Compost Harvest Time

This is my favorite time of year. Not only will I start wearing sweaters and boots soon, but the weather is perfect for being outside, camping, and harvesting my finished compost. So grab your pumpkin-spice latte, cable-knit sweaters, and a pitchfork and let’s harvest some black gold together.

Step One: Gear up

I always bring a few five gallon buckets (old kitty litter containers in my case), my pitchfork, my screener, and a little container for garbage (usually an old flower pot). You may also want a shovel.

Step Two: Remove all obstacles.

If you have a conventional backyard composter, pick the thing up and move it off your pile. This may be easier said than done. It usually involves me shimming my composter back and forth like we are slow dancing. Maybe we are.

Step Three: Put the half-baked compost into buckets

When you only have one bin, you often have recently added food scraps. Shovel or fork these items into your handy buckets. These can go back in your pile in the end.

Step Four: To screen or not to screen

This step is optional, but if you have not heard me gushing about compost screening before, I offer this post for your reading pleasure. 

Step Five: Use your finished compost

I fork my compost into a wheelbarrow and bring it to the parts of my yard that need it the most. My fall harvest generally acts as mulch in my beds. Here are some other ideas for how to use finished compost. 

If you don’t have a wheelbarrow, buckets work too. Here is a photo of my harvesting set-up last fall when my husband was using the wheelbarrow for a wall project. 

Step Six: Start a new compost pile

Now you can add some shredded leaves to all of your unfinished compostables to start the cycle all over again.

Fall is an ideal time for harvesting because before we know it we will be buried in leaves and need a place to stash them. 

Happy Harvesting!