Can I turn an old garden bed into a compost pile?

I have for the foreseeable future written off the very bottom of my backyard (it's on a slight hill) because I'm focusing on the front and side yards. That said, I wonder if its reasonable to make a compost pile out of an "island" bed down there next to my now-defunct burn pile.

The bed is bordered with monkey grass and has a couple of small oaks and azaleas as well as plenty of empty room. The area receives quite a bit of runoff in rainstorms but doesn't pool water. It's under a fairly dense canopy.

I'm asking now because I have quite a bit of oak leaves and don't want to waste them out at the curb. I'm doing all this as an overall project to rejuvenate my front yard beds and make my yard something to be proud of.

Comments would be much appreciated.

Attached is a pic of the bed in the middle of the summer weed bloom. :-/


Regards,
David

I do all of my composting in piles on the ground since I have way too much for one of those bins. Iit's worked very well for me. Anywhere along the back edge of your woods woods looks like a good place to me. I would have some reservations about piling too much compost around the trunks of those trees. It could damage them. Here's a photo of the on-the-ground compost pile I started early this fall.

early_bloomer

Thanks. I went down there today and changed my mind; I'm going to put it in the corner of the yard where there was also a flower bed at one time. Down there is completely overrun with weeds and other ne'er-do-wells; it took a while to clear out a spot, but I was finally able to dump a couple of piles of chopped leaves to start things off.

I have a line on some horse manure as well. I will mix this in with everything else, plus I'm going to contact the local starbucks and see if I can get in on the free grounds.

Do you cover your pile at all? I see some pictures of piles that are covered with a translucent plastic sheet. Does it matter if they get rained on much?

Some times I cover my bed- during heavy rains. the pile needs to be wet like a wrung out sponge but not soggy/drippy. It will bring down the temp on the pile if it's saturated. If you are not really shooting for hot composting, the worms won't mind it wet as long as there's no pooling to promote anaerobes.

Maggie