Hello, I am a home gardener that recently set up a simple three-sided compost bin made out of wood pallets. I have been putting in my leaf debris, grass clippings, chicken feathers, and home fruit/vegetable scraps.
I was under the assumption that simply piling up these ingredients and letting them sit in the elements would eventually result in compost. However, the Internet is full of people who think that you should always turn your compost, and/or that leaving a compost pile uncovered in the Oregon rain will diminish its nutrient value. Help! How do I compost?
Any of these methods will give you the same great soil supplement. You are doing cold composting.
The difference with hot composting, which others are advising, is it gives you a usable product quicker. The other benefit of hot composting is you have a better chance of killing weed seeds and some pathogens in your compost pile.
To hot compost, you need to be sure that your compost pile is:
- Moist
- Located in full sun (if possible)
- Turned periodically
- Covered in the winter so that it doesn’t get too cold and wet.
In our wet winters, both methods of composting will slow down due to the colder temperatures, with the hot method cooling less than the cold method.
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