Winter Composting With Your Leaf Mulcher

Those who are serious about their gardening hobby know how important it is to have good mulch and good compost ready for their plants once spring rolls around. Though these products are usually available at gardening stores, they are also usually quite expensive or at least more expensive than they will be later in the season because they have to be brought in from places with warmer weather. Luckily, you can avoid paying slightly more, though, and avoid paying anything at all if you practice winter composting. This is very easy to do with your leaf vacuum mulcher.

Composting is a process that involves mixing organic green matter, dry matter, and soil. During the spring and summer, the heat cooks this mixture easily, turning it into excellent fertilizer for your garden. However, during the winter, as temperatures lower, the mixture doesn't have the heat it needs to cook and combine the ingredients. This is unfortunate because the autumn season brings in a lot of dried leaves which makes perfect mulch and perfect dry matter for compost!

With a little ingenuity, however, you can easily practice winter composting. With all the great mulch around, you might as well!

Prepare Your Compost Bin

The colder weather won't permit composting in the ground. You will have to create a bin for it, preferably one made out of wood. You can buy a bin from the store or build one out of wood planks. Line the interior of the bin with about three sheets of cardboard on each side. This will add insulation. You should also add some old insulation sheets, the kind used for houses, to the exterior part of the bin.

Once you've done this, you're ready to start! Add the necessary components to make compost: soil, green matter, and dry matter.

Related Article: best leaf vacuum mulcher

Applying Heat

Invest in a couple of heating lamps or situate your bin near the kitchen, which usually produces the most heat. Making sure your compost has enough heat to cook is very important. Keeping the bin covered is a good way to trap heat into it as well.

If your setup is ready, you can continuously compost throughout the winter. Ideally, you should have mulched as many leaves as you could've during the autumn season. You can store the mulch in sacks, keeping them in a dry part of the home so that they don't grow bacteria. Add mulch to your compost as needed. By the end of the season, you will have both mulch (whatever is leftover in the sacks) and compost ready for your plants!

Though winter composting may not seem worth it during the colder months, it is beneficial to a home. It helps you dispose of food scraps, recycling them for a good purpose. It helps you put your leaf mulcher to good use during the autumn, and helps you put the excess mulch to good use too. Finally, it creates the perfect product for your spring gardening!