1.   You can also add activators such as garden soil, finished compost, bone meal and blood meal to stimulate the action.

2.   Finished compost has a pleasant, woodsy aroma.

3.   Finished compost resembles black, rich, friable soil.

4.   The finished compost is dug into the soil when new plants are planted.

5.   The more diverse the ingredients in a compost pile, the more nutritionally balanced the finished compost product.

6.   These more aggressively managed piles will also produce finished compost in a month instead of a year, as with my cold pile.