How to Make and Maintain Soil Fertility 

ha, could be my prob. Thanks

I second that, coming from rainy Western Oregon. Mulch is ok in summer around slug resistant plants that are large enough to take a bit of damage, that’s about it. (Just talking garden crops - I mulch almost everything else.) All mulches are not created equal either, fine bark dust or nut shell fragments are unattractive to slugs compared to leaves, straw or cardboard. Once mid July or August rolls around I might mulch carrots or greens in a raised bed if there has been no signs of slugs. Since the bed has high sides and a sill that they have to climb upside down over. They seem to stay clean during summer drought conditions unless there’s new compost added, then some eggs might hatch.

Jonas Gampe set up a low input "remote" permaculture park in Germany (in Franken). A former field on a hill that was given up for conventional farming (but comparable fields are nearby). The site is open to the public. In the first years the slugs took out the annuals (like cabbage) but then the defense troops were in place and they have little problem after 10 years after the system has matured. They cannot have any animals like chickens (which are VERY good at eating the eggs), or ducks or guinea fowl that eat slugs and their eggs and pretty much every prest they can find. However, wild boars and wild birds like the site and of course now they have alot of toads, frogs, and predatory beetles.

I found it very interesting that Jonas said that snails and slugs occupy the niche of eating rotten vegetation and are present in NEW systems (some disturbance or disease caused a lot of plants to die and they clean up). Unfortunately slugs (the invasive species from India) also like young tender seedlings. He also said snails and slugs may be as important for the ecosystems as earth worms. Since I despise slugs like the next person / gardener, that was quite an interesting point of view. (Considering that they have fire ants in other regions like the deeep South in the U.S. , slugs might not be _that_ bad after all). chickens do not like bigger slugs, but they likely would eat baby slugs. So would beetles and wild birds. Frogs, toads and snakes. Snails are O.K. anyway, they eat rotten plant material and do not procreate wildly - but even those terrible invasive slugs from India might not be so bad in the large scheme of things. There is a type of tiger slug that eats other slugs btw. Not all slugs are the bane of gardeners. If chickens run around a property usually there is little problem with slugs, (the like to eat the eggs !), and guinea fowl is even better. If slugs invade from adjecent fields and meadows during night, some ducks might be necessary they also work evening and night shifts. One cannot have poultry in many situation (suburban) or the chickens pooping in a smaller space is not what you want. They might also eat your seedlings and in a smaller space setting up an electric fence would not be worth the trouble, you do not have economy of scale if it is a small operation. In that case toads, beetles, and wild birds, or snakes (especially in areas where you do not have poisonous snakes like in the temperate climate zone) would be your staff. One can protect fruit trees and crops from wild birds come harvest time, and / or share with them, by offering them a hedge or one small bed which they can plunder to take pressure off some crops but still incentivize them to stick around. I read about deers, squirrels and other critters that are a problem in some areas (temperate climate zone in the U.S. forest nearby). One commenter claimed that it took a lot of pressure of the vegetable garden to offer them a clean source of water a little away from the property and garden. They did not eat her or his tomatoes because they like them so much, they were after extra water. Once the gardeners realized that motivation to plunder their garden, it was easy to find a low cost / little work win / win solution. As for the volunteer slug defense troops: You only have to create the conditions that they like (water, moisture, certain plants) and give them a little time to find you and to procreate. Beetles and amphibia have the advantage that they work at night and can go under mulch to find the hidden slugs and their eggs without killing the seedlings or disturbing them too much. I think most people first set up the beds and the irrigation - when setting up the insect hotels, the little ponds and moist but not wet nooks, the dry stone wall, the corner overgrown with nettles should be the very first thing they should do. Also wasps (they eat the larvae on cabbage) when they search for meat for the brood. Or pollinators. Or having some low level water with reeds. That is what dragon flies need for their eggs, they are ferocious predators. If you have still water (or open water barrels) or even planters with a little bit of water on the property there will be mosquitos - unless dragon flies patrol your property.

