The message
from (Rodger Whitlock)
contains these words:

Corset strings pulled tight on interesting Compost Report from the colonies.

I've been thinking on the same lines; one can never have too much
compost and the amount of free material available here is just too good
to ignore :-)(seaweed, fresh sheep poo, spent brewery hops, and my
neighbours' grasscuttings happily donated by local lawn contractor).To
extend the usual compost heaps and mulching, I'm going to try summer
compost pies. These are going to be temporary "instant compost heaps"
made right where I want the finished compost. My idea is to cut off the
(closed) top and bottom of a big plastic industrial barrel and hole the
sides,to make a pie-mold tube about 3 ft high and two across; dig a
round hole about a foot deep and stand the tube over it, then fill
loosely to the top with mixed material, dowse well with diluted urine
and put the lid back on to encourage fast heating. The dug out soil will
be piled round the bottom of the pie. As soon as the stuff has sunk down
a few feet, I'll tamp it down a little, add some tiger worms, and slide
off the pie-mould to start the next. Bare pies may get a small
stone-weighted fishing net hat, like a westcoast haystack, to hold them
steady.I'm hoping that sufficient hot material given a flying start,
will outweigh the disadvantage of smaller cubic capacity.

Janet