permaculture

[Jack Rowe <jackrowe@compuserve.com>]

A VERY thorough, holistic explanation of the process of composting in the
soil in natural systems can be found at:

http://www.rain.org/~sals/ingham.html

in which is presented seminal work by Dr. Elaine Ingham on the interactions
between soil life and organic matter. This article is, IMHO, required
reading for permaculturists, farmers and arborists! In it Dr. Ingham also
presents her findings on the differences between forest and
grassland/cropland soil ecologies (in a nutshell, forest soil ecologies are
fungally-dominated, grass/cropland soil ecologies are
bacterially-dominated). These differences in soil ecology are important as
relating to reafforestation efforts, especially for the pine trees which
are at the extreme of fungal dependence. 

Good info, Kevin and Mindy, thanks! 

Jack