How to make a lot of compost this winter

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image of compost pile with pitch fork

Compost is a gardener’s best friend. Unfortunately, it can be quite expensive if you have to purchase it. The cost in my area is about $30 per cubic yard. I can drive about an hour and a half and get mushroom compost for $10 a cubic yard. So, what’s a person to do who wants a lot of compost for the spring but doesn’t want to buy it? Make it. And make a lot of compost in the winter.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, “That’s easy for you, you have chickens and can use their bedding, I don’t”  or “We don’t have many food scraps so it’s not worth it.”

I’m going to share our super secret ingredients for making lots of compost first and then I’ll share some tips and other things you can add to it. Oh, and a printable compost list for you to put in your gardening notebook.

And the super secret ingredients are…leaves from your neighbor’s curbs and used coffee grounds

Composting leaves quickly

We start collecting leaves as soon as we notice people bagging them up and putting them on their curbs. You can tell they are leaves because they are usually in brown paper lawn bags. It’s okay to take them, but if it makes you feel better you can ask first.

In our area this doesn’t happen usually happen until early winter (mid to late December). So if you live in a zone 9 gardening zone know that it might seem like the leaves will never fall but eventually  they will.

Several times a week we go into our Starbucks or local coffee house and ask if they have any used coffee grounds. They almost always do. They’re happy we take them off their hands.

Why does this work?  Dried leaves are considered a “brown” in the composting world; that means they have a lot of carbon. The microbes in compost use carbon as their energy to thrive. Coffee grounds are considered a “green” (yeah, I know they’re not green); that means they have a lot of nitrogen. The microbes in compost use nitrogen as their protein to thrive.

image of composting chicken litter
Composting basics

Here’s the deal, any organic matter will compost down….eventually. If you don’t want to wait indefinitely you will need to build a compost pile that has browns and greens mixed throughout.

So, open a bag of leaves and put about 4 shovelfuls of leaves in the area you are going to use for your compost pile and then sprinkle a shovelful of coffee grounds on top and sprinkle with water. Keep layering until you run out of either leaves or coffee grounds, making sure you dampen each layer.

Every few days turn the compost pile and make sure it smells fine, looks fine and isn’t too dry. If you want to speed up the process even more run the leaves through a mulcher and then use a 1:1 ratio of leaves and coffee grounds.

Browns are things like dried leaves, shredded paper and cardboard,  wood chips, hay, mulch and wood ash (although I like to use this directly in the garden instead of composting it).

Greens are things like fruits, vegetables, coffee grounds and filters, tea bags, manure (cow, horse, goat, chicken, sheep and rabbit) and  grass clippings.

Don’t compost things like pet waste, fats and oils, meats and bones, coal and charcoal, dairy or anything with pesticides or diseased plants.

Your compost should have an earthy smell to it. If it smells bad, you need more nitrogen. If it’s slimy, you need more carbon. If it’s really dry, you need to dampen it. See, it’s really not complicated.

Where to put your compost pile? Most people who compost have “a” pile or bin that they use which is kind of hidden out of the way. We do, too. However, we’ve decided to start composting IN the gardening beds that are not being used for our fall/winter garden so they will be ready in the spring.

Once we cleaned out the summer plants, I planted buckwheat in the beds that we’ll be using in the fall, and I started compost piles in several others using chicken bedding and coffee grounds. When we gather more leaves we’ll start composting in other beds. It’s similar to the lasagna method of gardening.

I’m not anticipating that these piles will get super hot since they are only a few inches high. So, I’m covering most of them with tarps to keep the heat in. Come spring if there are any leaves or bedding that hasn’t composted down we’ll just rake it up and put it all in our permanent compost pile.

image of raised garden bed with compost pile

Composting in the winter

During the winter the composting microbes will slow down and if you live in a really cold climate, they’ll stop. But it’s okay to still compost in the winter. Continue adding adding your household scraps to the compost pile or bin even though they freeze. The freezing and thawing cycle will actually help the compost break down quicker in the spring.