@@xyzsame4081 Very well written. The larger the property, the easier it is to create the edges that create niches that create an ecosystem, especially if your property abuts an ecosystem and not chemically sprayed corn. This is why I think dams, ponds, and swales, are so critical. They provide a rich staging ground for life so that your garden isn't the only nutrient dense thing for miles. This reminds me of a story of someone who wanted to try gardening but lived in deer country, right where corn and woodland formed a patchwork that deer seem to love. The deer of course found their garden and ate like crazy, could jump over any fence, and weren't that afraid of their dog. Instead of continuing to try and fight the deer, they instead planted a bunch of hardy bushes that deer love to browse around their perimeter, and found the deer would rarely make their way to the garden when there was fine pickings all over the place. Of course, feeding these deer might mean there's a few more to hunt later in the year, which in that part of the US is a pastime far older than the country itself, and a vital ecological function now that wolves are no longer present.

huge divide with organic off-grid life and the constant upload/edit work. Not to say its hard, prob kind of easy. Its more about time consumption and day rhythms that get in the way...

No, instead he has been teaching classes, giving lectures, and making "the old style" videos(not to exclude other things). I was so excited when I found out he got into youtube to disseminate his MOST VALUABLE insights and information! :D

He has uploaded many videos over the years. Check out his documentary on greening the desert

It also shows he is not in it for publicity, fame, or admiration of fans. :D

Just because someone can run a camera and talk the talk he wants to talk and walk doesn't make him an expert. I'll tell you what is happening. YOU people out there know nothing about gardening and are finally considering that it might be a good thing to know to grow your own food. Oh let's throw out higher learning that is too much work!! Let's just throw seeds on cold compacted bare soil and we have created a PERMANENT CULTURE. I hate this label. How about a garden born from education and experience. I am unable to come up with a fancy title but this one needs to be thrown under the bus! Geoff, I've got to see your qualifications. Too many are hoping onto your wagon thinking you've got the answers. I've not heard solid sensible chemistry nor botany in your video. Sorry. I HATE being the party pooper but I have earned the right to question other gardeners. Just because Geoff is teaching those that are completely without any gardening knowledge he is appealing to the ignorant, humans who don't like work and who are very easy to impress.

@@stormysampson1257 You have the right (and duty I might add) to question anything and everything. After all, that is exactly what Geoff did when he first met Bill Mollison. But this here is some seriously bitter shit, my friend! Are you ok? No content here, just ad hominem. You just attacked a straw man! I think you might have to dig a little deeper to determine how much knowledge this man actually posesses. And then come back to us with arguments about the content, instead of the man and labels. May I suggest you put forward some of your knowledge on your channel for us ignorant people to learn from, I couldn't find any...

Never mind, I just read your comment about you being a licensed Commercial Pesticide Applicator. Makes me lose my interest. To each his own, good luck.

@@mourlyvold7655 See, you know what ASSUMING does right? Pesticide licensing is the BEST thing that could be done to stop idiots from using chemicals THAT ARE NEVER NECESSARY. They TEACH how to prevent needing to use pesticide. I went and took their continuing education seminars just to learn what was new. I didn't need recertification but I did it anyway. I did the same with Master Gardeners put on by the same people; WSU Cooperative Extension Service. You are very mistaken about proper education. How well do you understand Chemistry? Soil science? We never discussed a single 'brand' name. We worked and learned the chemistry even though we knew we wouldn't be using pesticides. We had to know enough to go back to bosses and EDUCATE them! And sometimes that was being between a rock and a hard place. I left jobs because a client or a boss would INSIST on using something that would actually set one up for even more use of pesticide; putting bandaids on top of bandaids because someone didn't know enough to CARE. Well, I cared enough to make sure I knew what I was doing and how to reeducate lots and lots of people, clients and bosses.

🇧🇷👍🏼

If I recall correctly, he has a video on Greening the Desert where he goes over a bunch of systems that I assume are those you're refering to as people systems Just search geoff greening the desert and you'll find it right a way

Is that a compost joke? ;-)

​@@alexanderdebree9295 Even if *pun* wasn't intended, it was a wonderful one😅.

There are French subtitles, at least now.

I recommend you Marie Cachet’s Permaganism videos.

Great testimony! Thank you! Maybe you could make a video about your story? So more people could learn from your experiences? Must be not a big effort.

