pile. As kitchen garbage, grass clippings, fresh manure or other wet
materials come available the can be covered with and mixed into this
dry material. The wetter, greener items will rehydrate the dry
vegetation and usually contain more nitrogen that balances out the
higher carbon of dried grass, tall weeds, and hay.

If building the heap has taken several months, the lower central
area will probably be well on its way to becoming compost and much
of the pile may have already dried out by the time it is fully
formed. So the best time make the first turn and remoisten a
long-building pile is right after it has been completed.

Instead of picturing a layer cake, you will be better off comparing
composting to making bread. Flour, yeast, water, molasses, sunflower
seeds, and oil aren't layered, they're thoroughly blended and then
kneaded and worked together so that the yeast can interact with the
other materials and bring about a miraculous chemistry that we call
dough.

_Carbon to nitrogen ratio._ C/N is the most important single aspect
that controls both the heap's ability to heat up and the quality of
the compost that results. Piles composed primarily of materials with
a high ratio of carbon to nitrogen do not get very hot or stay hot
long enough. Piles made from materials with too low a C/N get too
hot, lose a great deal of nitrogen and may "burn out."

The compost process generally works best when the heap's starting
C/N is around 25:1. If sawdust, straw, or woody hay form the bulk of
the pile, it is hard to bring the C/N down enough with just grass
clippings and kitchen garbage. Heaps made essentially of high C/N