permaculture design certificate - day three...

Day three began with a detour for me - off to moruya (60kms up the road from sams creek) to drop off 'scientia inflammatus' which has been shortlisted for the basil sellers art prize, then I quickly headed off to 'the crossing' to catch up with the gang.

Today it was all about practicalities - trees, shelterbelts, soil, and COMPOST! we all got down and dirty making a nice stack of collected material into a big compost mound - using layers of dried grass, woodchips, straw (dry carbon material); weeds, vege scraps (wet stuff!); acacia clippings (from black wattle which are a rich nitrogen source); rotted cow manure and some sprinkles of wood ash from the fires (for a little bit of potash). after stacking up the layers the pile was thoroughly watered then covered with a plastic tarp. In a couple of days the whole pile will be turned....

(this is hugh - our compost and tree man for the day - throwing more green stuff on the pile -
with a few friendly faces of other permy participants in the background)