Another question about composting and I hope you or someone can help. I have another compost pile that I started last year and have been tending. This was a nice big pile but has dwindled because I used quite a bit of it to till into my garden soil. This is beautiful stuff ... quite black ... earthy smell and lots of "Rolly Polly" bugs, earth worms and some nasty grubs! This pile is producing some heat but nothing compared to the new pile.
Is it done? By "done" I am asking should I just use this compost as it is or mix in some of the new pile into it and see if it starts cooking again?
Compost piles can be used year after year, but I use mine as soon as it is done and start a new pile. You could add it to the other one, but if it has a nice black color and smells earthy, I’d use it this year.
Leave the earthworms in the compost when you throw it into your garden. They help keep the soil loose. The grubs will have to be picked out one by one.
The “rolly polly” bugs can be caught by using an aluminum pie plate with about 1/4 inch of beer in the bottom. Just bury it to the edge in the soil and they will crawl into the beer and drown. You can also use a half of a grapefruit shell and put it on the dirt upside down. The will crawl under it and you just pick it up and dump them into a bag and toss into the garbage.