Spreading Compost

This weekend, I've been taking the finished compost from my largest compost bin to spread in my garden beds. This bin is the one where I put most of my fall leaves and chopped up garden debris. Since the bin doesn't rotate, and I don't turn it very often, it composts slowly.  I just leave it to break down on its own, and then remove the finished compost from the bottom door when it's ready.


Most of the leaves and debris in the big compost bin are added in the fall. During the cold of winter, the composting process comes to a stop, so it's over the spring and summer that the material in this bin breaks down. It's finished by fall, when I need plenty of compost to spread over my garden beds. The compost I'd spread in the spring when I plant the beds has broken down by now. A new layer of compost will help insulate the soil over the coming winter, so that alternate freezing and thawing doesn't heave bulbs and shallow-rooted plants from the soil.

As I clean out the garden beds over the coming weeks, and as the fall leaves come down, I'll be filling the compost bin again, to produce next year's compost.