I believe you're thinking of planting a green manure cover crop? I think some gardeners grow nitrogen fixing cover crops in a bed that's on hold until spring. It protects the soil from winter erosion better than simply mulching, and prevents weeds from taking over. The roots of some of these crops penetrate deeply, so come spring if it's mowed down and tilled under the upper plants are added organic matter to the soil and as the roots decay lower than the till level they leave air passages.

They don't have to nitrogen fixing crops. It's been a while since I was looking at this, but buckwheat comes to mind. As I recall, it's quite key to mow it down before it goes to seed, as I also recall having buckwheat volunteers all over the place.

Otherwise, it's easier than you may first think to get in the habit of scanning the neighbors curbs on trash day to nab a bag of grass clippings or leaves. I got over 70 bags of leaves last fall! I'm a wacko, true, as I expanded to include spent jack o'laterns (13 is a good goal number for that hunt!) The beauty of this aspect is saving all that from the landfill, and importing free compost material all at once.

Hi - not sure if I understand this statement correctly: "I also don't have many leftover greens, either, from foods we eat".

Do you understand that ALL your leftovers can go into the compost? Clean our the fridge, scrape those plates, use the water from cooking vegetables, etc. Any thing that would go down the garbage disposal goes to the compost instead.

Then any any paper products that would normally go into the trash goes into the compost instead.

Finding nitrogen (green) sources is seldom a problem. This time of year, the problem is finding carbons (browns).

As to growing plants for the purpose of composting them, yes it is possible to do with nitrogens (greens) - a big pot of lettuce on the deck sown thick and cut and allowed to re-sprout works great. Same goes for a pot of grass seed or any herbs.

More difficult to do for carbons as it is hard to grow a cardboard box. ;) But newspapers from neighbors, boxes from the local grocery, etc. help. Thus the need to scrounge every bag of fall leaves you can get your hands on. ;)

Good luck and enjoy composting.

Dave

Thanks for the input you two. Patsy, I guess what I'm referring to is usually considered green manure. I will do some more searching about that. I was hoping not to till, just to do the composting and turning that into my old raised beds. I wonder if that's still called green manure? LOL

Dave, thanks for the many great ideas. As for clarifying not having green compostable material, we use everything in the fridge as I am very frugal. Once per week, everything goes in a pot and I make a new dish, a one of a kind dish, that the title of the name of it always ends in 'soup'. LOL As for the garbage disposal, I haven't used that but on a rare occasion since we bought this house. (The last one didn't have a garbage disposal.)

So, thanks for the ideas on how to get some more greens in there. The browns so far aren't too much a problem. I am worried about colored ink on old newspapers and boxes going into my compost. I'm not sure what to do about that, though. So far I've just thrown them in there, but I am thinking now I would prefer not to do that any more.

As for leaf mold, anyone know what that is and why you want it?

~Angela

Many people suggest using paper (newspaper, cardboard, etc.) as a carbon source in compost but fail to mention that paper is just carbon, there are no usable nutrients in paper, although paper can be one, albeit small, addition to a compost pile if nothing else is available.
One cover crop that grows fairly fast would be Buckwheat, I often grow 3 crops of this each summer providing you do not allow it to flower. Most other cover crops take much longer to grow enough to produce useable fiber.
The volume of material that comes from the kitchen here is quite small and is not a significant part of my compost, shredded leaves and other plant residue are the major contributions. I can always find "weeds" to add, a stand of Comfrey contributes 3 cuttings, at least, each summer, but planning ahead helps a lot by accumulating material when it is available.
Whether colored inks on paper are good or bad depends on the paper they are one. Most all inks used on newsprint and food packaging are soya based inks, not petroleum based and are okay for use in the garden.
Leaf mold is simply a pile of leaves left to their own devices that have been slowly digested by the Soil Food Web. Whatever nutrients would be in those leaves (considerable) are what were in those leaves when the fell from the trees, while often because of the more diverse materials put into a compost pile there would be more nutrients available.

Wow, Kim! Thanks so much for your awesome input. That was
VERY helpful to me.

~Angela

Where can you get buckwheat seeds?

I got mine from GardensAlive, but I don't see it now from their online site. A quick Google found this like below to a place that sells it.

For one thing, they have pictures of these things, and though I also got buckwheat, the pictures clearly tell me I planted Hairy Vetch--the overwinter, long tap root, legume. It's an attractive plant, and I never minded seeing it out of place with it's delicate leaf structure and purple blooms.

I must check the garage and see if I kept any of it during the move (I don't throw much away....) I might need to plant some more and get all nostalgic with Vetch sprouting up hither and yon.

Here is a link that might be useful: cover crop seed online

I just read a little bit on cover crops and found something that sounded good to me. It suggested buying birdseed because it's really inexpensive seed that has several good cover crops in it. This would also give me more variety in my end product which I was also hoping for.

Also, I have these trumpet like vines that are trying to swallow up my 2 story home! They grow like weeds and have loads of leaves. That would be a great addition every season to my compost pile, right? Or, are your suppose to mainly get tree leaves (I hear they are very nutritious things for your compost pile)?

Thanks for the link petalpastsy! I'm going to look into vetch too. ;)

Angela, all kinds of leaves are good. For many gardeners, weeds are their best source of green leaves. Some leaves, like holly and magnolia, take a long time to rot and are not very gratifying for that reason. Holly leaves can also hurt when you put your hands in the pile.

About the vine, the one caution I would suggest is not throwing the roots in the pile. If the vine is bindweed (white trumpet flowers), they'll keep growing in the pile. What color are the flowers? If they're orange, the vines might be campsis radicans (trumpet vine) and yes, they can get VERY large, but they're OK to compost.

Yes, Patsy, thank you! Their prices seem very good, and I love their pictures as you mentioned. I am glad you mentioned cutting it before it goes to seed as that could save me tons of problems later. I think I will get several things and make a mix of it to have a variety in my cover crops.

I really appreciate everyone's time and effort in helping me.

~Angela