brianrdu

Mine's away from the house, about 25 feet away, in full sun. There are 4 old pressure treated posts (used to be a handrail in front of my house, one of the first things to get ripped out when I moved in), with hardware cloth nailed around 3 sides with galvanized U nails. It's sort of like layer cake. There is a layer of scraps (peels, rinsed eggshells, coffee grounds, tea bags), then a layer of grass clippings (in a separate pile on the other side of the yard), then some old compost or dirt, then it starts over. When I get dead leaves, I get them in there too. I always make sure the scraps are buried by other stuff, leaving them on top is an invitation for trouble (raccoons, possums, who knows what else). The pile heats up when it gets going; during the summer, flies lay eggs in it and when I turn it with a pitchfork, there are tons of maggots in it. I don't view this as a bad thing; they are not the gross maggots on meat, they are soldier fly larvae (http://extension.oregonstate.edu/news/story.php?S_No=802&storyType=garde)...I don't consider this a bad thing. Not especially pleasant, but they speed everything up, which is all I care about. In the cooler months, and when the pile isn't as "hot", earthworms show up in it. I let it sit in there for around a year or so, and pretty much empty it out in the spring, when I use it for planting things, mixed into the soil, and also put it around the base of some stuff after disturbing the soil, such as roses. I pretty much use this and Osmacote to make everybody happy.