Autumn Composting with Blue Borage

Do you look around your garden and see the remnants of summer now becoming a little unsightly, with weeds growing faster than plants?

It could just well be time to put all that green matter into a hot compost pile to cook through the winter, so that you have beautiful soil to use in spring/summer.

Hot compost — a way to create a future garden bed using your garden waste

Why hot compost?

For me, there are a few reasons:

1. It’s efficient. Rather than adding a small layer every day and having to turn a compost pile regularly, I’d rather gather up all the ingredients for one day of building, and then not have to do anything for a while.
2. It’s effective. My favourite method of hot composting is to build the pile right where I want a garden bed in a few months. Free standing piles are so much fun to make, and there’s something magical (in a no-till sense) when you pile back the top half of the finished compost and discover a garden bed that is all set to go.
3. It’s fascinating. What makes the compost get hot? I found the cat on top of one of my compost piles yesterday — obviously the warmest spot in the garden on a chilly autumn afternoon. Some people geek out on the science of composting, but I prefer to just get into action making the next pile, and tweaking my methods through experience.

How Blue Borage can support you in your exploration of hot composting

1. There’s an online event called ‘Autumn Composting’ where you can get a set of the biodynamic compost preparations posted to you (if you live in New Zealand), you’ll get access to the online course on Hot Composting, and I’ve also included a set of the BD500 Horn Manure preparation and the online course on Basic Biodynamics for the home gardener.
   https://events.humanitix.com/autumn-composting-j0q2dyiy
2. Hop over to the Blue Borage Gardening group on Facebook, where I’ll host a challenge for the duration of autumn — I’d love to hear how you get on with your compost. It’s also a lovely to see pictures of other people’s gardens — something to motivate you if you need that.
   https://www.facebook.com/groups/blueboragegardening
3. Whether you do the course or just take part via the Facebook group, I’ll be holding weekly Hot Composting Q&A sessions on Zoom. (Details for the Zoom calls are in both the Humanitix event and the Blue Borage Facebook group)

Come and join in the hot composting fun!

~Katrina🌱