When making -compost, your job is to provide the best possible environment for these beneficial organisms to do their work. If you don t provide the op-timum environment, decomposition will still happen, but it may take from several months to several years. Carbon-rich materials are the energy food for microorganisms. You can identify high-carbon plant materials because they are dry, tough, or fibrous, and tan or brown in color. Ex-amples are dry leaves, straw, rotted hay, sawdust, shredded paper, and cornstalks.
Moisture is very important for the composting process.
But too much moisture will drown the microorganisms, and too little will dehydrate them. A general rule of thumb is to keep the material in your compost pile as moist as a well-wrung sponge. Using an enclosed container or covering your pile with a tarp will make it easier to maintain the right moisture level. To do their work most efficiently, microorganisms require a lot of oxygen. When your pile is first assembled, there will probably be plenty of air between the layers of materials.