Composting

I just got my compost pile started last month and wonder if anyone has experience with composting in this cooler weather (I am used to Southern CA). I have some dirt, some manure and a year's worth of bits of uneaten alfalfa from goat pens with goat poop/pee. I am now adding some of my straw bales to it. In the past our horse's manure stayed firm, like balls, so it is hard to mix unless kept damp. Stupid wee whacker guys thought it a good idea to pile the cut weeds on the pile! scraped them off. Need to get out and spend some serious time MIXING it all up. Some power equipment would be good for that, but what? Maybe the neighbor with the tractor that helps us (and gets more manure from us than I do).

Thanks, Lynda

A good compost mixture will generate enough heat internally so that cold weather is not a problem. I've seen compost piles steaming on a cold January day in NJ with snow on the ground.

Thanks frogymon. Neighbor tractor guy is also coming over next weekend to add a bucketful of our own manure (a rocky distance from compost pile) to the pile and then will 'mix it up' for me.

If you're worried about it not generating enough heat, you can always cover it with sheets of clear plastic.

Frogy's right, I find the biggest problem I have with composting is keeping everything damp enough and have to add water every week or so. I've read that pouring beer into the pile is good but rarely have any that expires. Seems that anything with some extra natural sugars helps move composting along.

Expired beer, never heard of it, at least not around here.

frogymon, LOL!

Have a few plants left in garden near compost pile, so water compost when they get watered. Tractor neighbor mixed in the manure (and the weed pile, :( , and left a 'dent' on top for me to add kitchen scraps. He came over this week to get his tractor bucket full of manure and mixed my pie again too. Can see where plastic (black would be better, no?) would be a good idea. Plan on covering one raised be with plastic in hopes of killing any squash beetle eggs that might be in the soil. They were a MAJOR killer of all squash, melons, pumpkins and cukes! ARGHHHH!

quilty, the squash beetles are a minor nuisance here, but the brown marmated stinkbugs killed all my curcubites last year and half my squash this year.

Stinkbugs, go figure. Have not seen any actually in the garden. Noticed grasshoppers were out a lot today in our warm weather, but not much in the garden left for them to bother.

Need to re pot my annuals to bring inside before the real cold nights come. My geraniums actually did better in the cold end of kitchen (no central HVAC here) last winter.