Getting your compost heap ready for winter 2017
Now is a great time we getting your compost heap ready for the onset of winter.
If you have an existing compost heap that has been started in the summer now is a good time to remove some of the compost from the base and spread it on your garden borders and vegetable areas.
Ideally you need to leave some of the older composted material in the compost heap to maintain the bacteria and fungal elements to help generate the heat in the fresh composting material you will add over the winter months.
As always the key to composting is moisture, air, heat and nutrients for the bacteria and other organisms that help to break down the freshly composted material.
So you need to make sure your compost heap is damp and fairly open, if your composting material does not have an open structure for example if you’ve been adding a lot of grass clippings you can add some straw and mix the straw into the composted material, this will help create an open structuring in your compost heap and allow air to circulate. Nutrients can be introduced with a few handfuls of growmore or a liquid plant food applied directly into the compost heap.
Finally you need to keep your compost heap warm in the winter by wrap it in some horticultural fleece or better still some old carpet this will maintaining temperature in the winter and make your compost heap more productive over the winter months.
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