What Can I Compost from the Garden Late Summer & Early Autumn?

Late Summer Early Autumn are great times of the year to find plenty of compost-able material in the garden and get the HOTBIN operating at the higher end of hot composting temperatures.

Late Summer

Late summer is that last stretch of summer leading toward colder and shorter days. In some regions of the USA, it is still summer, so what materials might you find in your garden to compost during late summer?

You can start pruning flowers, mowing your lawn, cutting-back and trimming evergreens, hardy geraniums, shrubs, etc... and adding them to your compost pile.

Don’t forget to add the indicated amount of shredded paper and mulch/wood-chips.

Early Autumn (September 21st)

Autumn is the time of year where nights start to draw in and the landscapes take on a subtle amber glow as leaves turn every shade of red, orange and yellow and garden begins to wind down ready for your regional winter.

There is still however quite a variety of compostable materials to find in the garden, so let’s take a look at what might be available to keep your HOTBIN composting.

Prune and compost:

• Flowering shrubs, fruit trees and bushes
• Hardy climbers such as Honeysuckle (on the east), Wisteria (south east) and Virginia Creeper (throughout USA).
• Lightly prune late autumn fruiting raspberries, blackberries & hybrid berries

Cut back and compost:

• Deciduous hedges and evergreens
• Remaining raspberry canes that fruited earlier this year

Remove and compost

• ​Tender bedding plants

Deadhead and compost summer bedding plants such as impatiens, sweet alyssum, geraniums, and others.

• Chop and compost any spoiled, bruised or rotted wind fallen fruit. For best results, roughly chop the fruit into smaller pieces before adding them into the HOTBIN. If possible, dose them in with other types of waste, bulking agent and shredded paper. This should help the HOTBIN to achieve and/or sustains hot composting temperatures even when the ambient temperature starts to drop.
• Keep up the weeding – try and remove weeds to prevent a strong root network from emerging. Precautions when composting weeds.