Mother of All Compost Piles

The next two pictures show my large compost pile consisting of a potpourri of twigs, branches, leaves, shrub clippings, dead grass, old flowers, spent gloves, dug weeds and a touch of horse manure. There could be a pair of eyeglasses buried that I unwittingly knocked off my nose and never found.

The pile is about five years old. It faces east and is in partial shade when the leaves are on the nearby trees.

I use this compost to build up the garden (see the third picture) on the other side of the stone wall. This garden is about twelve inches thick and is underlain by stone rubble that can't be easily dug out. Each year I replenish the compost in this garden.

See Composting With Horse Manure.