OMG,if you saw my bins you would get your laugh for the day. Those are snazzy and if I am seeing them correctly,very pratical. It appears the boards in front slide in one atop the other alowing easier access to the material inside. If that is the case,lift the bottom board and support both ends exposing a space your fork can be stuck in to withdraw enough of the first material that went in to cover the top 1" to 3" deep. Cover that with new scraps and lawn/leaf mixture. Depending on your household's output of kitchen scraps and availability of other materials,you might need to hold them until you have enough to cover the partly composted material layer 1" to 3" deep. That isn't somthing you need to follow to the letter by no means. The point is pulling material from the bottom where it has compacted to fluff and expose it to air while inoculating new material. You might just as easly pull some material off the bottom and mix it with that on top until the bin has inverted. And of course you should monitor moisture and adjust if needed. There is no time line on how long it takes. When you can't tell the components apart it's ready and you can leave it in the bin or elsewhere as long as you like before using. Just put somthing over it to prevent rain and snow saturating it while it rests. IMO,your set up is much better than anything for sale at the store. Two thumbs up,you did well.

I agree that there is no real time to determine how ready compost is, rather it is observation in my case that determines the readiness of the compost. I generally let my final bin sit for a year to make sure all the weed seeds are dead.

Certainly different seasons will give you differing amounts of materials. This is what I would do with your "system"

Fill Bin #1 full (heaping). As you are filling #1, you are layering greens and browns and mixing the pile as best you can. Putting a pitch fork in the pile would a good idea. (remember: as the pile works, it's volume will be reduced dramatically) I am going to guess that it might take (up to) several months to fill the bin.

When #1 is COMPLETELY full, move it to #2. I find that a long handled 5 tine pitch fork is best for this operation. Basically you have completely turned the pile upside down.

Now begin the whole thing again by filling #1 with fresh materials. In the time you are refilling #1, #2 will be heating up and shrinking. After several weeks, it will be reduced to the point where you can use the fork to move the material WITHIN the bin. (do not add new material to this bin #2)

Now several more months have passed, and bin #1 is now once again full. Move #2 to #3...#1 to #2... and begin the third cycle to fill #1 again. Bin #3 now contains nearly finished compost and is continuing to work until it is done/or you are ready to use it. My best guess is that 6 months have passed.

You will want some sort of cover so that the Garden State's seasonal rains don't bog your piles or cause leaching.

I hope that I made that as clear as good rich compost

GL.

The process that I have followed for many years is that when bin 1 is full (4 feet of material) I stop filling it and when the material in bin 1 starts to cool down, has reached peak temperature, it is turned over into bin 2 and I start filling bin 1 all over again. There is no particular time frame because it depends on how much material is available and sometimes it takes much longer to accumulate enough then it does other times.

Thanks for the suggestions, I guess for the time being I will continue to fill Bin 1 until it no longer compacts down.

Would it be a good idea to add worms to the pile (that I can pick from my raised beds that are now empty in my garden)? Right now there is no way that worms can enter the pile because at the bottom of the pile is a mesh coating and under that it several inches of gravel. In between the gravel and mesh coating I added a few inches of soil from my raised beds. So technically I would need some pretty athletic worms to make it into my compost pile.

Since it's been dry most of Sept/Oct here in NJ, I've been periodically taking my garden hose and spraying water in the pile, stirring the pot, adding some more water, etc. I haven't been overdoing it with the watering but it seems to be dry the next day.

Question for lonmower....what is a bogged compost pile and what is leaching of a compost pile?

I think tomorrow I will make a video of me turning my pile so I can get some feedback on my progress.

Worms will still get in easily. Haven't you ever found worms under pots set on solid concrete? Gravel and mesh won't stop them. But you don't have to have worms. If the heap heats up they'll stay way. They will know when it's right for them.

From what I understand of your climate the heaps will probably slow right down soon anyway because of the winter cold. That's why I was keen earlier on in this saga for you to get started asap. Pleased to see the compost show is finally on the road;-)

The compost moisture should be that of a wet sponge that has been wrung. More than that would be what I referred to as "Bogged"

Here is a technical paper that sheds light on leaching due to rain

http://www.transformcompostsystems.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Should-Compost-Piles-be-Covered-in-High-Rainfall-Climates.pdf

Here is a link that might be useful: Cover your piles?

Those papers are "a bit" too technical for me LOL. I think I'll just use good judgement and cover the tops of the bins when a major rainmaker or snowfall is in the forecast. At least now I kind of get the idea of how moist the compost should be.

Your mixture most likely will not be moist enough to support earthworms and if the mix is near to the right proportions and heats up that will drive out, if not outright kill, any earthworms you put in there. Vermicomposting, composting using worms, requires a much wetter and cooler material then does pile composting.

Can I just say that compost heaps do not have to heat up? Many of us cold compost and are happy with that. We do get worms and it is not a sign that we have not got the 'right' proportions. We are just doing it differently.