Hi totally new to composting - we are down in the tropics of south america (actually got a write up in the Guardian: http://tinyurl.com/348e99) where they seem to do a very poor compost pile with limestone?

The food we grow tastes great - but I think I can help make the garden even better with a good compost made up of all the organic veggie scraps we generate here at the hotel.

Their pile seems a bit shallow and spread out for the heat we have here - this I can fix.

They also put limestone in with the waste?

My question is if limestone is some sort of activator that they know about and I don't? (something like alfalfa?) Or is it just doing nothing and we should use some other activator -- in the leaf/scraps/activator mix.

A follow-up would be - what activator to use if limestone is not available -- something that would be readily available in such an area.

Thank you

S_