All I know is that I've been pissing on it, and making sure to take the stickers off my kitchen scraps.
I started this pile behind my shed last year to reduce the stink from the garbage can and hopefully make some nice compost for the garden. Last fall after all the leaves fell, I ambitiously added all of them to the compost. moved it out into the garden this spring because it had outgrown the space.
I've been digging new beds this year and just sort of blending the soil into the compost as I go, hoping to break it down a bit faster to potentially use this year (my wife is not a fan of looking at this thing)
I had a friend bring me a large bucket of forest soil and chicken straw from his farm, I was hoping to inoculate the pile with the micro organisms in the forest.
How long do the rest of you find it takes to break down a pile? And how often to turn? Is it possible to do too much turning?
by BothAd764
1 Comment
The more you reduce the size of the inputs (grind/mulch/pulverize everything) the faster it will degrade. The more you turn it, the faster. If you get it to build heat, it will break down everything even faster. Those are the main variables in my pile.
When I am really wanting fast progress, I will turn a hot pile every day. It may not be necessary to keep it active, but it will make the whole pile “cook evenly” and very quickly.