. Starting over we are doing everything on a smaller scale and as easiest as possible.


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## anniew (Dec 12, 2002)

Jay (Shrek) in the Singles sub Forum is the king of worms...ask down there...


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## John szczepanik (Nov 21, 2018)

Sarah H. said:


> Does anyone have much experience with worm composters? What are the results?
> 
> I question how quickly the worms compost the materials?
> 
> My household is just my husband and I, so I can't imagine this would overwhelm the composter very quickly?


Ok


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## big rockpile (Feb 24, 2003)

Use Pallet Compost Bin, put Bag of dirt on it once or twice a week and your good.

big rockpile


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## Bearded_Dood (Jan 29, 2019)

I just got done building a concrete block walled compost area. Its 10x10. I roofed it and have a homemade tarp door on it. It still compost's well in the winter time and gets warm enough. I also feed it cheapo bags of top soil and leaves too. I have a gazillion trees available to me. So getting leaves is never a big deal. I also do the little bucket in the kitchen for compostable stuff. 

On a side note, some of my compost will be going to my new Dubia Roach farm. I plan on using the dubia's to feed to growing chicks. They are packed with protein and great for MANY animals that eat bugs as they are easy to digest. However they do eat some compost stuff like banana peels or fruits that are squishy. Lol. If you have any local people that own reptiles, they would sell like hot cakes.


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## Wyobuckaroo (Dec 30, 2011)

With 1.5 meters of snow on flat open ground we don't have good access to anywhere to keep compost outside. We do create a number of 80 liter tubes of rabbit barn cleaning a winter, stored in the back of the barn in the tubs. We have and use a lot of tubs. Most of our rabbit barn and some of the chicken barn cleaning goes directly to the raised beds. Sweetie is the grower, I'm just physical labor. 

Roaches for the chickens would be out of the question, even if legal to have here. We actually have very few bugs here in the bush. I mentioned I had read there were ways to set up a maggot feeder for the chickens. Sweetie went off with a resounding NO to the idea.... With her nose, the dog and I can't get away with anything.......


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## light rain (Jan 14, 2013)

Wyobuckaroo said:


> With 1.5 meters of snow on flat open ground we don't have good access to anywhere to keep compost outside. We do create a number of 80 liter tubes of rabbit barn cleaning a winter, stored in the back of the barn in the tubs. We have and use a lot of tubs. Most of our rabbit barn and some of the chicken barn cleaning goes directly to the raised beds. Sweetie is the grower, I'm just physical labor.
> 
> Roaches for the chickens would be out of the question, even if legal to have here. We actually have very few bugs here in the bush. I mentioned I had read there were ways to set up a maggot feeder for the chickens. Sweetie went off with a resounding NO to the idea.... With her nose, the dog and I can't get away with anything.......


As it should be...


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