Communal food planter sinking?

I'm a volunteer for a community food growing project, this has happened to one of the planters, what's happened?? Can it be fixed?

 

Hi,

It looks like its full of light compost rather than heavier garden soil and its dried out so much its contracted away from the side of the planter.

A long slow watering should cure that.

You could add a bit of compost /soil where there are the large voids as in your photo, though not too much as when the compost is watered and expands it might push out the side of the planter.

 

Thank you, I had thought that might be the cause, I will request more compost to fill the void

 

I'd give it a thorough watering first and then give it a few hours, then check again. Might be beneficial to put some wood chip mulch over the exposed surface to slow down evaporation in the heat.

 

Yeah the woodchip is a good idea, the only problem with watering is it's a good walk from my house, with a 6l watering can and a 2yr old in tow haha we need more volunteers I think

 

As just added to the above, don't add too much more compost, a few long gentle waterings should restore things.

Dried out compost can be difficult to re-wet so you could could add a couple of drops of washing up liquid to each watering can as that helps the water soak in more, don't overdo the soap though !