Biofertile Farms

Paul Taylor and the compost brewer in action

Go to the shed, not the shop. That was the motto for the Biofertile Farms workshop with Paul Taylor and Eugenio Gras. This was the second in the RegenAg series in September.

Throughout the three day workshop we had indoor, theoretical work and then two days outside actually making the compost tea and biofertiliser. An excellent way to do it.

Paul and Eugenio explained how all the agricultural inputs common today (like synthetic fertiliser) actually degrade soil health, and then the common suggested solution is more inputs (like herbicide, fungicide, insecticide) that further degrade soil health. Synthetic fertiliser is typically NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium), in a medium that is mainly salt so that it is soluble. But plants have two different types of roots: tap roots and feeder roots. Tap roots supply water to the plant and the fine feeder roots feed nutrients to the plant. However, the soluble synthetic fertiliser means that whenever the plant drinks, it takes up the nutrients and the salt. This is not what creates a healthy, robust plant. At the same time, soil microbes don’t like to live in the NPK environment.

Why are microbes important? They play a niche role with the plant’s feeder roots. They take nutrients that exist in the soil and exchange these with the plants for food for themselves. So if you want to access the nutrients that exist in the soil, create an environment that favours microbes.

Healthy soil, healthy plants, healthy people. And healthy soil means living soil with an abundance of microbes.

Paul Taylor made compost tea: brewing up liquid for a day that took a good number of microbes from compost and multiplied the microbes to an unbelievable extent. This is then sprayed onto the soil or as a foliar spray. It adds back in the microbes the environment needs to regain health. It was a simple process, but you do need a special, good quality air pump. An asset that would be a great one for a community group or a group of farmers.

Eugenio with the Bio-fertilser that is ready to ferment

Eugenio Gras made three concoctions that are good substitutes for the commercial chemical fertilisers. Very low cost, simple process that small campesinos to large farmers can make. These concoctions are all about getting off the roundabout of all the chemical fertilisers, herbicides, insecticides etc, etc. Instead, the concoctions are both cheap and improve soil health.

The three concoctions Eugenio made were:

• · Bio-fertiliser
• · Lime sulphur
• · Soluble Phosphorous

It may seem a bit difficult, but as someone said: the hardest part in making the bio-fertiliser is following the cow around waiting for her to shit. Yes, you need the fresh stuff, then ferment it.

Other ingredients were animal bones, burnt then pulverised to dust. Also quite simple.

The last of the RegenAg series for this year (but hopefully not forever) is with Joel Salatin, of Food Inc fame. I can’t wait to hear how he runs his very diverse farm, focusing on selling directly to the local community.

We are the ones we have been waiting for - Hopi Indians

Holistic Management

Measuring how much a cow eats: Tamara Gadzia, Graeme Hand , Kirk Gadzia and Ben Falloon at Taranki Farm

Spring has sprung. The fruit trees I bought from the Heritage Fruit Society are taking off. At least six of the seven grafts of the apples and plums have taken. The seventh is being very secretive as to how it is going. The scion doesn't look dead, it just isn't growing yet. I have faith.

I have been a very quiet blogger, but been very active in my permaculture life. In August I attended the first of the RegenAg (regenerative agriculture as we need to build back our soils before we can consider a stable, sustainable agriculture). It was a great 3 days learning about Holistic Management from Kirk Gadzia.

Holistic Management involves articulating your holistic goal to cover your farm, family, community etc life. You always return to your holistic goal to test your options before making a decision. One technique it focuses on is mob or rotational grazing: intense grazing of a short time and then serious rest so that the plants (especially the roots) can recover. As the paddock has a high number of stock, there is a higher concentration of manure (which is a great fertiliser) and feed is either eaten (and converted to manure) or knocked down and will act as mulch. Keeping the ground covered is super important for water retention, something that home gardeners appreciate.

The standard practice in Australia is instead stock grazing. It has low stock density for a longer period and low coverage of manure over the area. The downside to this is paddocks are often regrazed before they've had a chance to rest, so plant growth is less under set stock than mob grazing. This then leads to stock having to be fed hay, which is extra time and money.

Holistic management grazing technique manages to have better pastures, requires less additional feed such as hay and builds carbon in the soil. It builds soil as when plant leaves are cut, it shears off a lot of its roots. These roots are carbon, which are then broken done by soil microbes and kept in the soil.

The rotational grazing can also move the pasture from annual to perrenial grass. No need for the farmer to pay for new seed every year. The pasture can even move to native grasses, which is impressive to have grasses suited to the local soil and climate. Not bad.

I'd recommend any RegenAg workshops for farmers (whether the farm has been in the family for generations or small block farmers) and permaculturalists. The second workshop was Biofertile Farms; Keyline Design is currently being taught across Australia in October. Then Joel Salatin (of Food Inc fame) will describe Local Farms and Community in November/December. So popular that in Victoria the session has sold out, so they have booked a second one. I look forward to these workshops continuing beyond 2010.

