Tips To Really Get Your Compost Heap Cooking :

It seems t most organic gardeners love the idea of making their own post, but some gardeners have trouble making it really happen. Don't give up! There are ways to give your post h a boost and get it heating up again - creating beautiful, nutritious humus for your veggie garden.

OK, so after six months your 'post' has remained unchanged from it's original st? Remember there are certain conditions your h needs to be able to actively turn it's ingredients into post. They are air and moisture. Here are some things you can try.

1. Turn your h over, exposing it to air, wring if dry.

2. If your h dries out it will stop breaking down. Wr the h every few days in summer if conditions are hot and dry.

3. Add ingredients t are as small as possible. Use a shredder, mulcher or lawn mower to chop up larger ingredients such as prunings and larger leaves.

4. To speed up the posting process add lots of nitrogen-rich ingredients such as clover, manure laden straws, herbal activators (see below), washed sea-weed or fishmeal.

Herbal Cost Activators - some herbs are well known as particularly impressive post activators. Add them to your h to speed up your results.

Comfrey (Symphytum officinale) is rich in calcium, nitrogen, phospes and potassium. It has large hairy leaves t break down very quickly.

Dandelion (Taraxacum sp) also accelers the breaking down of mrials in the h. It is rich in copper, potash and iron, all valuable goodies in your post.

Valerian (Valeriana officinalis) has a reputation for attracting earthworms to the post h. It's leaves are also rich in minerals.

Yarrow (Achillea sp) can have the most dramatic effect in your h, even in small amounts. It will enrich your post with nitrs, potash, phosphares and copper, so is a very valuable addition.

Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) has the ability to concentr potassium from the soil where it grows. Adding Tansy to your post means adding potassium.

If you have the room, it's best to have two or more post piles on the go. One t you are preparing by gathering mrials, one t is semi-matured and one t has already turned into t gorgeous, black, earthy plant tonic - ready to use.

One more tip is to make sure air can get to the middle of your h, especially if you don't plan to turn it often. Place garden stakes or pvc pipes through the middle of your h so t you can 'jiggle' them every few weeks allowing air to the centre.

Try some of these tips and I'm sure you will speed things up for your post h and you will be topdressing your veggies with your own post in no time.