How To Compost In Winter

This video is a complete guide / tutorial on Winter Composting. I discuss what compost is, why it is difficult to compost in winter, and what we need to do differently to maintain an active pile all Winter Long.

I have come up with four principles to successfully compost in Winter, and will share them with you discussing each in detail. Lastly at the end of the video I will show two piles I made in the Winter of 2021/2022 from start to finish.

Please use the timeline below for quick links;

Intro - 00:00
What is compost - 02:32
Difficulties composting in Winter - 03:46
Four principles of composting in Winter - 05:35
Alternative green materials for winter compost - 06:20
When is a winter compost pile finished? - 10:42
Review of Winter Compost Process - 11:37
Appendix
Step by step of Winter Pile #1 - 13:05
Step by step of Winter Pile #2 - 19:42

For a huge list of materials to compost (printable) click below;

For our article on Winter Composting;

And for a quick reference on what temperatures kill weed seeds, see below;

Tools/affiliate links:

[crazidirtbiker]

You have hands down the best composting videos on YouTube. I watched your other video I think maybe 2 years ago when I first got into composting. I always referred back to that video any time I got confused and watched it multiple times through during my beginning stages of learning. I’ve came along way since then and just wanna say thank you.

All these years later I came back to the composting community on YouTube to see some winter tips and who do I see but my favorite compost guy lol. You can imagine how excited I was to watch this. Out of all the videos on YouTube yours always just made the most sense and helped more then others. I don’t think I’d be as good at composting as I am without your content. Its Always a pleasure thanks again.

[Elense]

Thank you for not playing loud music, not beating around the bush for the first 10 minutes, talking about what you plan to talk about in the video. Right to the point, very appreciated!!

[Simply_Eden]

My daughter brings me “gifts” from her work. She works for a boba tea cafe. All year I get tea leaves, coffee grounds, and fruit rinds. I hope she never leaves that job! I made it to the end 🎃

[victoriagolmehdi]

Thrilled to see this because, as I watch this, the pile of pumpkins that have arrived on my drive is growing. I put out a notice on the local face book page and people are only too happy to have somewhere other than the household waste. I also get the coffee grounds and spent hops from the local brewery. When I have the chance I gather seaweed from the beach after a storm and this is a welcome addition to the pile. Love composting, it is a kind of alchemy and also nurtures my maternal sense as I feed the earth and make it happy!

[randall]

Made it to the end! On behalf of all the Canadians🇨🇦 watching (and others outside of North America) THANK YOU so much for adding the Fahrenheit to Celsius conversions. 🙏🏾🙏🏻🙏🙏🏿👏🏽👏🏻👏👏🏾

[Paul_]

I feel like I should compost for my garden, but my neighbour has a huge 50 foot pile or 2 year old rotting manure that he gives me full access to. It’s -12c outside so I decided to have my coffee and watch and admire your good work.

[haarpanoid]

Of course I made it till the end... Longer does not mean boring, all your videos are dynamic and educative all the way, well put together with zero "me-me-me" beat-killer content. Thank you for sharing, and hope the algorithm treats you well.

[DrSlobGoblin]

Similar tip to hitting up coffee shops for grounds, find any local places with salad bars. They'll usually save the nightly throw-away if you ask them to. Probably have to give them a couple of buckets. A better, but harder one, is if you can get a local Subway to do the same. That's a lot of nightly throw away if you're trying to accumulate a lot of greens.

[bigredsgarden]

This is the most helpful video I have seen regarding composting. I was worried my pile wouldn't be active in the colder months but its hotter than ever thanks to pumpkins and coffee grounds! I'm confident it'll be ready to use in the spring. Thank you!

[sweaterdoll]

This might be the most helpful video I've ever seen about composting. I have been unsuccessfully trying to feed my chickens from a compost pile inside their large pen this winter. The pen is wrapped in plastic on the cold sides. The compost is inside a big "Toddleroo" pet/child pen. I try to turn it every couple of weeks and throw their produce (daily) on top, but they eat every bit of it and don't scratch in and now the pile has frozen and the leaves are no longer breaking down and are matted in layers. THIS ^^^^ This makes so much sense to me now. I have a 5 gallon bucket of produce and waste and another one starting today. I'm going to bring this pile back. It had a lot of viable, healthy buggy compost in it to start off the leaves in fall, but I can see that no real additions have been made to keep it hot enough and working. THANK YOU. Now it all makes sense.

[Mstymntntop]

Great video showing how the compost has been going over time. I love videos like this that show the time lapse and not just instructions and the first shot of what was done.

[the_green_anna]

I don't know how many times i have watched this video now...
Never get tired of it! 💚
Please give us more composting and mulching videos. You do an excellent job. 👌

[Gkrissy]

This is a game changer video. Now I realize that my winter compost pile wasn't big enough. Thanks for the content, I will be headed to starbucks in the morning.

[ctraugh]

Made it to the end of the video. Very informative, and I love that you took the time to document many months of composting and not just tell us how to do it. The results are awesome. Thank you.

[jcessna]

I too am in South Central PA and just started my first pile a couple of weeks ago. I like the fact that you build your piles on the ground rather than creating bins to hold your piles. Keeping it simple seems easiest. Love your videos and down to earth advice!

[piccadillypie]

Thanks for the foresight and consistency you put into this video. Really appreciate it as another cold winter gardener/composter.

[ponytaclub]

Made it to the end:) I’m also in Pennsylvania zone 6🥳 you videos are the most useful, easily digestible and down to practice out of everything on YouTube (and I watched A LOT), thanks a ton for your effort and talent put into this! I’m a first year gardener with many projects in works and in plans, your resources are my manual.

[squirlee]

Yes, made it to the end :) I want to say thank you for putting out this super informative video. I have just begun composting, procrastinated for SOO long, but finally took the heap.. I mean leap here in Maryland Zone 8a. I really enjoy how you put all the info out there in a no nonsense way. No hype, just facts. That is much appreciated. And thank you so much for the pumpkin tip, I actually was able to score some from a neighbor, who wasn't sure what to do with them. So I took them off their hands, helped them, helped me, kept a few more things outta the landfill :) Starbuck's is sort of outta the way for me but I have a couple Dunkin Donuts near by who saved some for me when I brought them a container. They've been super helpful. Thank you again for sharing & for all your hard work.

[marybk]

Made it to the end. I compost all winter too, zone 4b, but we toss our material in a tall (thigh high) garden box. We don't turn. It warms up enough in the spring to thaw and decompose almost completely before it's warm enough to plant anything in the spring.

[Maradnus]

I"m from the UK & Moving TO Canada soon ish.
I was looking at making Compost in the winter & this came up!
I love this!
it is a HUGE help!