It would help everyone out here reading your comment to know WHAT you were fertilizing with, how you were managing the soil, what practices you do or do not do, how you watered, what type of water source? The chemistry of the water? The chemistry of your soil? Organic is such a lame word, I kid you not. What 'organic' fertilizer did you switch to? (any molecular configuration with C or Carbon included in that molecular name is ORGANIC). ha ha ha...ugh, check out the chemistry in your original fertilizer. It will definitely have Carbon included. This definition of "ORGANIC"....the word organic, and the word natural as well, drives me bonkers. Knowing what one is doing with soil, botany, biology, hydrology, chemistry....makes these confusing words worthless. Knowing how to grow plants is the most important part of your job. I would get some education under my belt. Get a pesticide applicator license! You will know why you DO NOT need pesticides. Yet those programs teach so MUCH important stuff most farmers do not know and truly need to know. Fertilizer is NOT pesticide. Nitrogen is nitrogen no matter the source. Balanced fertilizer has to include the three macro chemicals; Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium. Soil tests as well as being able to identify excess or deficiency of chemistry in your plants. One does not add anything until there is absolute proof it needs to be added. Or suffer the consequences. Compost is never a fertilizer substitute nor a soil substitute. Learn exactly what and why your ORGANIC fertilizer has made a difference. I would imagine that avocado trees are like any other food producing plant that is based on reproduction. Too much nitrogen in relation to the P and the K will inhibit reproductive growth. Fewer avocados, lots more leaves, luscious leaves and vegetative growth.

It sure makes a huge difference. I used to manage a small Avo farm myself many years ago

@@stormytrails I don't use fertilizer. I feed my earthworms what they need and the earthworms feed the soil. I've got flowers. I've got fruit. If I see some yellowing leaves on a plant I'll go over and scoop up a pile of worm poop spread them around the plant and walk away. Problem solved. You can over complicate what you want but don't be blaming the guy that doesn't need all the garbage chemicals.

@@HawkJammin You have made a few wrong assumptions and took off with internet rage. I am not snobby, just direct and if you can't take the heat, well, get out of the garden? Grins. Loosen UP! Pesticide applicators are taught how to PREVENT any need of pesticides. You are so rude to THINK you know something without reading carefully. The Cooperative Extension Services run these seminars, classes and testing. Knowledge makes the best practices and humility. You are some out there wannabee hippie. I have done due diligence bucko, to be authoritative. Maybe that is what you think is 'snobby'... How you got your ideas from my comments is interesting and shows a bit of defensive insecurity maybe? Good luck to you...

More!!!

The fact that groups like extinction rebellion focus on the problems and do not advocate the solution's that we see here might explain why there are not as many subscriber's as there should be. Humans love to tap into the negative.

Ummm, do you think global warming is happening?

Sharon Sampson no I don’t ...... indeed if you check with unaltered data and historical precedents you can see that we are in a cooling phase of a planetary climate change. This has an effect on grow zone weather conditions that we are seeing around the world even now that has nothing to do with any Co2 anthropogenic warming

@@FreeRadicalslifestyle'unaltered' data? How can one tell if data is altered or unaltered? Grins! I am THRILLED you are able to suss out what is bogus from closer to truth! Not many humans are able to do this as they watch any media. Grand Solar Minimum...this one is called the Eddy Minimum. New Madrid Fault was a scary surprise!

Sharon Sampson yes there are a lot of shifts going on around us at the present time. The shifting magnetic pole and its influence on our grow zones all add to the need for us all to be well informed of all possible outcomes. Preparedness without fear or sensationalism will stand all observers of the possible outcomes of the changes in good stead even with the fragility of the just in time delivery systems of food and the debt based monetary system collapse that is an emerging social time bomb. Regards Russell

@@FreeRadicalslifestyle So now they have created a FAKE virus(Germs,Bacteria,viruses, are because of not the cause of disease, the same goes for plants) to bring the failing system down, so blame will not fall on them.

What federally mandated FOOD SAFETY class are you talking about? Organic fertilizers and synthetic fertilizers are virtually the same. ORGANIC and NATURAL are two words that really piss me off. They are used willy nilly to make people think they are gardening WITH NATURE. Organic, don't panic. Do you guys KNOW the definition of ORGANIC? Do you? Any molecule with a C or Carbon in the molecule is ORGANIC. Now go and check your Organics and Synthetics? They all have C in them...so exactly what is it that you imagine when you hear or read the word ORGANIC? This is a big deal in the education of gardeners. If you don't understand basic chemistry, you will go with ALL ORGANIC and never learn the real and true stuff about how plants grow, live, thrive. Natural is even more mind boggling confusing of a word! Humans and all our doings are NATURAL. Don't try to debate this. We are talking semantics. Humans and all our doings are also ARTIFICIAL by the very definition of artificial. Are you going to go along trying to learn this gardening, soils, hydrology, physics, biology...stuff! without getting at least these two words properly defined and understood? Or are you going to start asking questions?

