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Compost Question (kinda long sorry)
So I have done quite a bunch of research on composting but know that you ladies tend to have the best advice.
First do you think I should go with a regular composting bin for browns and greens or a worm bin for just food? The reason I am unsure of all this is because I live in northern Minnesota where we have about 7-8 months of weather that can be below freezing along with snow for 6 months at least.
Second if we do a regular bin with both kitchen and yard waste do you suggest that we get a lawnmower that has a bag so I can just dump all our lawn clippings in the pile? We are about to buy our first lawnmower so I thought I would ask here.
Also our city has a yard waste compost pile that they turn and you can pick up dirt from. But I am curious how does that work with just yard waste and no food?
Thanks so much! And Happy Easter!
Re: Compost Question (kinda long sorry)
I am, by far, no expert but I do have just a small comment on trying to compost in cold weather because we have similar to what you have (snow, cold for freakin' forever). I have small compost bin that I was adding to all last summer and it was decomposing nicely but once it turned cold here it ground nearly to a halt....technically it didn't but it seemed to anyway. So I didn't add to it all winter because it would have overflowed since mine is enclosed and not just a pile. Only now that it's finally warming has it started up again (minimally so far since we've only had two days of warm weather).
Since you have access to a location to take your lawn clippings or you can mulch I would probably go with vermicomposting (worms) as long as you have a good location in your home for it since they'll freeze outside during the winter.
I would guess the town compost pile works really well without food since you really only need a mix of brown (likely dried leaves) and green (all the grass people drop off).
I live in Canada and we have a regular bin. I have no problem with it in the winter, that sucker stays nice and warm inside.
We don't have a bag on our lawn mower. The cut grass (our grass sucks so it isn't very thick) stays on the lawn.
I live in the Twin Cities, and we have an outdoor compost bin for food and lawn waste. We don't add grass clippings--just leaves from the many oak trees in our yard... Because our yard is so shady, our bin doesn't get warm enough to keep up with an accumulation of (frozen) winter waste, so we can only 3-season compost, unfortunately.
One concern about worm composting in Minnesota (and maybe you already know this): make sure you don't release the worms into your yard/garden. The worms in compost are invasive in Minnesota's woodlands and are responsible for a lot of ecosystem damage. We have no way of controlling them once they're released, so preventing their introduction and spread is pretty much all we can do at this point.