Zensojourner, a passive pile using kitchen scraps did attract mice to my bin and they wintered over in it. That was years ago. I pulled it apart and only collected leaves and grass clippings after that. I also havenâÂÂt seen hide nor hair of a mouse since. When I have kitchen scraps and open vegetable garden space, I bury it directly in the bed along the edges. It has worked okay for me in the past, but I donâÂÂt always have enough open space. Thanks for the tip about freezing first. GardenMom, I have two black plastic com posters from the town I live in and the cover locks on them. I was using them for kitchen scraps once and a wire bin for leaves and grass clippings, but something chewed right through the plastic to get into those, so I stopped putting kitchen scraps in it. I like buying scraps in the garden itself when I have bare ground. Raised wooden beds, donâÂÂt really allow using the pathways for that purpose though. Good thought though in a flat garden. I wasnâÂÂt confused, Nancy, no worries! :-) Loribee, I like your plan to keep one bed fallow each season. I have five vegetable beds and I originally planned on doing the same thing. As a matter of fact, two of my beds were doing so terrible that I yanked everything already and sowed cover crop over both of them. I hope I can stick to that plan, itâÂÂs just I am enjoying having so much room to grow more crops that itâÂÂs going to be hard not to plant the whole thing. [g] YouâÂÂve encouraged me to try to commit to it. After all, itâÂÂs just one bed and I will still have four more! And I like your reminder that without a separate compost pile, there is a whole lot less lugging and moving. Yes, I have always thought that tumbler would be really nice to have, but what a high price for them!! I like your original idea of one bed fallow each year. Much more of an organic, elegant solution. :-) Any chance you could add another bed? Galinas, ThatâÂÂs an interesting idea, so you have a triple size, but no compartments, itâÂÂs all one open area, then you temporarily use plywood to separate it. Yes, it would allow me to just start three piles and leave them until they were ready. Great ideas, everyone, thanks!

There has been an ordinance against composting for many years, based on fear of rodents - not completely logical, but there you have it. I live in a city with a big "green thinker" population that thinks farming is icky. . . go figure. To them, living green is about repainting roads so there's a built in bicycle track on the side. I start talking about growing my own food and people ask me, "Is it safe if it hasn't been processed at a factory?" Sad but true comment that was said to me at work. I scrounged up an old bookcase, about 3x4. I think I can knock the shelves out to make a lid that will fit closely, and then I just have to build up the bottoms of the sides with scrap lumber and get one side (the top shelf side, I think) to come loose for turning the compost. I'm still trying to think of different ways to chop stuff up. I may end up with a machete after all. I saw some designs on the web for handcranked chippers using large drill bits, but they required welding. You guys are great, thank you! Here is a link that might be useful: original thread

Can't answer the question as you have not tested the soil. We'd all be guessing. Depending on your compost, there might not really be that much acid or nitrogen. You can get inexpensive home testing kits to determine soil ph and nitrogen content.

Many raised beds, especially those layerd lasagna style could easily be a compost pile. When laying in the sod I would not alternate roots up/grass up but would instead layer all of it roots up. One of our community gardens last year constructed raised beds 3-1/2 feet high and found that in addition to being a bit too high for those in wheelchairs the "topsoil" they used to filll them had a boit too much organic matter and heated up, internally, a bit too much. At a different garden this year the raised beds are lower and a different mix of soil was used to keep the bacteria from being so active.