I build beds using a modification of this method. In the Fall I drag all the big pieces of the compost pile that are left into a big pile. I dump any food waste that I have in the middle and then cover the whole mess with whatever I have that is organic. In the spring, I bring in a truckload of humus and bury the whole thing because I don't have enough organics on my tiny, city lot to do a good job of covering the pile. (My beds kind of look like burial mounds - but no one has complained - or they are scared to complain.) The first bed in the front yard is now almost totally worm castings after 5 years. I have added a stacked stone wall around it and it looks like it has always been there and not the lawn replacement that it really is. I could almost get away without planting in it because I have volunteers of almost anything I ever planted! The bed built in my neighbors back yard has dropped at least 12' in the past three years from the internal composting. This method works well and helps me out quite a bit as my City doesn't like to pick up yard waste unless it is in tiny pieces in designated paper bags.
