I recently found a local fruit stand that will let me browse their dumpster after I buy something. So I get a half dozen apples for myself, then two supermarket bags-full of over-age fruit or greens.
I have some plywood that I lay over a wheelbarrow next to my compost heap, and a cleaver.
Whack whack whack whack whack!
Now my heap is getting "greener" instead of "too many browns". For now, the stiff stems and thin twigs are keeping it well-aerated. The dry weather lets me decided how much water to give it. I parked an adjustable "Shrubbler" on top of the heap and i give it a trickle or a shower, as indicated.
Funny: all those stiff stems and thin twigs are going to be very slow to compost, but I can always screen them out when I want to harvest the black gold. They have given the pile so much cohesion and strength that I've been able to pull stems from around the bottom edges and sides, and then pile them on top with new fruit-stand leftovers. The thing is getting taller and skinnier every week! It's more than chest-high now, almost chin-high.
I think the "good stuff" trickles down as it melts, and leaves the stems behind.
I can tell that soil under it, and bushes around it really like the drippings!
I had to move my pile away from it's old location near a pine tree (and near an neighbor's yard).
Roots from the pine tree had discovered that old heap and sucked the life out of what was almost ready to harvest, before I realized what was happening.
