A family’s passion to bring permaculture to the harshest of Victorian landscapes.
A guest post by Dieter and Ilse from the Little Desert.
On the edge of the Wimmera region of Western Victoria in the heart of wheat and sheep country a family is going against the status quo to create a permaculture Eden.
Ilse and I originally had a laugh over email about how my list of plants that can survive utter neglect in Melbourne wouldn’t have a fighting chance where she lives on the edge of the Little Desert National Park. In her words the only survivors without water in their “hot, sunny, parch summers and frosty winters” would be “wormwood, maybe dandelion and nettle if we have a little rain!”. Now that would make a tasty salad!! Ha!
So I invited her to write a guest post about the unique challenges she faces in her extreme climate and how she has overcome them. I was excited to find out more and I knew you would be too. Her son Dieter wrote the following post and I hope his beautiful account of their journey inspires you all as much as it did me. We’re not alone in our struggles against man and bug and the hard work pays off! We look forward to a sequel in a few months!
Permaculture in practice, practice, practice…
And, patience.
Our garden on it’s way to eden is in a hot, dry, but also frosty small town surrounded by conventional grain growing farmers, where starting a permaculture garden can definitely be demanding. Especially when there’s not too many others who share the same inspiration and can lend a hand in sharing their ‘what works’ and ‘what dries up before you can plant em’ tips and tricks. So without too much experience, much of what we do is trial and error, with more often sometimes error in the beginning phases of setting things up.
In a way, however, this is something you can enjoy. Kind of like deriving a sense of importance because you’re about the only ones who are making an effort in this line of work (apart from a few local inspirations), whilst everyone else around you is carelessly spraying, consuming, or not having the slightest interest in the stuff around them which they would really actually LOVE if they even perhaps knew it was there.
Sometimes, it is a bit disheartening. When you see greens of greens of gardens in other climates with fruit trees, and even just weeds would be kind of good, perhaps, if they grew. Winter is our wet season, but summer can be long, hot and dry without much going on unless you’ve got some good irrigation systems, or established trees.
But, with much excitement, some things do work.
This first one is the vegie patch under shade cloth, including a few wicking beds. Goji berry growing on the south end, beans on the far end (north) Frames up for cucumbers to climb to save space. Not enough morning sun in this patch though, as our double storey dwelling over shadows it. I am thinking of putting in more fruit trees and shifting the vegie patch out the back further under shade cloth that allows the morning sun and covers north and west. Even though that would be like in zone 2. Not much choice though.
Arrowroot loving the heat, but growing in a wicking bed. Have just made another round wicking bed on the hot north side of the garden and are transferring the arrowroot over there to act as a wind break.Desperately trying to get grapes growing everywhere for summer shade.Have lost quite a few thyme plants despite that they are meant to like the heat. So this time the thyme went in a bucket of water!And our little success story. Our “hugel nests” of fruit tree pruning (thanks to locals not knowing what to do with them) left over after the hugel bed had been topped up with them, and grass clippings. The idea of was to keep the summer blazing sun off around the roots of the trees, the side effect was not curly leaf that year 🙂This second one is french millet growing, with a bit of buckwheat, rocket and the forever opportunistic mallow. I’d sown the french millet as a green manure. It was watered to get it started but then no more and was lush green all through summer. The rocket and the mallow had a sprinkler over it on a timer, so some may have sprayed over at times. However, note the amaranth struggling behind the millet. Will be guerilla gardening some of our millet seed on the roadsides next summer…. maybe some farmers may take note and use it as a green manure instead of spraying weeds out in summer.
The first thing that works is definitely taking the right mindset. It seems that in permaculture many people take things very seriously. Like the world is going to fall apart if we don’t work day and night trying to save it. Save what exactly is probably the largest misunderstanding, because all things that need to be saved have a mind of their own, and DO have the ability to contribute to their own salvation, or destruction. So not getting too tied up with overt responsibilities in a demanding environment is probably a good mindset to have, and especially if you have other needs and responsibilities.
Our garden is a part time effort, and in a way, it makes it easier to see what works, and what doesn’t. If something gets neglected, and it survives, it stands out pretty clear. A few good things like that amongst a few likeminded people and you already have the potential to create some permanent sustainable systems.
