My suggestions:

1) Read the short FAQ articles
2) Use the 'Search' feature to find info from the hundred/thousands of posts on a subject or word.

Drainage: You have some heavy soil if the hole took 4-5 hours to drain. The one that took 8 hours must have been in hard pan clay. Just out of curiosity, how long did it take to blast...er, ah dig these holes?

On the compost question, leaf mold is great for all plants and would be fine if you didn't have anything else to add to it to help break it down. Since you have everything you need to make loads of compost, I'd probably say throw them all in together and they may break down faster. Poking with the pitchfork doesn't do any good, if your back is strong go ahead and toss and turn it. If not, do what I do, let hubby do it. Ten years ago he used to come out and laugh at me when I was sweating over the compost pile. Then he got interested in the concept, then he took it over and now we have 8 bins and he churns out 500 lbs. of compost a year. that 'poor li'l ole me!' trick can work wonders if you use it right. Cheryl

Thanks, Cheryl!

It did take me a while to dig those holes, but I figured that was because I'm a weakling. I started with my shovel, but found that hacking the ground with a mattock was a lot more effective.

I *wish* I could get DH out there to turn my piles. Somehow he's decided that the entire outdoors of our new home (unless it involves electricity or plumbing) is my responsibility. Hrrrmmph! Maybe if I can produce some really yummy tomatoes for him this summer, he'll see the light. Meanwhile, time for me to start weight training...

-Kim

If you dump the leaves into the compost pile, it will likely make those little fliers go away.

The bugs tend to show up when you have uncovered kitchen scraps. If you keep the kitchen scraps buried deep underneath the browns, you shouldn't see many bugs.

You have clay soil...

Hi Riotbrrd,

Two of the most complained about things around here are:

1. Not enough browns (leaves) in the summer.

2. Not enough greens (grass) in the fall/winter.

If you can stash more leaves for the warmer months do it, it will be time well spent in the summer IMO...

Blutranes

1) burying the kitchen scraps and making sure the pile doesn't get too wet will take care of the visitors. If too wet, add some of the leaves.

2) what blutranes said. ;)

3) is it a new house construction? If so you may have construction refill soil. Otherwise - yep, clay. Over time it will get better as you work the compost into it. If you want faster improvement, go with raised bed gardens.

Dave

I'm with Blutranes on this too. I'd stash the leaves in some containers (I use big trash cans) to use this coming summer. That is always my main complaint, not enough "browns" to keep composting all summer.

Val

Thanks, everyone! I put some more leaves on the compost pile as suggested, and the flies seem to have calmed down.