you're right, some people will tell you that you need to let the compost finish, i am not for sure, but i know that the benefits of this are mostly the bacteria and fungus.
also if you do use manure you definitely would want it to finished cuz it can burn plants.

but nonetheless you are adding organic matter to the soil, thats the important things, and hey, if you are happy with the fact your plants have thrived and you have gazillions of earthworms, than tell me what you think? I am envious of you as my new home landscape has extremely poor soil w/ no worms. but i'm adding the organic matter too :)

I too use a compost pile, but one major things is that i want to sift the fine stuff into my lawn.

I agree that people can complicate the composting process, the definitely is a right way and a wrong way, but there are those who are mistake good vs. better for right vs. wrong.

There are those that believe that unfinished compost applied to soil will "rob" the soil of Nitrogen, probably the same people that believe wood chips also "rob" the soil of N, and the same people that believe that pine needles and Oak leaves make soil acidic. I sheet composted years ago but have stopped because I found it to be more work than a compost pile, dig, bury, cover, moves a lot of soil in a short time and requires the use of muscles that tend to protest, loudly.

yeah, i've heard all that about wood mulch robbing N from the soil, but i've noticed that the mulched sidewalk leading to my front door, that the grass that meets the mulch is much greener so i'm not convinced this theroy is true either.

I think the wave of complicated composting cropped up because of the urban way of life. Most homeowners in the cities are very particular about their landscaping and won't use sheet composting. Hugh amounts of lawn waste were choking the landfill so the composting wave was started. Bins were promoted so the homeowner would have soil looking stuff to spread around.

Worm bins came about the same way except instead of the landfill people promoting it, it was the water processing plant people. (garbage disposals)

I live in a city that's becoming very earth friendly. We have huge recycling programs and state of the art training courses for the homeowner. We even have a Live Green expo each year. If every large city would get on the bandwagon and educate, things will change in the next 20 years.........to bad the '60s momentum dropped off or we would have been there already.

Welcome luckygal! We're glad you found this little community!

I have to dig too deep to bury scraps to avoid critters from digging it up - so I container compost. Also, there's the consideration of aerobic v. anaerobic composting, which pluses/minuses of each kimmsr & others have described very well in the past (sometimes you can find this stuff in the "search" feature of the GW site). I've added a link below to one such thread.

However, I would assume (& have no science or experience on this - it's purely assumption) that anaerobic composting in the garden bed has benefits that a anaerobic composting in a black garbage bag doesn't have, i.e. worms & other life to help break it down faster/better.

So, if one has a preference to aerobic, then they'd probably prefer a compost pile rather than burying compost.

All the Best, Tree

Here is a link that might be useful: One GW thread about aerobic & anaerobic composting

I do like you luckygal. It is a little more work than a compost pile but I don't have much land anymore and everything gets chipped, chopped, mulched and spread out fresh.

You should see what that looks like in autumn when I go absolutely CRAZY with chopped leaves! LOL!!

I need to buy a new chipper though. The old one died this spring.

In fact, I'm going to post a new thread asking for advice on a small wood chipper.

a lady said that she can get compost in 14 days from using urine on her compost because of the nitrogen in the urine, i have been reading up on this, its sterile so its fine, once ya get past the grossness of it and it does heat your compost up pretty well. i read. but i haven't tried it yet, i'm still in the reading phase of a compost. well i can't actually say that, we've been dumping all of our grass clippings in a big triangle shaped bed and all the clumps of grass/dirt that we have dug out that we are putting flowers/hostas and such inbetween tree's. so i guess i'm sorda there in composting!! LOL i want a tumbler BUT i want a homade one not an expesive one!! the metal ones i saw before, on a stand and just so i can really get a move on this!!! LOL we have alot of yard to mow so, ya know!! LOL and tree's to trim!! LOL and yes the urine will go in!! LOL

I just switched my baby's diapers from the disposable to the compostable (pee ones only, crappy ones get flushed) and I have seen the effects on the compost pile. More heat now hopefully equals less weeds later.

We live in an area where ground doesn't freeze in the wintertime. One autumn we dug a trench in the veggie garden and over the winter we buried our kitchen scraps in this trench, covering it with soil. Next spring, we planted our peas directly over the compost trench. Never have I seen peas grow so big! The crop was amazing. I think we lose some of the nutrients by composting elsewhere - I know the weeds around my composters are enormous. Luckygal, I used to live in Ontario where the summers were short and you really have to compost smarter to get your garden growing in the short summers. I like your simple approach.