You could add a lot of greens to get it going but it might be a month or two before the weather to warm to really get it going.

I'm sure there are people on this board who will say you shouldn't do this; because it's not organic, but if you aren't concerned with such things, and don't have any significant amounts of greens, you could always buy some urea fertilizer. It's cheap and will get a high carbon pile cooking like no other. I bought a 50 lb bag for $40 to compost the planer shavings and sawdust I produce at my business.

There is the urea that you buy, and then there is the urea that you make. Either one will work, but the urea you make comes with water, to keep the pile moist.

The only problem with the urea that you make is that if it's a large pile you don't produce nearly enough.

You need about 3 parts of that vegetative waste (the leaves) to 1 part of a Nitrogen source. Your Nitrogen can be animal manure or some type of fertilizer, although if Urea is used (about 45 percent Nitrogen) you would not need that much. Another source of N you could use is blood meal if you don't have access to much manure.

I just picked up ten straw bales for free from a construction site. They had used straw to insulate the freshly poured concrete while it cured, but since the walls were done they said I could take the extra! Score!

When the ice comes out of my piles, I am planning on framing a new compost pile with the straw bales on three sides, and then loading it up with a mix of old leaves, hay, straw, and all of my winter kitchen waste that has sat frozen in a pile for the winter. I then plan to cover the top and the open side facing south with some clear plastic. My hope is that the straw bales will provide enough insulation on the N, E and W, and the clear plastic will offer some solar heat to help get things going from the outside.

Do you think that should work?

I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work paully, others have used bales for the bin walls and it seems to work well.

If you can, post some pics.

Lloyd

The weekend forecast is for 7 degrees C, so with any luck my kitchen scraps will thaw enough to reassemble the mixed pile with straw sides and go for some HEAT!

I will let you know how it goes...

I've been picking up used rabbit bedding from a pet store -- straw, rabbit waste, fluffy cellulose material, whatever. Mixing that with some sawdust from my studio, and some kitchen scraps and weeds, and my pile is STEAMING.

I love those rabbits.