Composting with Wood Chips

I have two decent sized compost bins in the backyard. I also have a wormbin in the house. The worms aren’t eating enough of the food waste yet, so I continue to store compost in buckets in the garage. Once they are all full, I haul the buckets to the big bins in the backyard. Not much is happening since it is so cold outside. Only one of the piles is slowly shrinking.

I usually put some shredded paper or leaves on the bottom of the buckets to soak up the juice and to provide a bit better balance of browns/greens in the mix. I watched a YouTube video last week about using woodchips in compost. It seemed like a great idea since I’m out of leaves. I made a trip to the county woodchip pile. I picked up a couple buckets for free.

My plan is to use them on the bottom of the buckets as a liner. I think they will work better than the leaves or paper which had a tendency to mat down and stick to the bucket once they got wet. I’ll throw some in the middle and on top as well to help control bugs and smell. I use the compost in my gardens for both the annual vegetables and the perennials.