A compost pile should be built according to the materials available to and the
soil-building needs/ambitions of the manufacturer.
I've had just about enough of the negativity expressed by readers here thus far, whining about the small size and therefore presumably less suitable nature of their own piles compared to those of men with, say, a more obsessive nature....
The only reason anyone should ever feel shame about their compost is when an opportunity innocently presents itself and no positive action is taken.
There are three basic types of compost piles; the quick, the typical, and the long term.
The quick pile requires a lot of effort. The material must be ground to a rather fine consistency and the pile turned every few days or so.
I don't make quick compost, one main reason being that I hate to turn a pile.
A compost pile is rather a living thing, and turning it is akin to major surgery.
It always takes time for recuperation and most piles are never quite the same after turning. Nitrogen is invariably lost. The heating cycle is disturbed and often never regains it's original fervor. The only real advantages to turning are re-oxidization and the incorporating of weed seeds and pathogens from the outer layer to the inner portion where they can be exposed to the extreme heat. Both of these tend to take care of themselves given time.
Long ago, I once heard of a concept embraced by what was then referred to "real investors". Apparently the more advanced and determined investor takes into account the invaluable nature of
time.
I have found that time is priceless, and it is for that reason that I forgo the "quick" and instead build mostly "typical", and even a few "long term" compost piles.
Typical will likely be the focus of most readers here, so I'll just briefly describe the basic tenets of what I consider a "long term" pile and devote the rest of this article to what works well for most everyone.
As I've mentioned, there is a very large sawmill just up the road, and over the course of the years that I have hauled sawdust out of there, I have had many occasions to walk around and observe while waiting to be loaded.
Over twenty years ago, there was a good deal of clearing done on the east end of the mill property. The brush, stumps and debris resultant have been added to over the years with various grades of waste lumber ends, slabs and other organic matter for which there was no ready market at the time.
The mill owners have since developed good markets for every waste material they generate, and so the old material has been allowed to mellow, undisturbed for some years. There is still evidence of what the original material consisted of back there, but most of it-- stumps, logs, etc.--has decomposed to the very consistency of the potting soil-liked material found in a rotting tree stump.....
Just about every publication out there warns against the use of even light brush in a compost pile, and, generally, I would agree. But there is a place for the construction of a pile that one might not be in a hurry to use.
For those on the edge of timber, who might come up with brush, coarse bark, small chunks of wood, stumps, etc., don't be tempted to burn that material merely for the sake of its disposal. Such things as round hay bales, wood chips and even old lumber could be considered as additional materials from which to construct such a pile. I am in the process of slowly leveling wasted space around the property here and have buried much of the above-mentioned material just under the surface where I plan to plant fruit trees, grapes and bramble berries-- i.e. areas that need never be tilled. I know that the carbon in that material will act as a sponge to absorb, not only nitrogen, but a host of other long term nutrients that larger plant roots will easily access as they establish themselves.
The heavy carbon-rich materials that compose the long term pile will decompose on their own over time, but the occasional addition of animal stall bedding and rich manures will only speed up the process and add nutrients for the long term. Enough said about long term compost.
The typical compost pile is the one that you might expect to use within 6-12 months. The materials used to construct it aren't woody, and attention must be paid to balances and ratios to obtain the best results.
Good compost needs oxygen, and oxygen can be trapped in sufficient quantities to complete the decomposition without turning the pile.
One method that can be used to ensure this is to use your heavier garden wastes as the base material. This base is best constructed of a high carbon ingredient so as to best absorb and assimilate the high nitrogen liquids that leach out of the materials above due to gravity. Another good reason to put the heavier material directly on the bottom of the pile is to ensure their exposure to the ravenous bacteria that exist in the soil.
I use corn stalks, Jerusalem artichoke stalks, sometimes cardboard (if I have some to "dispose" of), okra stalks, and occasionally wood chips for my foundations. These materials are coarse enough to trap sufficient quantities of oxygen for the aerobic microbes to breathe. If the heavier stalks aren't available, any carbonaceous material will serve, such as sawdust, leaves, weeds, old straw, lightly shredded bark, corn cobs, peanut hulls, newspaper, etc.
The next layer is best composed of a material with a slightly higher nitrogen content, but not too much. We want some space between the highly concentrated nitrogen sources and the ground, to avoid both nitrogen loss and any excessive leaching of that valuable commodity to the soil in its raw and unpleasant (read
unbalanced)state.
While we're on the subject, never put wood ash into your compost pile.
For one, the microbes don't need that ingredient to thrive. Ash is best applied directly to soils where high pH crops are to be planted. Ash reacts with nitrogen, driving the latter off into the atmosphere where it is lost to our purposes.
Back to the second layer....
I use such things as garden weeds, old alfalfa hay, partially dried grass clippings, animal stall bedding that has more sawdust than manure in it, etc.
More concentrated nitrogen sources should mixed throughout both the first and second layer in small portions, it's just best not to overdo it at those levels. I seldom add water as I construct a pile, but if the only available sources of material are dry, add enough water to give the material the moisture content, roughly, of a lightly wrung out sponge. That moisture level should be fairly consistent throughout the pile. Too dry and you will see an infiltration of mice and insects. Too wet and you will see pooling to the downhill side of the pile as the excess liquid, now carrying too much of your nitrogen, oozes out of the material.
Pay attention when using such things as leaves and, especially, grass clippings in your compost piles. Both have entirely different C/N characteristics depending on how fresh they are. In their dry state, both can be used as a carbon source. Fresh grass clippings, however, contain up to 50% nitrogen ! Freshly fallen leaves can be used as intermediate material.
For that matter, fresh leaves are relatively balanced, as is, and can therefore be incorporated into the soil directly or used as a sort of stand alone compost ingredient. For the sawdust toilet crowd, a material known as
leaf mold can be easily manufactured and used in the event that sawdust becomes scarce. Simply contain in a bin, or, pile several cubic yards of fresh leaves and apply that crucial component called time.
The resultant, partially decomposed material looks and acts a lot like course sawdust...
Tangents, anyhow..... see next post
I LOVE DONUT BALLS 
Humbled...
