18 Day Compost?

 I'm experimenting with the Berkeley 18-day hot compost method. November seems the perfect time to do it. With piles of leaves from the 2 oak trees behind my garden, a fantastic supply of rabbit bedding from a friend with 3 (😍) rabbits, and all the elderberry/apple tree pruning, plus weeds weeds weeds that need clearing off the plot.

So, would it be possible to break down oak leaves, wood chips and hay and wood shavings from rabbit bedding in just 18 days (OK, perhaps 30, realistically speaking, as there's no way I'll have time to turn the heap over every other day)?

Let's see.

Day One:

Gathered together:

1) A full barrow-load of oak leaves run through with a lawn mower, along with grass clippings

2) A half-barrow-load of wood chips from elderflower tree pruning, run through with my new excellent, cheap, Homebase woodchipper.

3) Two-three huge barrow-loads of two months supply of rabbit poo and straw and woodshavings, collected and waiting. The first month I picked them up in a garden bag. The next month they dropped it off at the Lottie gates. The beauty is, the stuff looks good as fresh a month later, so no stink at all. The straw was dry as paper.

I piled them roughly mixed, in a conical shape, well watered everything with saved rainwater as I went along.

Then covered with a tarp, and left it for 4 days. You're supposed to do this, it's not me being lazy.

After 4 days, I went to turn the pile inside out. Picked up the rake leaning over the tarp, nearly dropped it in shock. It was hot! It was steaming! It was all cooking, and covered in stringy white stuff. Amazing. The temperature read 66 C. Just wow! Unfortunately, I forgot to take my phone, so no pics.

I was supposed to do the 2nd turn on day 6, but got busy with a tennis match, so ended up turning it on day 7. Look at the pile! Doesn't it look significantly different after just 7 days? See the little white temperature dial on top?

Have a closer look:

Yep. 60 C. Not sure if it was hotter on day 6, but I'm pretty happy with this, as it's a much colder day. It was much easier to turn this time, with everything having broken down so much. Here's a photo of me turning the pile inside out. 

If you're wondering what 'inside-out' means, the outside stuff gets heaped first, flatten the top as you go to make it easier to pile on more, the hot inside stuff goad around the outside stuff, and you end up with a conical shape. We don't need it to be perfect, as everything gets mixed several times anyway. I watered everything a bit more on day 4, as it looked dry. But on day 7 it didn't look like it needed water.

Now roll on day 9.