If your compost doesn't get hot enough to cook it...you may be spreading disease for yourself.

I would just toss them in, along with some dead leaves, and see what happens

But ... I'm Lazy.

Hi dbarron - where would the disease come from if I'm cutting back healthy perennials? I'm new at this so this makes me curious.

A lot of perennials develop late season diseases like powdery mildew. I'm sure you have read about removing spent foliage during winter cleanup.

You'd be removing it, and then readding it in the spring...against good house keeping rules. Of course if your compost gets to above (taking wild guess here) 160F, it should be good. Let someone else come along and give you real numbers (lol) or go research it.

Not everything gets diseased, though. I do not compost the peony stalks or leaves, and the hostas usually decompose within days on the ground, but just about everything else can go in. You might want to cut off (and not compost) any seed-bearing flower heads, and leave some stalks to mark the plants that come up late (milkweed, for one).

Those plants grew in the soil and removed nutrients from that soil so it really only makes good sense to compost them and recover those nutrients instead of sending them off to a landfill somewhere. As a rule, the smaller the material the bacteria have to work on the faster they can digest it. Along with the ratio of Carbon to Nitrogen and moisture levels particle size does have an influence on how hot a compost pile gets.

Lisanti07028 - I love your tip about leaving tall stalks to mark the plants - duh - that never occurred to me. When I mulch over everything with about 2-3" of oak leaves, I always wonder how I'm going to remember where everything is in the Spring!
Kimmsr - thanks for the encouragement. I was thinking along those same lines and each year felt bad about getting those big brown bags and stuffing all my plants into them and putting them on the curb. I like the idea of returning them to the soil if possible. Guess I'll be chopping away to get them into smaller pieces.

I answered your post in the other thread - aha, I see my advice to start a new thread was completely unnecessary!

I would add to my other response that if you need more browns, rather than drying your greens, use those leaves. Keep a pile (or a circle of chicken wire full) of them next to the compost, and layer them with greens. I do this all winter with my kitchen scraps.

Thanks toxcrusadr - I will steal bags of leaves from my neighbors and use them in the winter - I'm thinking about the possibility of heavy snow - if it's like last winter, I'll barely make it out to the compost pile!!

I have a pair of small clippers that I use to cut up stuff for the compost bin - weeds, grasses, small twigs, and the fall and spring clean-ups. You don't have to make the pieces miniscule, but some things, like Siberian Iris foliage, last forever if not cut up. The link below is to the clippers that I use, just to give you an idea of the size.

Here is a link that might be useful: clippers

lisantio7o28 - thank you so much for the link. I was just thinking that I deserved a new pair of clippers for this job since mine are sort of cheapo - I'm buying them! I basically have ferns, hostas, Annabelle hydrangeas, toadlilies, bugbane and brunnera to chop up, so it shouldn't be too bad. Have loads of other hydrangeas (with no dang flowers on them this year)and Lenten Rose and obviously don't cut those down.

For snowy cold winters I put a 5-gal bucket with a lid next to the back door. Dump the kitchen scrap in it whenever you want, put a brick on it to keep out varmints, and when there's a warm spell, carry it out to the bin and dump it, and cover with leaves. You'll be amazed how much stuff you generate during the winter, and by spring it will be well on its way to being compost.

Every 3 or 4 days, even in winter, I take the compost bucket of kitchen scraps out to the compost bin, dig in a bit, and empty that material. Putting frozen composting material into, or onto, your pile will guarantee it will not be digested until after it thaws late in the spring. Since I leaned, many years ago, that excess moisture will cause a compost pile to freeze and stopped adding too much water I have not had my compost freeze up and the digesters work all winter long. The center of my 4 x 4 compost piles stays fairly warm even with winters like the last one.

I had the same experience, kimmsr, even with this past foul winter, but I wonder if a tumbler would have a different result, as it is surrounded by cold air, unlike my bins, which are somewhat insulated by the ground. I have never had a tumbler, so I have no idea if the compost in them stops for the winter. In any event, if you keep putting stuff in them all winter, and give them a spin (I guess), once it warms up, it will decompose quickly.

To all the newer members that might not have been around the past several years to see the numerous rebuttals, excess moisture by itself will not "cause" a compost pile to freeze. Many factors come into play.

Lloyd

Pray tell us, Lloyd, what it is that freezes besides moisture, water? I am sure the physicists around the world would be interested.

Ho, just posting out of turn here to mention that if something was once alive, however tenuous the connection (woolly jumpers, feather pillows) I compost it. Everything, including all old perennials no matter what state of health. And weeds. And roots. Old potting soil, leaves. prunings. newspapers, old sheets. I don't bother layering or faffing in any way but every year without fail, the enormo-heaps will do their stuff (might take the whole season) leaving me with plentiful friable compost (although eggshells appear immortal). The bigger the heap, the better which is why EVERYTHING goes in it.
To be fair, I wouldn't have these massive mountains hanging about in my tiny urban garden.....but on my allotment, I can spare the space for 3 massive bays.

I have been warned about the contentious nature of the soil and compost forum.....but being a belligerent and hard-nosed Brit, who cares?

We've gone down this road many times kimm. You were wrong then, you're wrong now and you will be wrong in the future.

Lloyd

P.S. Sorry to grossepointe for hijacking your thread but sometimes blatant and reoccurring inaccuracies ought to be corrected.

Here is a link that might be useful: Composting in Winter

Campanula - I do the same, and by God the mess those feather pillows made was astonishing.Turning the pile was quite interesting that time. I think my neighbor was about to call the men with the white coats on me.

I allowed my neighbour's children to make a compost person out of hay, stripey jumper, a pair of my old cotton pyjama bottoms, a squash and a large and battered straw hat. Artfully draped over the heap, with a little eye-squinting, it looked like some horrible homicide scene....and I am afraid to say I encouraged this by the addition of an old axe and a large slplattering of red paint. The old buffers on the allotment were not amused.......

"excess moisture by itself will not "cause" a compost pile to freeze. Many factors come into play. "
So, Lloyd, the question I asked is what else causes a compost pile to freeze.
Is it the shredded leaves, the plant stems, the manure? As I recall Eigth Grade Science the only thing that freezes, at 32 degrees F (0 Degrees C) is water, moisture. The moisture in the cells of plants does freeze and ruptures those cells which causes the plants to die, if enough cells burst.
Long ago I had compost piles freeze up because I had the wrong idea about how much moisture, water, was needed for the bacteria to function. Once I did figure out how little moisture was in a well wrung out sponge and limited the amount of water added to my compost piles they no longer froze solid during the winter, there was always some work being done in the center of the pile even when temperatures dropped below zero. A compost pile that was 4 x 4 x 4 in October had been chomped on enough that it was close to 4 x 4 x 2 in April. That could not happen without the bacteria digesting away all winter.
So, answer the question, Lloyd. What in a compost pile, besides moisture, freezes? Do not obfuscate.

Bless your hearts Kimmr and Lloyd - I really don't care if it freezes in the winter or not, it will all work out in the end. As the saying goes --
"Not my circus, not my monkeys"!!

Playing along, clearly in the example described the compost was overwatered which slowed down the decomposition. So don't overwater the compost regardless of what time of year it is. It's no more complicated than that.

I don't water my compost bin at all in the fall or winter, the kitchen scraps have plenty of moisture in them already.