Walkabouts, go preach someplace else. You are practicing zealotry, not good gardening.

I've been out baking slowly and de-cluttering an old compost pile. I usually have a new pile each year and they go back for at least three years, then no matter how slow they're working, by the third year it is usable. I'm working on this year's a little more intently, it hasn't been steaming (too hot to see any steam!) but to let it cook a little better. The first part of fixing that heap was to pull out all of the wood. Also, I've added bagged lawn clippings I collect when neighbors leave them by the curb on trash day (I use a mulching mower so I don't have any).

I have this habit of dropping trimmed branches on the compost so when the leaves dry and drop off they end up in the compost. But if I drop on more branches before removing the first batch, I end up with wood and more air pockets than make the compost work well. That was the problem with a second pile that was right up against a hackberry tree in the middle of the yard. Since my yard is so long that the far end constitutes a "view," it was a messy view in the middle of the back. I've spent a couple of weekends lopping and bundling old limbs and leaving them at the curb. The trick is to not overdo, so they think you mistook your turn for putting out bulky waste and say something about it. So, I've pretty much finished removing "undigestables" from the compost. There was a layer of Dacron batting that had come out of demolished dog beds a couple of years ago. I found that it doesn't break down, just hangs around in the dirt.

I have a shower on the back porch, and later in the summer when the water coming out of the tap is quite warm it's wonderfully decadent to shower on the back porch with all of the lights off. That keeps the mosquitoes away a little better and feels more private, though no one can see into the yard except the coyotes beyond the back gate.

SRS