When things really start to melt in the spring, add some leaves or straw to cover the composting pile. You don’t really need to add leaves or straw during the winter when you add household scraps if your compost freezes. The frozen compost won’t be odorous and attract animals. Of course, if you’re worried about that go ahead and add leaves to the compost.

Composting and your climate

Your climate affects every part of gardening, including how you compost. The basics are the same but the process will be different. If your winters are harsh and long you’ll compost differently than someone who lives in an area that almost never experiences a freeze.

Composting is both a science and an art. There are ratios that you can follow to help speed up the composting process and make proper compost – that’s the science part. But you can’t control the weather, you can only observe it and tweak what you’re doing in response to it.

The important thing is that start where you are and with whatever compostable items you have or can gather. 

I made a handy printable to help me remember what items are browns and what are greens. To download your copy just fill out the form below.

Once you print it up, you can put it in your gardening notebook. I find that the more notes I keep on my gardening efforts the more I enjoy gardening and the more productive my garden is. If you don’t already have a notebook for your notes, consider purchasing the printable gardening notebook I created to help gardeners have a more productive garden.

image of leaves and compost with pitch fork

What is your composting system like? Feel free to share in the comments so we can all learn.

Thanks for sharing with your friends!

64 thoughts on “How to make a lot of compost this winter”

  1. I am not too great about turning compost, but I will pile the stuff up! I have access (at the stables my son and I take horseback riding lessons at) to half rotted manure mixed with hay. I was thinking that maybe that would be a good mix to bring home and pile up for awhile. Is that too much brown and we would still need to add green? I’d like it to be ready for spring and I hate having to buy compost.

    Thanks for the article! I stopped by from the Homestead Barn Hop.

    Reply
    • If it’s the bedding, it’s perfect because urine is a green. I’d absolutely try it and just keep an eye on it. If it starts to smell, you need to add more green. We really like coffee grounds because they smell so good to begin with.

      Reply
      • I hadn’t thought about getting the bedding hay with urine in it! Most of the horses stay in the pastures, but we do occasionally get one on stall rest. I bet I can mix some of that in to help out with the greens (and see if I can get more coffee grounds than what I produce). Thanks so much!

        Reply
        • ooh
          horse manure gives you LOTS of weeds.
          let me rephrase, unwanted plants….
          i have used it very successfully, but i have it in black bags lying in the sun for at least 1 month, before it turn it into the compost pile.

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          • That’s a good tip, Laura! Thanks for sharing. I’ll have to remember the black bag trick if I’m ever fortunate enough to get some horse manure.

  2. I am confused why hay is a brown but lawn clippings are a green. Hay is dried grass that you feed animals. High protein means high nitrogen. How would lawn clippings have higher protein content than hay? If lawn clippings had higher protein content than hay, wouldn’t people be feeding their animals lawn clippings and not hay?

    Straw is dead stalks of wheat, etc., that you use for animal bedding. Straw has very little protein, and should be in the brown category.

    Perhaps we are having a regional terminology or farmer/non-farmer terminology misunderstanding?

    Reply
    • Sorry for the confusion, I should have mentioned that the grass clippings that are mentioned in the Green category are fresh clippings and are full of nitrogen. When they are dried out (as they are for hay) they lose their nitrogen and become a Brown for the compost pile. The green and brown has to do with nitrogen and carbon content not protein content. And you are right, straw is in the brown category. Hope that helps.

      Reply
      • I’ve used grass clipping in my compost piles but I have found if too much is used, they can get slimy, so I let them dry a bit on the lawn first. Never thought of them loosing the nitrogen that way. I do love Starbucks coffee grounds though.
        Another thought that someone might find helpful. I live near a golf course. In the Autumn, they collect tons of leaves from the fairways and roughs and typically piles these somewhere out of the way. I went to pick up some bins of leaves to add to my compost piles then realized somewhere amazing. If you dig down just a few inches, you will discover tons of already composted leaves teaming with worms just ready to add to your compost pile or right into your garden. I use recycling bins to bring this back to the house in the back of my vehicle, but you could add it to your pickup if you have one.

