nutNhoney said:

We haven't composted for quite some time so I bought a truck load for
the reased beds. I have a couple of questions. Is too much compost a
bad thing? I mean, can I use too much compost for the raised beds?

It's theoretically possible to have too much compost. I do recall seeing photos
from an experiment somewhere with plants grown in various percentages of
compost, up to pure compost, with best results coming somewhere in the middle.
Certainly most home gardeners can barely produce enough for every use they
might want to put the stuff, which is why gardeners go around saying "You can
never have too much compost." (There can *absolutely* be too much compost
for a host of ornamental plants, including some Mediterranean herbs that are best
grown in lean, well-draining soils.)

The recommendation usually batted around is that 8 - 10 % is an 'ideal' organic
matter content. A more practical rule of thumb might be 3 - 4 inches of compost
tilled in to jump-start a new garden bed. After that, plan on adding 1 inch of
compost per year.

I remember once someone commenting about raised beds she'd made when her
garden was first started with a *huge* load of trucked in compost. She'd added
lots of compost to fill the beds up to the rim. And as time went on the compost
continued oxidizing and the beds started shrinking...and shrinking...and shrinking...

I would like to start composting again. When we composted we had a
special black bin thing. Could I set up a a compost pile without the
special bin? If so, how difficult to maintain would this set up be?

You don't need a special bin. You can compost without any bin at all.
Bins and enclosure do help keep things tidy, though. Composting can
be slow and uncomplicated, or as fussy as you want.

If you would like some instructions about hot, batch composting, send me
an email (see signature for clarification).

--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)