Perhaps this country went astray the past twenty five or so years or were brainwashed in most areas.Everything is a big deal 90% of the people who have gas guzzling pickups no more need a truck than a hole in their head.They all moved to the suburbs from town and ASSUMED a truck was part of the package actually most never need to go to the land fill or recycling center.We do alot of pruning every year and rather than take the trimming away I find spots in the yard over the snow fence behing some evergreens and make a brush pile the birds love it for shelter and it quicker than you would think breaks down in a natual way so r their is room for next years branches.Same idea with leaves ,grass clippings kitchen scraps and dog poop.No need for bins and formal composting equipment.I have areas around the property that need rehab thus I start a new temporary composting area.Recently I realized a large Blue Spruce of mine was on the verge of malnutrision so it is my lastest compost area if my wife complains the paper etc is un sightly I cover with a little bark mulch and dress it up being in front of the house one would never guess it was a compost pile.Add some red wiggler worms and away you go.The Blue Spruce by the way is looking great.

Nice. I do something similar for sifting pine bark using an old/deep picture frame from a flea market lined on the bottom with 1/4" mesh chicken wire. The smaller pieces go into my container mix...the larger pieces go into the mulch material pile.

Avoid the bark and the pre-packaged soil mixes. The soil mixes are best for containers and even then you need to alter it with some other material. I suggest trying to find a landscape materials yard that sells bulk quantities of decomposed granite (and other stuff). Here in AZ they are all over the place. Ive had great success mixing in some 1/4" minus granite with my native soil for raised succulent beds. 1/4 minus has enough gritty and finer particles to provide good drainage. You can have a few tons of this delivered to you much cheaper than anything you can get at HD or Lowes. You can also get a nice top-dressing material fron them. If you cant find one in the phone book, maybe call up some landscaping contractors and ask them where they get their non-plant materials. Good luck!

I have one like jjmf too and it works well. Um, the thing with nitrogen and soil is true. During the decomposition the mulch will take nitrogen from the soil, and then later give it back (so it isn't lost for ever). You can easily fix it though by tossing down bloodmeal wherever you put wood mulch, voila, problem solved. As for composting and critters. Get a tumbler or other enclosed composting bin, something with a lid. No critter problems that way. I've got a yard about the same size as yours and I've got 2 tumblers and a bin, all enclosed. The tumblers are a better value, getting me compost in a month to 6 weeks how I use them. The bin takes about a year and I only use it for overflow. I also have a "pile" for only woody stuff (no veggie waste the rodents would eat) back behind a spruce tree near the fence where no one ever goes. Here is a link that might be useful: my compost tumbler, same place jjmf got his chipper I think