Won't cook like a "traditional" compost pile, but will most certainly decompose in place. Don't cover it with a plastic garbage bag though, that's what the bark mulch is for! If any weed seeds land on top and germinate they'll be easy to remove by hand.

I agree with Allen. You need the oxygen from the air and moisture from the rains to help keep the composting process going. Plus, the mulch is much prettier than the plastic and doesn't need to be weighted down. Even if every bit of each layer isn't composted by spring, you can still plant into it just the way it is. You can add shredded leaves ( or not shredded) that should be falling pretty soon. Though I don't know where you are geographically. It should work fine as you have it now.

Martha

Ditto, fine as is and don't add plastic.

That partially composted layer will be great for the soil.
It will attract & breed lots of worms that otherwise would not be attracted to or fed by finished compost.

Plant roots actually like growing into partially composted "organic chunks". Why people shift compost seems a mystery to me.

I've dug up vegetable roots many times to observe how they grow and they always attach themselves to twigs, branches, bark and any non-uniform organic chunks or even air pockets in the soil. The roots were always most vibrant in parts of the soil that were non-uniform.

Here is a link that might be useful: Squash root excavation

"Why people shift compost seems a mystery to me."

Me, too.

Emgardener, I thought that I heard that partially composted materials in a plant bed affects the plant adversely. I thought it had something to do with either gases or nutrients being absorbed, particularly when partially composted leaves are in there. This isn't true?

Kendra,

Yes and mostly no.
If you bury a lot of vegetable matter together it will become anaerobic and smell quite bad, plant roots won't like that.

"Lumpy" partially composted is fine. I regularly do sheet composting, a well-accepted method, of kitchen scraps, it increases worm population considerably. The scrap layer is only about 2-3" thick with mulch (leaves, needles, or wood chips) placed on top. Ruth Stout was an early advocate of this method. The Lasagna method even advocates layers of uncomposted vegetable matter.

Some people even mix in kitchen scraps in their containers will good results.

With partially composted leaves, you probably heard it ties up nitrogen, which is true, but you can overcome that by simply applying more nitrogen fertilizer.

I've dug in large quantities of wood chips into my beds with great results. Many people say not to do this because it ties up nitrogen. But just two applications of fertilizer overcame this and my plants did the best in these "wood chip beds".

Check out my comments in the link below for an end-of-the-season update on this wood chip bed.

Here is a link that might be useful: Using wood chips in garden soil

An alternative to nitrogen fertilizer is to have a compost mix that provides enough nitrogen. Actually this is pretty common with lasagna. You can make a brown/green mix and put one or more layers of that in the stack. I haven't done much of this but the one time I did, I stacked layers of mowed leaves/grass mix and clay soil, and stuff grew like mad.

I'm new to gardening and I thought you needed to shift the compost. But according to this you don't need to is this true???

1. If you layed down cardboard there was no reason to pull those "weeds".
2. That's okay.
3. Pat Lanza was not concerned about using undigested material.
4. That's okay.
Perhaps this link to what Pat Lanza wrote might be of some help.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lasagna Gardening 101