If your composter is dripping a liquid the material in it is too wet to properly anerobic compost. There should never be any liquid runoff from a properly constructed compost pile, even one in one of those really expensive and unnecessary commercial things. Slugs and snails are part of Ma Natures recycling machine but they do not distinguish between living plants and dead plant materials and so are considered pests. About all they will do in your composter, besides digesting some of that material, is mate and lay eggs to spread around your garden because as wet as your compost is it is a very good envinment for them.

Okay first, you'll need to pull back those stones. If you don't have a 'hard rake' yet, invest in a good one. If you have one, and it's cheap, work with it until it breaks. If you need one, you will forever appreciate a good tool - get the best one you can afford. For a hard rake, you'll want one with 2 connecting points on the edges of the head (bow rake.) The type where the handle makes a single connection with the rake head is not designed for heavy materials, nor as good for long-term landscaping tasks such as moving stones or leveling beds (the back of a bow rake is perfect for moving a lot of dirt and putting a nice finishing touch on the project.) Get one that is size-appropriate for your height. These choices are what will take much of the drudgery and frustration out of already difficult jobs. Next, since it will be an ongoing project, break it down into stages. I do suggest that when it comes time to buy the plants, you buy all of the same varieties of plants at the same time. They can be like kitchen tiles. If you don't get the same exact shrub, at the same time, colors of both foliage and flowers may not match. Do all of one type at one stage, then later get all the next type, etc... If you have a decent size back yard, and can afford it, buy at least one extra of each shrub and plant it in an out of the way place, or in a spot where it can be moved later. It's not uncommon for a shrub to die, and a small investment ahead of time can save you headaches later if you need to fill something in. If you have so many plantings that this is financially a problem, skip it. Start with the rocks. Get a good size tarp, a wheelbarrow, and a round shovel. Start with pulling back the stones in the areas that will get the same plantings. Place the tarp on an out-of-the-way corner of the lawn and start dumping stones on half the tarp. Use the other half to fold back over to keep them clean and to keep the neighbors happy. This will kill the grass, so if you have extra driveway space, just dump them on the driveway and cover with the tarp. Keep removing more stones as you gather OM (see next paragraph.) Next step is to decide if you are going to buy the soil amendments, or build the soil yourself. Since you expressed a desire to build your own (the vastly cheaper route) begin piling on any organic matter you can. Either start a compost pile, or just start tossing on what OM you can gather on the now stone-free areas of the beds... or both. Some very cheap examples of OM resources are coffee houses (free,) wood chips from the companies that trim trees from power lines (free, or a small tip that makes them both happy to dump it where you need it, and happy to return with more,) kitchen scraps, grass clippings (learn how to compost these properly... a great source of organic matter, but a pain if not used correctly,) city leaf collections (even out of season, some cities use the same place each year and uncollected leaves piled up become what is called leaf mold... great stuff for lightening clay!,) and county dumps (many dumps in Tn. are now separating out all tree products and shredding them. They either give it away free, or sell it at reasonable prices to county residents.) There are many other sources for organic matter, just keep your eyes open and you might be surprised at what becomes available. Let it pile up high, and keep it pulled back a little (or really, just don't let it pile up too high) against any plant you want to keep. As it begins to break down (kept relatively moist, organic matter breaks down fast in Tn. My 8' of long grass and hay mulch on my garden beds broke down to an inch over the summer and was incorporated into the soil by the worms) add more and/or turn it into the soil (next paragraph.) Next you'll want to buy or borrow a 'garden fork'. You can use a shovel, but a good fork works better. At least once a year, and as often as every 1 - 3 months, turn the organic matter into the soil. If roots are in the way, you can keep it on top, or pull out the plantings that you don't want, and just mulch around what you want to keep. The worms will incorporate the organic matter into the clay around established plants, but it's a much slower process. If you did a good job at scrounging OM, you will be ready in a year or 2 for your new plantings. Of course, the longer you wait, the better, but strike a balance. When you dig clay, and turn in OM, the expansion of the volume can be surprising. Clay packs very tightly, once you begin to loosen it, you may quickly find you'll need to pull some out. This will depend on your desired level of the bed. When it comes time to remove the old plants, think about reusing them somewhere else, or use them as trade to get people to help. Lastly, decide what you do want as mulch. Organic mulches will continue to improve the soil and have many benefits. The downside is continual replenishment. Stones are fine, and when used with a weed barrier of some sort, look good and clean. The downsides are weeds that poke through when no weed barrier is used, the soil stays in a 'stasis', well-intentioned landscapers trying to weed eat around, or on top of stones inevitably break a window, and stones don't always stay in place... matching them, and replacing them ain't cheap. Anyway, that should get you started, and if you piddle around a little here and there, you'll be surprised at how fast removing the stones goes. BTW... a bbq gets family and friends more in the mood to help, and if you tackle the entire project in stages, the work for each step is nothing.

So many gardeners are partial to their own method, it can be hard to relate. When I screen it to give away, I like it to look better than what you would buy in a bag, and you certainly would not want to see silverfish in a bag of anything that you buy. Hence my desire to shoo them off or whatever, so my friend can use it and have her own bugs and worms inhabit it. I think what some of you are trying to tell me is that with your method, the bugs are there from start to finish anyway, so don't worry about it. Thank you. That's the advice I sought. Intown where I live, yard space is at a premium and the city prefers that we use covered bins, up off the ground, so the only bugs that get in are the flying ones, until the stage where I can rest the batch on the ground. It's very sludgy and then dries whether you want it to or not. The alternative is to not compost, which I could not bear. Having earned my Master Gardener Certificate in 2004, I know there are many "right" ways to make compost. With the whole family pitching in, we get some fruit labels in there, and before we graduated to wool balls, hubby sometimes accidentally dropped a dryer sheet in with the lint. So, I screen. Here's a picture of a picture of an old batch of mine, from a magazine article. Chunky enough to build soil structure. Smooth enough to appeal to the most nature-averse city dweller. Worms and bugs can and do find their way back in. Thanks for your help, I doubt I'll be back. Too snarky.

Next time try more greens and fewer browns esp. the wood chips as they take a long time to decompose and will use up your N. Moist not wet. If its not hot in 2 or 3 days and you have the right moisture try adding more greens. I do like the wire ring bin shown above, -use hardware cloth its the best. And yes a cover for sure, a tarp or old shower curtain works nicely. The main purpose of a cover is to keep the rain out so you can control the moisture level. If it gets too wet it will turn into a stinky, slimy mess. Like the fire or combustion triangle you need three elements to make compost. Organic Material Water (Moisture) Air (O2) It's all about balance, As mentioned too much water displaces the air. Getting them in the right amounts is what can be hard. Start with lawn clippings then add moisture and it will heat up (is the easiest) so then add some leaves and more moisture if you want to make it larger. Green wood chips will speed it up, dry wood chips will slow it down. Come up with your own recipe for what you have on hand. The trick is to add all of your elements at the same day/time and you should be fine. A compost thermometer is very helpful so you can see/tell if it is warming up. You can tell if it is warmer than the ambient temp. You don't need compost starter or a tumbler. I think the biggest and most common problem with tumblers (well besides the cost) is they don't have enuff air flow. Imagine how much compost you can buy if you spent the cost of the tumbler on compost. The compost pile (bin) doesn't have to be in the sun. The sun has nothing to do with the compost process. You are growing bacteria, that is what heats up the compost pile. So handle the compost materials accordingly, esp. if you have allergies or cuts (or breaks in the skin) on your hands. HTH