Ben demonstrating the diversion drain in front of him that collects water and directs it to the dam to the right

Ceremonial Lemon Tree

Liberated lemon tree

Late July, I celebrated reaching my goal date of 12 July with friends. I was very happy to be able to take them up to show them my plot in the King Valley, where I’ll be continuing to fulfil my dream of the three part plot.

To commemorate reaching my goal date (which included being part time in the King Valley), we had a ceremonial planting of my lemon tree. It is quite a few years old, only started bearing fruit 18 months ago (while I was in Guatemala and it was in north east Victoria rather than Melbourne). It has always lived in a pot and has been moved around to at least six houses (I don’t want to move house again!). When planting it out, we found it was very root bound in hard soil. So I hope it enjoys the new surrounds.

It has gall wasp (you can see the branches swell up in balls) so I tried to cut this out. Best to cut out off limbs that are infected with gall wasp by August before they hatch. Dispose of the affected branches, don’t compost them.

I also planted out two types of olives, summer and autumn fruiting raspberry canes and a peach (Red Haven). As the creek has washed away the fence, the next door neighbour’s cattle have been getting in. They quite like the lemon leaves. For the short term, I’m planting fruit trees in pots and fruit and vegetables around the cottage on the main part of the property. I’ll transplant later once I deal with fences. The previous owner established many vegetable garden beds on the north side of the house.

Garden Beds beside cottage

Goal date achieved!

Creek nearly doubles in width with rainfall

I achieved my goal by my goal date of 12 July 2010! I'm now part time in the King Valley and somewhat started on my three projects. Well, I'm at least very focused on them all, seeing as I'm part time.

I celebrated on the day with a bottle of local, King Valley champagne with my parents on Monday 12 July. Then on the following weekend I bought, ironed and hung curtains throughout the farm house I'll be living in (if I can find a housemate). I bought some heavily discounted curtains that have a special backing to help insulate the house. They block out the sun in summer, and keep in the warmth in winter. Some curtain sets were only $50 which makes me wonder why I haven't bought some for my very cold Brunswick house that only has ineffective venetian blinds and no heating in my bedroom.

The other activity top on my list is organising insulation for the roof. I have had a quote from a local insulator who can spray in wool. For around Wangaratta, R4 is recommended (the higher the number, the better the insulation effect). Around Melbourne, somewhere over R3 is the recommended minimum.

Passive solar heating is also important. The bedrooms and kitchen are on the north side: the sunny side for those who live in the southern hemisphere. When I walked into the front bedroom, which had the winter sun streaming in, it was warmer than the living room on the south which had the fire going. I actually double checked to see if the electric heater had accidentally been left on. No, it was passive solar heating. The amazing sun.

Of course, you wouldn't want this in summer. You can avoid overheating in summer by having a verandah or, to involve permaculture design, a deciduous vine over a pergola which will give you shade in summer and allow the sun in during winter (plus yield fruit). Just be careful on how far the verandah juts out: you just need it far enough to cut out the summer sun which sits higher in the sky. But not jutting out so far that the winter sun, which sits lower in the sky, is cut out too. If the sun doesn't hit the window, it won't warm the house. There is actually a mathematical formula for this and it isn't too tricky.

What it comes down to is being comfortable. And it doesn't need to be costly, it should save you money and effort (e.g. having to chop wood). A good guide for building is Your Home Technical Manual.

I haven't done anything on the plot yet, just tidied up the area around the house to start a vegetable patch there. It has access to water, so I'll begin there as I get the plot organised. The Black Range Creek is flowing well: quite swollen and has knocked a few trees downstream in its haste.

Silt deposit from flooded creek

Fruit Tree Workshop

An apple tree potted up and pruned in a vase shape. I hope to make mine this good next weekend

I went to a fantastic fruit tree workshop at CERES on Saturday. And I get to go back again next Saturday to finish it off!

Justin Caverely is our very knowledgeable teacher. If you get a chance to do one of his courses: go for it! The first course I did with him was back in 2007, the Organic Vegetable Gardening. and it really started me to spin off at ever increasing speeds on a new pathway in life: towards my permaculture future. In the vegie growing course, Justin mentioned this concept of permaculture. It all seemed to make sense. Here was a system that used common sense that provided for us with minimal effort, plus it protected the natural ecosystem, all through designing the system carefully.

