Those green "weeds" would be a Nitrogen source that will supply the bacteria that will digest the leaves, a Carbon source (and those brush cuttings, eventually) the nutrients they need to work. It is not the "weeds"{ that will heat up the pile but the bacteria that are at work in there turning those materials into the finished compost.

Perhaps this composting tutorial might be of some help.

http://sarasota.ifas.ufl.edu/compost-info/

kimmq is kimmsr

"By spring time, I'm going to screen the pile, take out the large piece
for next compost pile. Then use the fine materials to my garden beds". That's what works and it's the gestalt of cold pile composting. period.

"When weather turns cold, I plan to combine all of them into one cold compost pile for the winter." I think that will be extra work with zero return for the effort. Heat is not germane at all; if you get it: fine. If you don't: fine. Those sticks, for one, won't go away with any input but time.

When the two new piles decay in two months, they will probably shrink to 1/2 of current size. So there is no point in keeping three small piles. With the large pile, it is not frozen in the center.

I do not agree there is zero return.... The worms and the micro things can still work if it is warm in the middle...

That's where a compost sifter is handy. I can remove the fine, mostly composted stuff to use now and dump the twiggy stuff back in for another round of decay with the fresh materials.

http://lazygardens.blogspot.com/2015/05/diy-trommel-sifter-for-compost.html

That looks very nice! I was only thinking of using my compost fork to fork out the large pieces.... I may build a rectangle shaped sifter with mess wire. Easier to load....

Fork out larger chunks, spread out the rest. if it no longer heats, its done.

Yes, leave the large ones for next year.... Brown materials...

"if it no longer heats, it's done" works if the pile was well balanced to begin with, but if there are too many browns, they will not have decomposed completely. Just as a general rule of thumb.

I think you did fine RedSun. The original pile only looked about half done anyway. Of course at some point you do have to stop adding to your old pile or you never get any finished compost. :-] But since there were so many sticks in that one, it was probably not a bad idea to give it a boost with some new greens. I bet you'll have some lovely stuff by spring!

I can collect green weeds faster than collecting leaves in the fall. So I'm relatively short on browns. This is why I use brush cuttings to add some texture to the pile. Or the weeds get compacted. The process can go on and on...

If you're short on browns, and you're near a business district, it's not hard at all to get some more. Offices produce a lot of paper waste, and shops tend to throw out cardboard (shipping boxes) by the truckload. You can go snag plenty for free if you want.

If you have room, make a leaf corral in the fall. A circle of fencing anywhere up to 6 ft. diameter. I have several on my forested property, just to have somewhere to stuff leaves that blow up against the buildings. Compact as many leaves into it as you can. They will start to break down very slowly during winter, and in the spring when you have lots of greens, you have a supply of browns to mix or layer with them.

A second vote for saving your fallen leaves - put them in a bin, let the start breaking down over the winter, then either mix them with your greens or use them for mulch, or both, if you're lucky. The ones you use for mulch are usually all decomposed by mid- to late summer, and you start again next spring. Win win.

Also, if you're short on browns, tear up your newspapers and use them.

Browns, other than leaves, seem harder to collect but in fact they are all around us. Besides collecting a bit at a time from those sources, this year, I also bought some straw bales. At first, it was for my chickens, and every few months, I would clean out their pen and use the straw/poop as input to the compost pile.

However, as my compost pile needed some browns sooner than that, I decided to just put the straw in before it was used in the chicken pen. Of course, I knew that straw by itself would work, but by having such an abundant source of ready browns, it really shook up the compost pile and all the microbe activity really reduced the pile a lot faster than I had expected.

As the fall and Halloween time comes, try to get all the free extra bales of straw that you can store. Not only is it interesting to make straw bale gardens in the spring, but you can use it as a brown component of your compost pile.

Thats quite a fine compost sifter you got there, Lazy. Far more advanced than the "dorm roomstyle" mesh garbage pale that i shake sift my compost through.

Keep in mind that paper and cardboard (paper) is just cellulose, the fiber from plants (trees, bagasse, reeds, etc.) and has no nutrients. While they can be used as a carbon source they are nutrient free.

kimmq is kimmsr

Luckily greens have loads of nutrients, and if your compost has a good blend of different materials, the product will be just fine. Philosophical question: if you recycle everything that comes out of your garden, and add imported browns (regardless of their 'nutrient' content), you at least break even, right?

Actually if compost made with sawdust, wood chips or paper as browns is significantly different in nutrient content from that made from leaves or straw, I'd like to see some lab data proving it.

I put down a little urine and cover the compost pile with clear plastic sheet. The pile is very hot now. The plastic sheet does help a lot.

Also, the first time I do this new pile, it was not wet enough. So it was heating up. This pile is 1/2 pulled grass/weeds and 1/2 garden clean up materials (leaves, bush cuttings, etc.).

I'm going to collect more materials and build my 3rd pile. I'm taking out my Troy-Bilt shredder/chipper and will shred the branches and brush cuttings. I have not used it for a couple of years. The shredder certainly helps. I'll use the light ones for compost pile and heavy materials as mulch.

Here is the compost pile:

Third day still very hot. I may need stronger plastic sheets. The original pile was heaped to the very top like a volcano.

For next pile, I'm going to run all the materials through my Troy Bilt shredder. Suddenly I'm short on green now. May have to add some urine or other fertilizers.

It really needs to breathe some especially when it's hot. The plastic might be OK in heavy rains to keep it from getting wet or in the slower phase (after it cools) to keep it from drying out, but be careful you don't keep out too much air when it's hot. Stinky odor will tell you if that's happening, and that equals loss of nitrogen.

If it's 'very hot' you could cut back on the greens a bit, if you have a shortage. Or just dampen and pile up your extra browns and they can start to slowly decompose while waiting for greens to be added.

As for water, a bucket on top is OK but it can run through in preferential channels. If you're making a pile all at once, dampen it with a sprayer as you build it to get it evenly moist.

All nitpicky stuff though, you're doing great. Keep cookin'!