Commercial agriculture is based solely on making the most money per acre. Now, not later. Can't make money if a farmer isn't pulling in huge harvests...who cares about the health and nutrition of the plants much less the food of those harvests. 'Organic' simply ruins the bottom lines of commercial agriculture. Even if we don't know what it means. The food labeled organic could be ANYTHING. SOIL HEALTH IS NOT SUFFERING. Good grief. Soil is soil. Soil is simply a medium. Soil does not come with micro and macro organisms, organic matter, chemistry that plants HAVE TO HAVE TO MAKE FOOD for themselves AND us not so smart humans. Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium are the three macro chemicals (not gag me nutrients) necessary in very specific formulations, the micro chemistry is best done when plants are maturing, knowing the signs/symptoms of what those plants are lacking or what those plants are getting in excess. WE human have to add the chemistry, chemistry to grow plants is not found in those yummy looking forest soils...oh so dark oh! they must be fertile! so far from the truth...to add anything to our soils WE the ones in charge of our oh so ARTIFICIAL gardens need to KNOW what our soils contain, the pH of that soil! How to manage the specific mixtures of minerals/tiny rocks that are mediums for growing plants. Oh yeah, there is water...but come on, learn the basics before you become the Jetsons! There is absolutely no way our gardens could be labeled; Permaculture, No Dig, No Till, No fertilizer, No watering?, Hugelkulture is the biggest joke of all. So sorry but it is. Back to Eden? Give me some oxygen here! The basics make sense. The basics make food. The basics teach us about soils and plants. This other stuff is simply FADS. Fads that use the words, Organic, Natural, NO WORK...oh the one I am unable to even stomach typing...is Food Forests. I simply want people to grow their own food the most direct, simplest, straightforward way that WILL provide success. Otherwise, most humans will quit. Go to the closest Cooperative Extension Service of your host University in your state. They will support everything I am trying to tell you. I would love it if someone could explain why our 'soils' are suffering and 'what' someone thinks needs to be DONE? This is like asking people why they are buying into this global warming blatant scam. Arghhh! Not enough science retained? Not a single global warming disciple can explain why they have chosen to believe NOT VERY SCIENTIFIC stuff. Gardening is so dog gone healthy and alters our blah world of conditioning and feeling and thinking. You have to get interesting in details, go learn the whys of those details to be successful. Or starve after SHTF. Another subject for later.

@@stormytrails what's your experience with regenerative gardening?

@@Christodophilus I've never heard this term...Regenerative Gardening. Is this similar to gardens with winters? Gardens and soil in MY experience always get better with age and my maintenance ...skills. I hate being out of the loop, grins! Regenerating in the garden world must mean making something once vigorous that has become wimpy and making it vigorous again...ugh, am I close?

@@stormytrails Basically, it's the concept of putting more back into the soil, than you've reaped from a harvest. There are different ways to do this. Some of my grandparents would double dig their beds, to place food scraps under the soil - then garden more food from the surface. Other grandparents kept chickens, and fed food scraps to them - periodically cultivating soil from the coop to put on their gardens. So long as there's something going back into the soil, after a harvest, you don't deplete the soil. My grandparents knew this, before fertilisers were invented, and the term "organic". If they didn't put something back into the soil, they got poorer yields, the following year. So they learned to put more back, than they took. It's the same concept behind the fad methods you outlined. Maybe they're getting a lot of attention, which constitutes a "fad", but it uses the same principle my grandparents adopted. Putting something under ground, or using carbon generated on the surface, to feed food production the following year.

Seconding this suggestion, birds are meant to perch on things. Scrap branches from tree trimming ought to work a treat.

