Photo credit: Flickr/mskfly

Catherine Mezensky, a Baltimore City gardener who writes for examiner.com, has some fall composting tips worth repeating. 

(Good time for this. We tend to clean up our yards in the fall and simply dump everything into the compost pile.)

If you are already composting, she writes, empty your bins of composted material and work it into your beds before winter. That leaves plenty of room for, well, leaves.

To make the pile more efficient, she says, chop up large pieces of garden refuse and place it at the bottom of the pile. "Coarser material breaks down better if placed at the bottom," she says.

Then add a nitrogen source -- cut grass or shredded leaves. (Mix the two together, she advises, because both have a tendency to mat. My husband does this for me by "vacuuming" the lawn and turning over to me the leaves and grass in the bagger.)

Don't add weeds - the compost pile may not get "hot" enough to kill off the weed seeds.

Winter composting tips?

• Bury kitchen waste in the center of the pile where it will get hot enough to decompose.
• Compost piles need more nitrogen in winter and your lawn may not be producing any, so think about adding cottonseed meal, manure, and blood or bone meal.
• If there isn't much precipitation, water the compost pile in winter, but don't turn it. You will release the heat it needs to work well.