        Reply
      • All proteins contain nitrogen. Nitrogen is one of the building blocks of amino acids. Depending on the protein it will consist of 13% to 19% nitrogen. If you know that one of your compost ingredients contains protein then that means it contains nitrogen.

        Reply
  3. Your list looks good but manure is a green. Chicken manure having the highest nitrogen content of the list. Even dried all animal manure are greens due to the high nitrogen content in them. Also, if you aren’t completely grossed out by it you can use your own urine as a jump starter if you are using the pile method.

    Reply
    • {sigh} I know that. I have no clue why I put it under browns. I’ve corrected it in the post and on the printable. Thank you so much for bringing that to my attention, I really appreciate it!

      Reply
    • I Think since I take medications, I wouldn’t want to use my urine for anything but just flush it down the toilet. I have MS and hypothyroidism so I take meds for both as well as pain and other symptoms. And since many meds breakdown and pass through the urine it wouldn’t be safe for compost or yard related.

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      • Yes, that’s a wise thing to do. For those who don’t take medication though, urine is a fantastic fertilizer for the garden.

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    • @Jayme,
      Thanks, now I can tell my wife that I was watering the compost pile with good ole organic jump starter. I hope that will stop her from telling me I have no manner….LOL.

      Reply
  4. I have two bunny rabbits as pets. They eat a lot of greens and I use recycled paper litter as bedding and in their litterboxes. I know that I can compost their droppings (aka bunny berries) or just till them into my garden and houseplants directly, but can I compost their litter as well? Its a mixture of hay, urine, and recycled paper litter, so based on the horse comment above I want to think this OK, but “pet waste” is on the do not compost list. Anyone know?

    Reply
    • Yep, you can compost it all, Mary. Pets meant cats and dogs. We have wild rabbits around here and I forget that rabbits are pets for some people.

      Reply
      • Phew! I was worried when I read no pet waste, as I’ve been putting my gerbil bedding in my pile for a couple weeks now. It’s mostly recycled cardboard and paper anyway, and they have a little potty they’re supposed to use for waste, but let’s be honest, some just gets dropped where ever, and I was worried I’d tainted my pile.

        Reply
  5. Hi Angi, thanks for posting this. We are starting our garden in the spring and we’re starting from scratch. This will certainly help us out in the compost department! I also featured this post on my Sunday Good Reads post if you’d like to check it out.

    Reply
    • Thanks for the feature! What a great idea for a post. How exciting to be starting your garden; now is such a great time to begin getting ready for it.

      Reply
  6. Hi Angi! I really like these compost tips. I am horrible about just throwing stuff on my compost, then totally neglecting it otherwise. I will definitely be implementing these ideas this fall! Thanks!

    Reply
    • We do that a lot too, but during the fall and winter when we are making a lot of compost with leaves and coffee grounds, we try to be more attentive. Happy composting!

      Reply
  7. Hey there, I really liked this article. I too compost in the garden, as well as our worm bins. I had not thought of the greens and browns. Thanks for putting that together. Good information. Nice blog

    Reply
    • I would really like to raise worms at some point. I know it’s easy, but starting something new always intimidates me a little. Thanks for visiting!

      Reply
  8. Hi, enjoyed your article. I live in the Northeast and just put my garden “to Bed” this weekend. I did a container harden this year, by far the best garden I have ever had, the highest yield ever!! I drilled holes in the containers and lined each bin with a layer of straw. Mixed soil purchased in bags with peat moss and planted away. I have never had much luck with bell peppers and this year I was giving them away, froze some, etc. It was wonderful.
    I pulled all the plants, dumped all the contents into a pile and will add coffee grounds, veggie scraps and the like. I added a heavy dose of nitrogen in the form of Miracle Grow and water. There is an abundance of worms in the soil, so they will hopefully be busy this winter, Looking for some pretty rich soil!!

