Anytime one of us is planting we can take a few shovels of compost out of the sifted section. At the end of the year some of the sifted compost is dug into the garden as we clean up the beds, and some is left over the winter and will be dug into plantings the next spring. Almost any plant matter can go into the compost pile. For example, grass clippings, coffee grounds and filters, fruit peels and pits, weeds, spoiled potatoes. The people at work are careful about what goes into the bucket, and we can just dump it onto the compost pile here without sorting.
Variety is important.
You do not want your compost pile made up of a large proportion of a single simple material. Making good compost is like making homemade soup for the delection of the bacteria and worms who are doing all the real composting work for you. Recycle your finished compost. Pitch a bit of the digested compost, and especially a bit of the compost which is partially digesting and still actively working, back onto the new material pile. This will give the new material a good start with lots of bacteria and bugs.