One of the most important ingredients in compost is air, if you had it in a barrel without air holes it would not compost but rot. It should be much better in your pallet pile. I would keep turning it and adding more to it. Your pile should be at least 3' high and 3' wide to really heat up and compost well. Don't get discouraged it will work.

Good gardening, Mary

Maybe needs to be damper. Not wet, but damp like a wrung-out sponge.

Compost is a slow process. For hot and fast, you need a pile approaching 3x3x3, and it needs to be moist throughout. The more things are chopped up to start with, the faster it goes as well.

I'm a hobby type, and I've had a 3x3x3 pile of well balanced green/brown, all chopped to salad size and moist. It heats to 150-ish, steams, turns white inside and everything. It still takes about month, even with turning every four days. That's a ridiculous amount of work for people who aren't nuts, God only knows why I think it's so fun.

LOL yeah my pallet contraption is bigger than 3 feet but it MAYBE a foot high. I don't have anything else to put in there! I have a bunch....BUNCH of leaves, but I thought filling 2 feet of leaves is not such a good idea. Not sure what else to do with it. I am just buying bag compost which I am sure is soooooo not good (from Walmart so it can't be high quality) but I had to have something. I have a bag of worm castings in it now and I have another bag to put in it, but they are small bags.

2 feet of leaves would be excellent for your compost.

I run a dry cold pile and it takes about 12 months to get finished compost out of it.

How long has this been going on?
That you have turned it "every week" that indicates you have been at this for a while and you should be seeing a change and since you are not there may be several things that are contributing. Are you sure the C:N ratio is in the 30:1 range, is there about a 3 parts vegetative to 1 part Nitrogen source mixture? Is there enough, bit not too much moisture in the mixture? Excess moisture will exclude air which can stop the digestion process.
Compost can be made in 14 days, or it can take a year, but even a pile of leaves can be turned into leaf mold over the winter, if conditions are close to right. The link below will take you to about the best composting tutorial I have found.

Here is a link that might be useful: Oklahoma CES

I think that you're making your compost nervous. You're making it feel like a failure, a loser. Get your square foot gardening compost from somewhere else this year, and get off its back. The pressure has been too much for it.

Does your city take leaves and grass somewhere, and then offer them back---composted---to the residents? A lot of towns have such a facility. I can get all the top quality compost that I want to shovel onto my truck at a town nearby here. If your town doesn't compost, call around to others.

Your pile will compost, perhaps not as quickly as you'd like. Save your leaves until you can add grass, or something, with them. Or bag them up and put them off to the side to break down into something wondrous. Leaf mold generally takes me about two years to make, but it's very, very well worth it.

Generally speaking, the best way to get compost every year is to engage in some guerrilla gathering every once in a while and try to get ahead of the game. Don't think of your pile as this year's compost, think of it as next year's compost. That way you both can relax.

I agree - mix those leaves in. Granted if you can pre-shred them somewhat they will decompose faster but they will work well either way and they will bring your pile size up to snuff. Then go "gathering" as annpat said. ;) Plus you will have more grass clippings soon, right? If not gather neighbors clippings. ;)

Dave

"Don't think of your pile as this year's compost, think of it as next year's compost. That way you both can relax."

That is very good advise; if you do that you will know what you are doing and will be doing it well. Quality compost is more a matter of time more than anything else. Slow down and give your pile what you have to offer, it will give back compost to be proud of in time...

Blutranes

Get yourself a copy of Rodale's "THE COMPLETE BOOK OF COMPOSTING". Almost 800 pages that will answer any questions you could ever possibly have concerning composting. Composting can be as simple OR as complicated as a person wants to make it. Got my copy off a popular online auction site for around $6.00, including shipping.