    Reply
    • Isn’t it wonderful when you find something that works for you. What a great idea to turn your potted soil into a beginning compost pile for next year. I bet your garden will be amazing next year.

      Reply
  9. Hello, again. I think I’ve mentioned before that my husband and I own a restaurant. We have the person who preps all of our vegetables put the scraps in a box, and we bring two pretty good-sized boxes home every week and throw them directly into our garden. The boxes have scraps from cutting onions, tomatoes, lettuce, sweet peppers,zucchini, squash, and carrots in them. Would you say that this is a good practice, or would you suggest doing something different?
    Thanks,
    Kelly

    Reply
    • That sounds wonderful for compost. You can add some shreadded cardboard or newspaper or some leaves into the mix to help keep it a little more balanced. We used to pick up a box of scraps from a smoothie bar every day to treat our chicken, it was wonderful. I wish more restaurants did this, it would greatly reduce the waste in the landfill. Good job!

      Reply
  10. Use saw dust and wood chips sparingly when composting get in beds…. those sources tie up nitrogen during the decaying process….compost them first elsewhere

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  11. This is incredibly informative and encouraging. I especially appreciate the tips for correcting smelly/slimy compost! Thank you, so much!

    Reply
  12. Beginner gardener here. My husbands grandfather used a hole in the ground for his compost. Apparently he was a great gardener and hole digger. He is no longer around so i was wondering if this would be a good idea to keep the compost warmer during the winter. How does heat or cold affect the yeild of compost? Also should you turn your piles during the winter when there is snow on the ground?

    Reply
  13. When I have a bed not being used I save my kitchen cuttings and dig a hole which then they are placed in. The worms eat it in no time. I do the same next to that spot and work along the bed. The holes only need to be a shovel deep. This works great if you don’t have space for a compost pile. It can work in pots too.

    Reply
    • @Nancy, I just pile up grass cuttings and leaves, garden waste (weeds, clippings, sticks) in several out- of-the way places throughout the year. When I want mulch or stuff to enrich the soil or improve drainage, I raid one or more of these piles. I make sure that dirt gets into these piles from weed roots or a shovelful/handful of earth from time to time. Very low maintenance, yet the yield is fantastic, and easily creates healthy, vibrant plants! It’s probably worth planting a few shrubs somewhat just to have a “hidden location” for this natural process that is screened from view. An elderly neighbor practiced this and taught me her gardening practices. She had incredibly rich soil and excellent drainage throughout her thriving garden.

      Reply
    • Honestly, I have no idea. I’ve never had a problem with them messing up my compost…and I’m comfortable drinking Starbucks coffee…if you aren’t you might want to pass on their coffee grounds.

      Reply
  14. I don’t have a “local coffee house”. I don’t have leaves or neighbors who have leaves. Or neighbors.
    I live in a Juniper/pine forest. I DO have cow manure, a little chicken and duck manure, cardboard and pine needles. I try to dig under the fresh pine needles to get the older stuff.
    Also don’t have much moisture to help with the decomposition. But, hey, ya gotta work with what you got.

    Reply
    • I love this comment so much. There are so many ways to make compost because so many things are compostable. Thanks for sharing!

      Reply
  15. You talked about being careful not to put things that were exposed to pesticides, what about herbicides? I think if someone was to use coffee grounds they would use organic because the coffee bean is one of the most heavily sprayed crop and they wouldn’t want herbicides in their compost.

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  16. The problem with getting coffee grounds from Starbucks, is they aren’t organic and coffee beans have lots of undesirables in/on them. I only put organic in my compost.

    Reply
    • And that’s fine, everyone has to decide for themselves what to put in their compost. My thoughts are that growing my own food even with using compost that has been made with coffee grounds that are not organic is certainly better (in a variety of ways) than buying the same produce (even “organic”) at the grocery store. Here’s a great discussion on the benefits of coffee grounds and on what “organic” means or doesn’t mean in real life.

      Reply

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