http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6H0BTnP5Qc&feature=player_profilepage

Quality compost is an essential element to sustainable design, and integral to Permaculture Principals. We need to improve our soils while we maintain profitable production, one of the few ways we can accomplish this is to make good compost, compost that can be make for free from local waste products. At the end of the day we would like to see people growing their own 'Food For Free' and use agriculture as a way to both product vital foods profitably while farmers improve soil fertility.

 We turn the compost at regular intervals, the basic practice is to turn when: 1. the pile gets too dry 2. The pile is too hot, if this is the case we add 10% of the total mass as high carbon material (straw, sawdust, shredded paper). 3. If the compost is too cool, we add 10% of the total mass as high N material i.e. manures, blood and bone meal or active green legumes. 4. to aerate the pile, this is usually accomplished when we turn to add moisture, we try to manage to turn the stack less and let natural process dominate Trust Nature. If we turn too frequently we override natural cycles. The intention is to turn the stack in ten days but it must be kept damp, this is accomplished by lightly misting the stack every day and keeping it lightly covered with a tarp. Keep the tarp loose so the stack can breathe, never wrap it up tightly because, just like us, it needs to breathe. The decomposition process is not limited to microbes gobbling up organic matter and passing it out, but also by the bio-chemical process caused by microbial enzymes, and excretions. The power of Nature is remarkable ideally the stack is turned just 4 times over 6-8 weeks and we have the most remarkable topsoil, rich in soil carbon, but most remarkable it is more than 50% micro-organisms in the highest diversity possible so that the microbes are there to support plant and soil vitality. When in doubt depend on natural processes. for more information, feel free to visit the website www.trustnature.com.au or contact paul directly at[email protected]