Doing a lot of yard work this weekend will guaranty a healthy supply of leaves and dog poop. I’ve heard that with the addition of a container that allows airflow, some water and time this would make a decent compost. True or not true?
If so, any suggestions on how to get it started and maintained?
Don’t add dog waste to compost! You shouldn’t ever use carnivore/omivore poop in compost. It’s just not healthy to add the sort of intestinal nasties that live in dog poop to your food or even flower garden.
You don’t need a container to make compost, but to facilitate rapid hot compost the inputs need a Carbon/Nitrogen ratio of 30-1 and physical size of 1 cubic yard. At that volume precision mixing is not important. Bins and containers aid in that regard and can help comply with neighbourhood restrictions or zoning codes.
Your stated feedstocks -" a healthy supply of leaves and dog poop " would indicate a very large amount of doggy diamonds to attain ratio, but yes compost can be made.
Use of carnivore feces is a topic of great debate. Many believe that properly made steam producing compost kills any pathogens inherent.The lack of independent testing and verification puts others counter to it. Of course the squick factor plays in too.
Such compost used on non-edibles should be of no concern apart from initial handling or untended small children playing in it.