Dung would stick and no

Golden Rain trees? homeguides.sfgate.com/disadvantages-golden-rain-tree-67351.html You should KNOW its real name; Koelreuteria paniculata We have a similar tree in the north with the same common name and it's pea pods have seeds in them that one seed kills one man. Or maybe just a kid. And your big deal is that you learned 'natures' way to grow food and now you are an expert. Holy Molly You have to know more, sweetie about 'nature' to imagine you are USING nature's way. You ARE a gardener! with a big ole chip on her shoulder that is inhibiting learning more than she knows already about gardening, soils, plants and the physical world around her...grins. There is much more to learn. Where is YOUR 'University' Cooperative Extension Service? University of Florida Cooperative Extension Service?? Find it. They are your mentors. Take the dang Master Gardener Class! Easy peasy, most is on the internet now after all, but some classes where you get to meet other gardeners at your level also have great field trips. Takes maybe 2 months of once per week stuff? Practically FREE of charge.

12

Found it. More easily found as Alternanthera sissoo

Cover crops DO NOT ADD FERTILITY, or rather the chemistry all plants in our employ have to have to thrive and produce extra food to harvest. Cover crops reduce weeds and when they decompose in the spring add incredible TILTH to your soil....NOT FERTILITY. Decomposed (not raw organic material, not straw, not sawdust, not animal poop that is hot) Please get a soil test to show you how little of the macro not to mention micro CHEMICALS, NOT NUTRIENTS, are truly in your soil! Grins, soil does not come with the correct chemicals for plants to do photosynthesis. Do not guess! Make sure you understand the difference between hot compost and DECOMPOSED compost. I sigh, just have to insist we gardeners are responsible for ADDING fertilizer; Less is Best, More is Death, and none is just Dumb. As well as preparing a plant bed (just once ain't going to hurt your dog gone soil), double digging ONE TIME to make raised beds. Watering with intelligence. Providing drainage. Knowing the pH of your soil! Did you know that potatoes love acid soil in the range that blue berries NEED? Soil test! Cooperative Extension Services of your state's host of this service is cheap cheap and totally affordable. Why do people guess about this stuff? Arghh.

@@stormytrails Speaking of nutrient deficiencies, get your lithium checked.

@@joecrablone286 Joe, this is very sad. Oh well, you are firmly ensconced with the way you want to believe. Oh so sorry, grins, to disturb your comfyness. Good luck to you...

Cover crops do NOT DO A THING for fertilizer replacement. Neither does compost. We gotta get over the idea that we humans are able to do anything NATURAL to recreate some ecosystem in order to grow crops with NO INPUT... COMPOST IS NOT FERTILIZER. COMPOST IS NOT A SOIL MEDIUM REPLACEMENT. COVER CROPS ARE NOT FERTILIZER!! Sorry but oh so very true...

I think you're on the wrong channel, permaculture is all about reducing inputs to nil over time. Soil biology increases fertility and there are many ways to nourish it.

So this is a perennial spinach that is seeding like crazy? What zone are you in? I think your spinach is simply an annual doing its job. Because your spinach is so prolific with seed it SEEMS like a perennial, but it is not. I is a one season plant but puts out lots of babies.

If you trim the flight feathers off one wing, the hens cannot fly over the fence.

Chris, but why is there forest gardening. Forests do not nor are the able to produce food for themselves as well as excess for us. NO SUN? Hello? Is this not a part of Food Forest Gardening? How does one pick out spots with just the right amount of light in some forest. I really want someone to clarify how a FOREST can provide food? Forests are not made by little old mankind. ha ha. Forests are the result of centuries and millenia of stable conditions. An ecosystem that is self perpetuating. To imagine any ecosystem that has the ability to thrive and feed humans and other animals...sorry. Humongously arrogant of us oh so special humans! The more we learn and understand the basics to grow plants the more successful we are. To imagine we are capable to grow crops oh so naturally is incredibly insane. The more educated we are the less we will spout any of these...fads. Truly.

@@stormytrails Well, this fad forest garden, has been working more successfully in our semi-arid climate, than my annual vegetable beds. Protection from sun is more the issue in our climate, than a lack of it. Our 40 degrees Celsius (104 F) summer temps, barbecues plants. Wimpy annuals. I need enduring perennials, that stick around, year in and year out. I also need layers of plants (aka: forest) to lower the temps, provide shade and make corridors for birds and bees, to keep my garden producing. I find annual gardens quite hideous, time consuming, back breaking, beasts of burden, in comparison. Which doesn't save money in the long run. Because they bolt to seed and die readily. Then I've got a big gap in the garden, which I won't fill with another shallow rooted, wimpy annual. So it remains bare. But with a tree or shrub, even if it doesn't produce fruit in a bad season - you still get a tree or shrub. Therefore, you still get shade, a wind break, free mulch, a place for birds to frolic and basically something living - as opposed to dead in the garden. Far more enjoyable. This is not to say, there isn't a place for annual gardens, in the right location. They just can't hack the climate where I live. I get more success with enduring perennials, in a staggered growing system.

