how to make compost compost

Compost activators, photo by Cecilia Macaulay

My two oldest of my compost heaps (6months +) seemed to have hit the glass ceiling of the compost world. Nicely composted in some spots, but cold, slow and chunky in others. After a harvest for the potplants, here is what we gave them to get things going again.

Comfrey - famous for adding nitrogen and contributing minerals 'mined' from deep down in the soil. I grow some of these hairy leaves just for the compost, but beware - one you plant these persistent perennials, you need a bulldozer to get them out by the roots. Choose their location carefully. They do have pretty mauve flowers, which the useful garden insects are also pleased to have.

Golden syrup - Composting texts recommend unsulphured Molasses, its calories and minerals encouraging fungi and other microbes into a population explosion, getting things hot again. Sulphur is usually added as a preservative to stop things fermenting - exactly what composters WANT to happen. I accidentally purchased this sugary golden syrup, and thought 'better in the compost than in my body'.

Seaweed - Usually you MAKE compost to get its free liquid fertilizer, so it seems strange to put bought stuff in. But my story to myself was: its just to get things activated again, maybe the microbes are lacking an essential mineral. It all ends up in my pot plants anyway.

Water - compost should be the consistency of a squeezed-out sponge. Too dry, and microbes will hibernate. Too wet, and there won't be enough air for the aerobic microbes, and the smelly, anaerobic ones will take over. Most inner urban compost veers to too wet, if it is pure kitchen scraps. As mine has the dry, high carbon contributions from my dove cage: newspaper and straw, it needed additional moisture. Last weekend Adison the day WWOOFer harvested the good stuff from the center of the heap, and the bottom of the oldest bin, to go in my boysenberry recycling tub. He chopped the big garden scraps up smaller, and buried them in deeper. Laying small branches on the bottom, where they allow air to circulate, is another trick.

Creative Compost illustration by Cecilia Macaulay

When St. Peter meets us at the pearly gates, I'm pretty sure he will ask "Did you make soil?". Even if you live in an apartment, composting skills are worth having, as compost is about life, decline, transformation, more life. Establish compost heaps at the homes of your favorite friends and dullest relatives, and watch things hot up.