Hi John,
I read over the article you linked to and since I made my comments then I have completely embraced Charles’s no-dig method.
I am even more convinced now that growing a green manure is never going to provide you with sufficient compost to cover your needs. You simply have to use large quanties of other materials, leaves, paper, vegetable waste, grass clippings, etc, etc.
I completely understand the need to be careful about what we “import” for the compost heap. That goes without saying.
I use grass clippings from my immediate neighbours and they will advise me if they ever apply anything to their lawns (if I don’t notice first!).
I also use newspaper and cardboard from local shops. Coffee grounds (very occasionally) from a local café.
Then of course there are the normal household waste materials and the autumn leaves from my local park and immediate green areas (the council love me!)
In addition I order my Horse Manure (free, and 18 months to 24 months old) from a local stud farm and I leave it to continue composting for a further 6-9 months before I use it .
If you want quantities of materials to grow I would strongly advise setting aside an area for 6-12 Russian Comfrey plants. You will get at least 4 cuttings from these plants per season and in addition to giving you a lot of bulk for the heap you can also get quiet a substantial amount of liquid feed from them. This in my humble opinion is far more practical than setting aside 25/33% of your plot to grow material for your compost bin.
I could go on and on but I think, and I fully embrace the Organic gardening method and consider myself to be one,
this is an issue we each need to resolve to our own satisfaction.
Like Doctors, Gardeners differ and plants die (or perhaps thrive less)
Nice hearing from you again.
Don.