& this is a problem???

If you have lots of nitrogen ("greens") & you don't have enough carbon ("browns"), all you have to do is shred up your junk mail, rip up your newspapers, toss them on top of the nitrogenous material, wet it down to keep it from blowing away, & keep a look-out for such throw-aways as autumn leaves & aged pine needles to make a more attractive top layer.

& wherever "composting material" is piled up, that *is* a compost pile;
just add your carbons.

Stop listening to malcontents & enjoy your compost operation;

Have fun!

I agree with sylvia. Don't over-complicate the process.

While it's helpful to have a designated area for composting it isn't required and you can always sheet compost in the garden itself.

Dave

I agree with the newspapers and junk mail going into the compost pile.

What I get the most satisfaction from is shredding and adding old bills - LOL!

Each fall I shred hundreds of bags of neighborhood leaves for the next year. If the shredder gave out (and last year it did) the mower gets a extra hard workout.

I find leaves much better than shredded paper.

yep, leaves are the best!

but, around here at least, it's not that easy to find autumn leaves right now...

In the fall, I usually rake up 6-8 huge bags of fall leaves. Three of them are still on my back porch waiting for when I need a layer of browns for the compost bin.

If you have room for a loose pile, you should have room for a bin. Nothing complicated, just four metal stakes make a frame to wire in a square of hardware cloth (which isn't cloth, of course. Your pile will be neater looking, and more vertical. It will be well shaped for maximum speed.

If you poke several holes in the bottom of a big garbage can, you could use that--then you'd have a top for it.

On a more philosophical level, gardening and composting are, to me, all about balance and peace. Like a household, it requires flexibility, give and take, patience, and even compromise. Gardening compulsions that make loved ones unhappy and stressed kinda lose the point. Get Zen with it, and when you have to throw away a bunch of potato peelings, consider it placed in the compost pile of happy relationships. Over time, you'll have a gold of another kind.

Composting does not have to be done in a bin, of any kind. Many people compost without any kind of containment, successfully, and there are those that simply put their compostable material right into the soil and let it digest there. The most important thing is to not throw out material that could be used to make your soil better.

If your garden has a few shrubs and trees (vs. small annuals), you don't have to have any kind of pile. You can just dig food scraps into the soil as they become available. I had a friend who did this in a backyard fruit orchard, mostly around 2 or 3 trees. They'd dig a hole maybe 6 inches deep at the dripline of the tree each time they had compostables, working their way around each tree. By the time they got to the first tree again, the compostables had composted and there was no sign of them.

(ok, now I have a mental picture of you in the dark of night, after everyone else is asleep, creeping around the edges of the garden to bury your daily stash of compostables. Sort of like that scene in Rear Window.)

Well, thanks for responding...I guess maybe I was making it more difficult than I needed to. But space is an issue mainly because of how I have set up my beds (and how full they are) The one area where this could work best has a bunch of raised bed planters (SFG) and I was just concerned about putting the scrap material under foot, I actually did this all throughout my regular garden spot this past winter and every time I got a load of composted manure material I put it on top as well, then when I finally got in there to plant stuff, it was all squishy under my feet. BUT the soil was pretty nice so I cant complain.

In fact everywhere I planted where I had "lasagned" the soil was so much improved, it completely and totally sold me on the process.

I "help" my office to recycle -- take home all cardboard boxes I find near trash areas - supply room usually has lots of them daily. If you have anyone working in any office environment, check with them.