you need a box of some sort to contain the moisture, and sprinkle it occasionally. There are less worms here when its been dry all summer...

take the free compost...

No offense intended to anyone ... but, I'd ask around before taking the compost, I don't know if they kill off all the weed seeds? (And, I have a friend I can ask, actually. Though, she lives in the Valley. I don't know that all City compost practices would be uniform. Where in LA are you? Or, in a different city around here? LA City is huge, and county is like, insanely large ... )

I am trying to figure out composting here too. I have a good book on it, but I am not sure how much space it needs. (We tend to have small yards here, as you've probably noticed.) Or, maybe there are vertical boxes. Anyhow, good question!

I've also wondered about the safety of the compost offered at our city park, not for weeds but for diseases and problematic insects. I did use it once, however, with no troubles as far as I know.

I use a plastic compost bin. I put in kitchen scraps as well as yard scraps and had some trouble with rats and so had to quit the kitchen scraps. The compost which comes out the bottom is nice but sometimes has grubs which I'm not sure are good or bad, so I toss them. It's kind of a pain to dig the compost out.