Composting in Place to Winterize Your Garden
At the end of the season, a garden can produce a lot of “waste” that is usually hauled away to a compost facility off-site. Keep that good organic material on site and build better soil by composting in place.
Fall is a great time to invest in your garden soil. Adding soil amendments in the fall gives them time to decompose and improve your soil over the winter months, so everything is ready to go come springtime. Compost and aged manure are great ways to improve soil fertility and structure, but you can also chop up and incorporate leaves, cover crop, and no-longer-producing vegetable crops straight into the soil. This is called composting in place. Given a few months, this organic plant material will break down, feed soil organisms, and integrate into the structure of the soil.
When winterizing your garden bed, most people take out plants no longer producing and throw them in the compost bin, only later to buy compost from somewhere else, often wrapped in plastic. What more, even the most efficient home compost system can quickly become overwhelmed by all the plant matter that comes out of the garden at the end of the season. This video below shows a great alternative for those looking to winterize their garden plot, improve their garden soil, and reduce garden waste all at the same time.
Watch the video below to learn how to compost in place.
Community garden staff "compost in place" by chopping up zucchini and bean plants and incorporating them back into the soil. This reduces garden waste and builds better soil!
Let’s Review
A great alternative to ripping out all of the plants that are no longer producing at the end of the season is to chop them up with a sharp-edged shovel and incorporate them directly into the soil. Just remember to chop all plant matter up into small pieces so it decomposes faster. Also, don’t incorporate noxious weeds, diseased, or pest-covered plants.
Adding organic matter and compost is often a cure-all for ailing soil. Here’s how:
Adds nitrogen and other nutrients back into the soil
Moves soil pH towards a level ideal for many fruits and vegetables
Feeds soil organisms and builds a healthy soil community
Loosens clayey soil and increases soil aggregates
Increased aggregation helps the soil structure hold more water and nutrients
Makes the soil easier to dig
What Organic Matter to Add:
Tree leaves
Grass clippings (A lot of lawns are treated with chemical fertilizers and herbicides. Make sure to do your due-diligence when sourcing grass clippings!)
Winter and summer squash vines or undeveloped fruit
Cucumber vines and fruit
Leaves and underdeveloped/unwanted fruit of tomatoes, tomatillos, eggplants, or peppers
Beans, including the stems and leaves
Lettuce, kale, broccoli, cabbage, or chard leaves and small stems
Carrot, radish, or beet tops; can also include any small or unwanted roots too
Partially decomposed compost. The remainder of the decomposition process will occur in your plot!
What NOT To Add:
Any of the above listed plants that have pests or disease
Weeds (dandelions are OK)
Tough and fibrous stems, such as thick kale stems, Brussels sprout stems, corn stalks, sunflower stalks, and tomato plant vines
Straw and wood chips - both of these materials are too high in carbon and will sap your soil of available nitrogen, which is exactly what the vegetable garden needs.
More Resources
Read our blog post to learn more about soil amendments. Also, check out the Soil Health Resources Toolshed from our friends at the Community Food and Agriculture Coalition (CFAC) for even more on soil health!