"animaux" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 30 Dec 2002 22:36:00 -0600, "cat daddy"
wrote:

I do the same thing. This year I bought two bags of rabbit food from
Callahan's for $5, soaked overnight, incorporated it into the pile and
watered it heavily for a couple of days. It's been steaming for about
three
weeks. The pile is about 10' x 6' x 4' and I probably could have gotten
by
with one bag. Pretty cool.


Or, a nice bale of alfalfa hay or alfalfa feed cubes will do it too.
However,
if you just pile the leaves up and do nothing, they will decompose and
next year
you will have this wonderful, slightly acidic leaf mold which is really
good for
the soil and plants.

That's what I've always done in the past; just seasonal additions to the
pile and rarely turning it. In the Spring, I rake out the "not-yet-done"
part, incorporate grass clippings and sift and spread the rest. But, my
neighbour was delivering a dozen bags of leaves a week for a while, and I
decided to speed up the process. I was in danger of overflowing the compost
heap.
I will be cussing the luck when I have to wheelbarrow the stuff around
the yard in a couple of months..............