@@Christodophilus Big grin! Few people could have as rugged micro climate than we do in south central Oregon. Our good friends in Alaska have longer more predictable growing seasons than we do. Trees and shrubs are perennials. I have perennials in my green house: boysenberries, raspberries, strawberries, some herbs. I get more from annuals than I will ever get from perennials. I like getting enough each season to PRESERVE for winter. We are on the same page, I just go into a touretts' spastic attack just hearing the words FOOD FOREST. Forests have a canopy that allows but a few of the native, low light perennials to thrive. Light=manufacture of food! Think Reemay, not trees for a garden.

@@Christodophilus Annuals are not wimpy, Chris. They have but ONE job to do and that is to produce massive amounts of seed. Perennials don't have that worry. They make some seed (that is translated into FOOD for us humans) but nothing on the scale that annuals are capable. I do 'staggered' WIDE full rows, not dumb 'rows', too. My annual gardens are anything BUT dead and we put away gallons of pickles, hundreds of pounds of potatoes, herbs, tomatoes, egg plant (staggered planting), Kiwi couldn't hack it here, the asparagus is struggling mightily, got horseradish coming up from last year and I am frankly amazed...basil, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Thai peppers, Lemon Grass (an annual if left in our un heated green house over winter), artichokes are an annual here! The purple ones are beautiful until you cook them, then they look like normal...beans up the yin yang. And my garden, under a green house skin is only 976 sq. ft. We live in a forest right now. Imagining growing food under that canopy makes me laugh. Sure mushrooms, if you KNOW what it is you are eating. A few gooseberry bushes. Cut the flowers off those annuals at the beginning ruthlessly and properly fertilize with LOW nitrogen in proportion to the potassium and phosphorous. You will have production, consistent, as much as possible one can harvest from a plant...an annual is always the biggest producer. Cutting the flowers off tells that annual it has to work harder to make more seed. That is all an annual is geared to do; make seed...way way more than any perennial. Take the flowers off at the beginning and the vegetative part gets more lush making for huge reproductive growth. I used to blow people away as they watched me strip all of the flowers at the entrance to their development I installed. They stood there in awe wondering if they had hired the right maintenance company. I simply grinned and told them to meet me same time same place in one week! They all came to our appointed meeting. They were even more in awe than before. PROFUSE flowering. And I'd still cut most of the flowers off. That entrance flowered until the first frost. Think about the food making of annuals. Flowers mean food. These people all went home and started cutting their flowers off and had to show me their humongous planters, gardens hanging planters. And yeah, we had a solid clientele with this HOA. Design, Installation/Build as well as Maintenance for the rich and famous. Annuals are most certainly NOT wimpy. Annuals are producers, they die and they become organic matter for the next year. Do you understand Cover Crops? ANNUALS! Plant them in the beds after harvesting, spring turn the bed over with the annuals before you allow them to go to seed. Keeps weeds in control, adds MORE TILTH, not fertilizer to the soil. Cover crops are annuals. Most of our food in our bread basket crops are ANNUALS! In the northern latitudes perennials become annuals. Annuals produce, perennials perennially survive. A few berries or nuts here and there...nothing at all to feed a family much less be able to put aside and preserve for the winter and spring!

@@stormytrails I've noticed in some of the US garden blogs, I follow, they have more of an issue, getting longer growing seasons, to produce a harvest. It must be as frustrating, as trying to prevent the sun killing off my production too. Frosts burn the plants in the US, and the sun burns ours in Australia. It's a challenge, for sure! We each choose a growing system, that works best, for our individual locations. Glad we could share what works for each of us. I totally understand, that opening up the canopy is called for, in different locations.

Yes it is definitely part of it plus well design sheltered landscape and built infrastructure.

Yes but this material is a mix of high carbon brown and manure some proportionally more green will be needed.

When I get land I wanna turn one of those wire cylinders on its side, raise it of the ground, and just give it a whirl every other day. I'd love to see how well this idea works. :-)