Well, I'm impressed no end! :-O
Kris

It's just not fair! (sobbing) Even the grass is still green!

Makes me want to just plunk a picnic table down in the middle of the area and have a steaming hot cup of coffee. Right about where that work table is. Perfect!

Hey wait a minute, that bale of straw looks suspiciously familiar...

Lloyd

A work of art, tiffy!

Karen

I can only dream about an operation that big - I'm so jealous.

Val

I want to come play! That's really an impressive setup Tiffy. Mine is a lot less organized.

Your comment about getting 160F from a bin 2.5 feet high was right on. My mesh bins are 4 or 5 feet in diameter, but only 24" high. This works when the pile sits directly on the ground. I can get 160F in the summer, which is as high as you probably want to go.

The dirt underneath stores the heat just as the compost material does, and a lower height helps your back out when turning. The often-quoted 3'by3'by3' is not as good a design, probably quoted because its easy to remember. It may be fine for piles constructed from sawdust, but not very good for piles using mainly leaf and tree shredded 'browns'.

Well, gee, folks, you got me blushing!!!! I build something out of leftovers a few years ago which is now falling apart and I get compliments on it. Only at the compost forum!! Love it! :O)

Oh yeah, Lloyd, like I put those bales on a canoe on the Red River, eh, and it connected to the Mississippi down to New Orleans and then came up the Atlantic in the Gulf Stream right into Shad Bay, eh... Boy de boys it was quite the trip. :O) Karen,
The three semi-circles are going to come down next spring so I think I'll continue with the new set-up. I've discovered that rebar is a friend...

Val,
BIG?? You should see Lloyd's backyard!
Actually, the whole thing probably only measures 20 feet wide by 4 feet deep. Mine that is.

And Gnomey, organized? I'm using wood from an old dog house to keep the compost in (hence the window in the 1st pic), the downed clothesline is still sitting on the table from the last winstorm, hose is still running rampant on the ground, etc. You must be giving me credit for the clear garbage bags neatly tucked under the pallets. :O) I humbly thank-you.

Robert you are right. The lower piles are my favs, but I still push myself with the higher ones. Keeps me going at the half-century mark.

Tiffy - you can poo-poo all you want, I'm still jealous. If I had 20 feet of room for compost....man-o-man!

As for Lloyd's operation, I've been viewing his pictures for a LONG time. You DON'T even want to know what that does for me. I don't look at my husband the same way I look at Lloyd's back yard :-)

Val

With a stern voice....

Tiffy, I have that confession from you!

"Sorry Lloyd. Couldn't help myself... They were so close to the road and I heard 'Take me! Take me!'."

Don't go denying that it wasn't you! Now I have pictures to corborate the forensic evidence!

My bales, oh the humanity!

Lloyd

Here is a link that might be useful: Tiffy confession

DOH!

"corborate" should of course be "corroborate"

Lloyd

Nice Tiffy! No wonder your plants do so well. :)

Tiffy: I'd bet a lot of these folks have never seen what your compost does for your plants. How about a few garden shots? The hillside and retaining wall? New beds?

Karen

Tiffy, that is some ugly baby! (Somebody had to say it.) Compost piles only a mother could love! You show garden tourists piles like that? They look an awful lot like ours, come to think of it. Pallets and tarps held down with rocks and hunks of firewood. Reebar is a must, lashed with gangeon line at each corner.

If we had 160F in December I'd be tempted to burrow right in there and not come out until spring.

Jeepers, I thought my compost bins looked hobo, but tiffy's got me beat. I'll have to relocate my bins to where my wife can't see them so I can expand them a bit. :)

Yes Val, Lloyd does have a big one... um, compost that is. Got to keep on topic here, so yes, moderators, we are talking about compost and women do like them too. :O)

I knew that response to a previous post would come back to haunt me one day Lloyd. Taking photos of the evidence was an OOPS moment. Me bad! As I said, I'll return the milk pail full of compost they produce to you in a couple of years. :O)

Thanks Terrene, and for Karen, here's a couple of encore pics and one of 39 Monarchs which they helped raise this past year. This was my last 'baby', a male, released on October 8th.

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Paul, Nothing like a Cape Bretonner (I think you are...) lashing out at a mainlander!! LOL! Yep, I show them on my garden tours. They are part of what I do and actually the interest is quite amazing. Especially when you tell them they can do it for free. It's funny because I actually migrate towards compost piles when I visit other gardens... Folks sometimes think I'm up to no good. They probably fear me taking their compost away, and rightfully so. So you'd better keep that watch dog out when I visit, eh? :O)

Idaho,
My husband and I get along quite well when it comes to the compost. We have an agreement. He doesn't touch my compost and I don't touch his books - he's a worm of another kind. As long as my compost results in an increase in property value, which it has, and his books stay organized, then we are all good.

tiffy - I was going to write that I was speechless but just wasn't enough.

I can totally see now why you give garden tours, those pictures are beautiful.

I took the liberty of looking through your photobucket site and you have some amazing flowers and the kitty is cute as well.

Thanks for posting the pics...even though it increased my "envy" :)

Val

tiffy: I knew your pictures would impress. And even without a shot of the blue poppies! Gorgeous!

Karen

Tiffy, those lupines, spectacular! What a lovely sight to brighten up a gloomy, cold and rainy day in Ohio.
Kris

Tiffy, you are amazing! I am so impressed with your skill I'd even send you the loosestrife I was planning on throwing away! Seriously, I'll send it to you. :->

Thanks everyone!

Val, I may be out of the tours this coming year since the Garden Club has decided to have them in June and in that month the gardens are concentrating on making me happy in July and thereafter. Ah well, their loss... :O) I am starting to sow seeds for earlier blooms though.

Karen, Ah, yes, the Blue Poppies. I split the footings this past year and hope they return. Crossing my fingers and toes on that one. New seeds were winter sown last year just in case.

Kris, Those are wild Lupines. They grow everywhere here and some folks consider them a pest but I certainly don't. The pink ones in the back disappeared this past summer. Don't know what happened there - probably a hungry mole. I planted some reds which I had started so am anxious to see what that brings. Seeds of the pinks were also sown in the area courtesy of Ma Nature.

Lieslmcq,
If it's Purple Loosestrife you had best keep it. We are not allowed to grow that one here as it is a noxious weed which is taking over our wetlands and killing the bullrushes making it impossible for ducks to nest. It's a shame the PL is so pretty.

I do grow the Gooseneck Loosestrife though. It behaves... somewhat. :O)

Yeah, unfortunately, it is. That was one of my, Oh! it's only invasive in wetlands, right? purchases. Well hey, at least I will be doing some other crazy fool a favor by disposing of it!

Now, want to take a trip to Dallas and help me with my new garden?? ;-> Seriously, you are inspiration.

Tiffy your gardens are truly lovely, and that green feels especially good on the eyes right now with the weather outside grey and grim.

Compost wackos are addicts. I wasn't judging you - I was testing you for compost addiction, which tends to make us blind to compost messiness. You wouldn't want a Cape Bretoner to not be straight with you, would you?

If anything our pallet bins are messier than yours - did I mention the buoys all over, the snow shovels and pitch forks and sticks and stones lying on top to hold the motley crew of blue and orange tarps down. We've been participating in Open Farm Day for three years and every year, a week beforehand, my wife looks at our compost area, gasps and goes into overdrive.

Gooseneck loosestrife is unusual and one of my favourite perennials. Ours is in a dry spot with native shrubs for competition and after three years it's slowing spreading outward but disappearing in the centre, and the flowers seem to be getting smaller - maybe it's on the way out? If you have any pictures of yours please post them.