Do it now. There is a full moon. I just replanted a bunch of seedlings last nite into larger containers and left them to get the full benefit of the full moon. If you have the room, start a compost pile. When I go to Menards I usually stop by the 25%off torn bags section and buy one or two bags of manure or potting soil. I mix this in with the finished compost bin or in the fall in the bin that is cooking. Mix it well and after adding a small amount of clean sand, I use it for containers. You can use a wheelbarrow or a tarp on the ground and mix what you have with regular dirt from an area of the yard and make a mix that should be ok. If you are container gardening you will be adding some nutrients later anyway.

If the strawberries have already perished as a result of the sunflowers seeds, go ahead and dig the seeds into the soil. And I'd add some other organic matter as well. The decomposition of the seeds, together with the other OM, will neutralize the allelopathic effects fairly rapidly, although I'd avoid planting anything this season. If you want faster results, remove the seeds and compost them in a designated area, like with your other compostables. But still work in some other OM in the strawberry plot before replanting.

Even my open pile will turn sour if it gets too wet from rain. Darn wind blows off my tarp, sometimes. Compost holds on to water to an amazing degree, and water replaces air, so no oxygen can circulate. In an open pile, as the heat rises, fresh air is sucked into the sides. That's one reason I like to see steam--it means my pile is breathing. You mention the can had holes poked in it. I think a can would needs LOTS of holes not only some in the bottom for drainage, but in the lower part of the sides for air to come in as heat rises. Maybe fifty? And, you could make a couple of big holes on opposite sides to hold a piece of perforated PVC pipe through the bottom. Put holding pins through the ends sticking out, and some kind of way to turn the pipe, and finished compost would collect inside the pipe as you turned it. Kind of like a sifter/grater, for you to push out and use houseplants or the like, while the whole can benefited from air supply. Is it a round can? That you can put a top on? If you got one with handles, you could throw a bungee cord over the top, handle to handle, and tip the can and roll it just like a tumbler, too. If you've got PVC and a handle sticking out one side you might just be able to rock it back and forth. That might be enough. Heavens, I'm weird. This sounds like so much fun, I may do it myself, just to see if it works. I wouldn't have to fool that crazy tarp then!

Thanks Otis, I have enjoyed reading various comments here as well and frankly I have a lot more browsing to do. I have noticed quite a few posting by yourself as well as Yan here. I'm sure we have a great deal of information to share. I'm looking forward to our discussions. Yan, although Helena proper is listed a zone 4, I am in the center of the valley, whereas the city of Helena sits on the side of Mt. Helena on the south-west side of the valley. My weather patterns are a lot different even though I am only five minutes or five miles from town. Winds here can be three times higher than in town, and the moisture levels are considerably lower. Our frost lines do get down to about two feet but that is where my garden stops and the bed rock begins. My six raised beds are dug down into the bed rock or approximately four feet. The deepest raised bed is dug down five feet and contains well aged cow manure/straw. This bed has a combination of red wigglers, Euros, and Canadian night crawlers added to it. The red wigglers have pretty much taken over the bin, however I do see evidence of the other two worms from time to time. In the fall I dig a sizeable hole in the center of this raise bed and fill it with garden scraps. In the winter I cover the surface with black plastic and place three window panes over this bed and let it sit until spring. Worms will migrate to the lower levels, but by spring they will have pretty much devoured all of the garden scraps. I use the composted cow manure for potting mixes and filling large garden holes with a 50"50 mix of compost and top soil for tomatoes, squash, pumpkin and cucumbers. I also add a cottage cheese container teaming with red wigglers to these holes as well. I have an unlimited supply of well aged cow manure. and horse manure in various stages of decomposition. I add horse manure with straw bedding to an above ground out door compost bin which sets under my deck. Like my raised beds it is 4'W x 8'L, and 3.5'D. By sitting under my deck and next to the concrete wall of the house, I get some protection from the cold. I cover this bin with a wooden 1" x 4" frame which has 14ml opaque plastic sheeting (painters drop cloth) stapled to the frame and a tarp thrown over that. This compost bin under the deck also gets a healthy dose of garden and harvest scraps before winter. The only difference in the two outdoor bins is the under deck bin gets dosed with hot water periodically from an outdoor faucet I installed a year ago. Some of the horse manure in this bin is fairly fresh so adding hot water helps to boost the decomposition process in the winter months. By spring a few turnings is all that is required to complete the pulverizing process of the 'horse biscuits'. This may seem like a lot of compost but I never have enough. The main garden 60' x 100', four 4' x 60' rows, six 4' x 8' raised bed, fruit trees, etc., use a lot of compost. I also bring in three pickup loads of the well aged cow manure to till in each spring. I would like to figure out how to post pics here to help explain some of the things which I have been posting. Will do that as a follow up as soon as I can determine how its done. As a side note Yan, I wore out a shovel and pic ax establishing my garden, bins and planting fruit trees, and I have a rock wall 200ft long, 10ft wide and 6ft deep extending my back yard into a 40ft barrow ditch along my back year. This wall has been a dumping site for corn stalks: potato, bean, pea, squash and cucumber vines; and layered with horse manure as well. I have added another riser to my 20 riser irrigation system to plant this area next spring. It already has dill growing in one corner, and I figured I would decorate this area with an assortment of colorful gourds and maybe some small pumpkins this spring. Each year I now have people stopping who want some of my corn stalks for Halloween decorations. Figured they could help themselves to some gourds as well. morgan