To make a long story short, I'm trimming the jungle which was my late mother's back yard, while supplementing my income by woodworking... so, I'm building a 5-foot high pile of leaves plus the wood shavings and sawdust that come out of my machines. I'm a babe in the woods when it comes to composting and I'd be grateful for any suggestions... though one thing is sure, I have plenty of raw material to work with.
Also am curious re the role of sow bugs and pill bugs in composting... I've heard they eat rotten wood, and this would be a real help if I started adding twigs to the pile.
At the top of this forum page, there is a permanent "sticky" post called "Simple Compost Ingredients List - Browns and Greens". I think it would be best to read this first as it explains why, and why not, some ingredients are recommended for composting piles. This will answer some of your questions and probably get you to thinking about some more specific questions. I love this Composting Forum, the members have really helped me and I find it a great enjoyment plus you can make a very nutritional "dirt" and save money! 
For a big pile of leaves and wood shavings I would suggest tossing in about a pound of high nitrogen fertilizer per cubic yard to get the pile going. I use a pitch fork to put down a layer of stuff, wet it down with the hose, sprinkle on a handful of fertilizer, add the next layer of stuff, wet and repeat. It will quickly heat up even in the coldest weather as long as it is above freezing when you make the pile.
Don't worry about the pill bugs. Fungi do most of the composting work on leaves and woody material, followed by bacteria. The pill bugs digest the fungi and bacteria on the rotting vegetation. Rather than going into your soil, the water retaining rotten plant fibers, and nutrients, go into making more pill bugs (or worms, etc). There is no reason to get rid of compost wildlife, but no real reason to support it.
Don't worry about the pill bugs. Fungi do most of the composting work on leaves and woody material, followed by bacteria. The pill bugs digest the fungi and bacteria on the rotting vegetation. Rather than going into your soil, the water retaining rotten plant fibers, and nutrients, go into making more pill bugs (or worms, etc). There is no reason to get rid of compost wildlife, but no real reason to support it.
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rot
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TZ-OH6 advice should work like a charm although I've never used fertilizers. I'm cheap. Get yourself some nitrogens or greens for all them browns. check out what I mean in the ingredients lists like CharlieK says.
If you want to go cheap, it is compost after all, mix in some horse manure or grass clippings and you'll get heat. You're in LA and you can laugh at ambient temperatures.
For more ideas for greens or high nitrogen ingredients to mix with all your browns, and you do need to mix your browns and greens, go to: https://compost.css.cornell.edu/OnFarmHandbook/apa.taba1.html and compare the nitrogen values to grass clippings to other things you might find handy. Of course it not always that simple but mix it up anyways and adjust from there. I doesn't have to be hard or complicated.
Great starting off point:
https://www.compostinfo.com/
Make sure there's some fun in the equation.
two cents
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TZ-OH6 advice should work like a charm although I've never used fertilizers. I'm cheap. Get yourself some nitrogens or greens for all them browns. check out what I mean in the ingredients lists like CharlieK says.
If you want to go cheap, it is compost after all, mix in some horse manure or grass clippings and you'll get heat. You're in LA and you can laugh at ambient temperatures.
For more ideas for greens or high nitrogen ingredients to mix with all your browns, and you do need to mix your browns and greens, go to: https://compost.css.cornell.edu/OnFarmHandbook/apa.taba1.html and compare the nitrogen values to grass clippings to other things you might find handy. Of course it not always that simple but mix it up anyways and adjust from there. I doesn't have to be hard or complicated.
Great starting off point:
https://www.compostinfo.com/
Make sure there's some fun in the equation.
two cents
..
I hear what you're saying about cheap, every situation has its own economic costs and benefits. I would go for the manure if we still had horses, but now I would have to drive over to the fair grounds and shovel a load of horse manure into the back of my truck, and then shovel it into the compost pile, and then wash out the truck.... or I could pay a couple of bucks at Home Depot for a bag of 28-4-3 lawn fertilizer (dirt cheap- not like a $$$box of Miracle Grow). The extra lawn fertilizer goes onto my yard, more grass grows, mown grass is raked up and used on the garden for mulch. That saves me from buying bales of hay/straw for mulch.
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rot
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- Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2008 1:15 am
- Location: Ventura County, CA, Sunset 23
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Excellent point TZ-0H6. Labor and gas are other costs we don't always calculate into the equation. Free firewood ain't too free when you gotta drive the pick up 30 to 40 miles to get it, load it and then, schlep it around the yard from the pick up to where it's going to finish curing.
Time, energy and money are all factors. Back to a point I don't make strong enough sometimes: make it work for you. Make it work for what you want to spend whether that is time, labor or money.
My twisted mind tells me that the couple of bucks at the bulk club hardware store isn't reflecting the true cost of artificial fertilizer and so I spend the same few bucks on a pair of gloves so I can take advantage of the carrion I find on my path - coffee grounds, pallets and the occasional pile of firewood. Time and labor seem expensive to me these days so I'm not going far out of my way for much. I can get coffee grounds with a quick stop on my way home from work and the neighbors still give me their grass clippings so I'm a lucky guy. To me, avoiding the fertilizer in the stores is one slight victory over the ubiquitiness of petro-chemicals in our life and one minor, cheap, inconvenience in my life style that diverts material going to a landfill somewhere.
Good point
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Excellent point TZ-0H6. Labor and gas are other costs we don't always calculate into the equation. Free firewood ain't too free when you gotta drive the pick up 30 to 40 miles to get it, load it and then, schlep it around the yard from the pick up to where it's going to finish curing.
Time, energy and money are all factors. Back to a point I don't make strong enough sometimes: make it work for you. Make it work for what you want to spend whether that is time, labor or money.
My twisted mind tells me that the couple of bucks at the bulk club hardware store isn't reflecting the true cost of artificial fertilizer and so I spend the same few bucks on a pair of gloves so I can take advantage of the carrion I find on my path - coffee grounds, pallets and the occasional pile of firewood. Time and labor seem expensive to me these days so I'm not going far out of my way for much. I can get coffee grounds with a quick stop on my way home from work and the neighbors still give me their grass clippings so I'm a lucky guy. To me, avoiding the fertilizer in the stores is one slight victory over the ubiquitiness of petro-chemicals in our life and one minor, cheap, inconvenience in my life style that diverts material going to a landfill somewhere.
Good point
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