After the course, I started doing my own research on permaculture. Found out there was a local permaculture network, Permaculture Melbourne. One of their members was running an Introduction to Permaculture weekend. My curiosity continued to grow. I read more, I gardened more, I joined The Digger's Club and spent hours pouring over their seed catalogue. It wasn't particularly wise of me to buy so many seeds, as I soon after took leave without pay for a year to volunteer in Guatemala. Volunteer where, I wasn't sure. But I packed my recently acquired Earth User's Guide to Permaculture by Rosemary Morrow as I wanted to finish reading it and thought it may be useful if I volunteered in sustainable agriculture.

The forces of the world pointed me in one direction: volunteering at a permaculture institute in Guatemala, Instituto Mesoamericano de Permacultura for most of 2009. I didn't even realise how far an Australian design system had travelled! This of course made me want to do my Permaculture Design Certificate as soon as I got back to Australia in November 2009.

Here I am now, one week off from going part time so I can put my energy into starting a permaculture plot and sell my produce directly to householders through a Community Supported Agriculture scheme of weekly box of vegies, fruit and nuts.

I'm just a little excited!

So my tip: go do a course on organic gardening or permaculture at wherever is closest to you. Lucky if that be at CERES and you'll be taught by Justin. You never know where it may lead...

This blog entry was supposed to be about fruit trees, but I got carried away. Details on what I learnt will be after next class. Tip: prune hard and set up the design of your tree. You'll be rewarded.

Count down to part time

Native revegetation of eucalyptus and wattles, top corner

One week before I go part time at my current full time job. This means I will have lots of time available to concentrate on my three projects.

Bring on my permaculture future!

I'll be balancing a couple of days of work in Melbourne and working on my Three Part Plot in the King Valley for the remainder of the week.

The spooky thing is at the beginning of 2010, I picked a date to aim for as a goal. 12 July 2010. A somewhat random date and I picked this as it is the date my term deposit matures. Then I had to work out what my goal was. I decided on:

• be part time in the King Valley
• have started my three projects (permaculture plot, preserves business and importing naturally dyed, hand woven textiles from Guatemala)

And guess what? My first week of going part time in my current job is Monday 12 July 2010. So I guess by picking a goal, always having it in the back of my mind, the physical, social and spiritual world made it come true. I'm not sure what "started" my three projects actually meant, but I guess you could say I'm following the permaculture principle "observe and interact" at this point by observing others and gaining knowledge first.

My plot in June winter, up to the ridge

My plot is a triangle. My motto was: keep your mind on the triangle prize.

Earthworks Practicum

The gentle pattern left by keyline ploughing

Walking across the paddock was like walking on a firm sponge: the earth was so soft, it had such give in it, it had no resemblance to hard concrete. If you played footy, you'd be wanting to fall on this stuff. This is what keyline ploughing will do to your land. It will decompact the soil and allow air and water to penetrate. Healthy soil.

I visited Darren Doherty and Lisa Heenan's block near Bendigo for an earthworks practicum. This week, with a group of eager students, he'll be adding a new dam, access roads, drainage ditches and house, cabin and tank sites. I only had the chance to go for one day, and I took it. So I didn't actually get to see any earth moved.

However, I did learn the theory behind earthworks, including more information on keyline design, and get to have my questions answered. Then we headed out to the 22 acre block that has already been keyline ploughed twice in a few years. A keyline plough, the Yeomans' Plow, cuts the earth and so loosens it slightly. It is ploughed just off contour, encouraging rainfall to penetrate the earth rather than run off. It is ploughed just off contour so the water is directed more to the ridge rather than straight to the valley. Which is where it will end up eventually. While walking, I stepped on the access road which hasn't been ploughed and it was your typical hard soil. The rest of it has a wonderful soft feel to it.

Darren Doherty and Ben Falloon have come up with some crazy additions to create the Keyline Super Plow. Check out their clip on deep cultivating/compost tea/biofertiliser/seed planter in one hit.

Darren Doherty and earth mover

While on the block, we did some surveying, marking out the drainage from one dam to a new dam, a sill spillway for the overflow, the new dam high watermark. Then the access road, which will collect water and direct it to the dam. This is what permaculturalists do: the design of the whole system where one element supports many functions. Then we marked out the house site. By this stage, my nose was freezing off in the Central Victorian late afternoon air. We headed back as the sun was setting.

I had to head back to Melbourne that night for work the next day, but first enjoyed yet another wonderful meal at Darren and Lisa's home in Bendigo. I'm looking forward to seeing what it all looks like when Darren posts the video.

Even though I've only got five acres to play with in the King Valley, I'll be able to use my new found knowledge. That's even if I stop eyeing of the relative's place on the other side of the creek for what can be done there. One disappointment, though, was I won't be able to plough the land until Autumn: that's the best time in our region for the keyline plow. That will hydrate the landscape. Once the hydrating has begun, I can then build small dams, access roads and perhaps a site for a house, shed or classroom.

The impact of keyline ploughing: neighbour vs Darren's block