Wicking beds work great… when they have water. A local showed us his wicking beds on an automatic irrigation system. They looked fantastic!
Hugelbeds…. still in experimentation but they certainly do hold moisture even at the end of the long hot summer, and mulch, mulch, mulch obviously makes such a difference to trees, and the soil.
Setting up your garden to receive the right amount of light is important too. Even though our climate is somewhat semi arid, we don’t want too much shade but even some small exposure to our hot sun can fry things up. We have a very hot west sun and some dry hot winds, but the right plant in the right spot with adequate water will do wonderful.
We have found that growing trees from seed do very well. We have some peaches that come up here and there and they go full bore for their first year without hardly any irrigation. The hotter it gets the more arrowroot seems to grow, and the winter is a great time for getting things started, indoors.
Our irrigation system made a huge difference to our trees, which would be too demanding on us otherwise.
And aquaponics works well too in full sun.
Probably the most interesting thing about our place is that our efforts, and those of a few, do become noticed, and gradually work their way into the minds of locals. To see a system which is so ‘advanced’, that is the current way of life that most people around here live, to make some subtle changes, to turn a few heads and pause for a moment. That really is something.
Of course it would be easy to inspire the ones who are on the edge of their seats already, but those who lay in the gutters wondering how they arrived in their misery, it is something special to watch them see the light, even if it only comes from the corner of their eye.
I know a man who is also doing some great things with his family in our area in permaculture. He has poly tunnels and aquaponics which both apparently work well. So there is lots of sun, and lots of opportunity for things to grow here. There are watercourses and swamps not too far from our area which shows excellent opportunity.
But apart from all that, working in the garden in peace, away from the busyness of the world can feel like a small reach from Heaven, sometimes.
Digging deep, 1 meter deep for our sunken hugel bed. Didn’t want to go high in this hot climate. Local pine trees that had been felled at the footy oval, saved from being burnt by the council and put to better use! ( they still burnt a heap).Followed by local horse poo and duck poo ( duck farms around here)and more grass. Notice the green grass behind, this is winter here.
Finally the hugelbed with sleepers around its edge and flattened on top. The soil is very sandy here, water runs of and doesn’t soak in too well. Everything in it struggled this year once the summer really hit, just tried to get it covered a bit with vines. (sweet potato and mung beans) Next summer it will be shade clothed and hopefully the blueberries now planted will kick off 🙂
Looking north west towards the back of our yard. Another bit of shade cloth for shade refuge. Behind the rusty water tank is our happy little fig tree on the edge of the hugel bed. To the right a young mulberry with a pile of grass at its feet, compliments of the local cemetery. Waiting for the junk to leave the old timber shed to convert it into a glasshouse hopefully. In the background the local reserve and dry grass vacant land next door, where we have planted a few nectarine and peach trees from seed which are growing, albeit slowly, with very little water.
Forget the expensive wetting agents and don’t just chuck that poor soil out, even the driest, nutrient devoid soil is worth saving. Improve poor soils for free!
This is exciting – a new backyard with a blank canvas of dry, lifeless, hydrophobic soil. You might think that sounds like a nightmare for a gardener, but this as opportunity for me to see permaculture work to fix this soil and share it with you (and I’m trying to have more of a can do attitude so glass half full mode switched ON). Soil is precious and unless it is highly contaminated no soil is too far gone to throw away and replaced with bought soil. Just look at this video about greening the desert if you don’t believe me!
You don’t need to do a large area at once, in fact I advise against it! Start small and stagger your plantings. This keeps it manageable and allows you to use your household waste as you make it.
Now that’s not to say I wouldn’t buy a little compost to get my annual wicking beds started, I’m not perfect permaculture princess. I’ve just moved so my compost bin is going to take a year to mature and hot composts can be full on when you’ve got a full time job, plus so cold outside + lazy! I want to encourage people to just start growing, so if like me you end up growing and eating some home-grown food whilst holding down a 9-5 job then I consider the embodied energy in that bag of compost well and truly offset. But improving the soil in a perennial garden bed doesn’t have to be time consuming, back breaking or expensive. In fact it can be free! I did the following for a few minutes every other day whilst having a cold! You need look no further than your own home & garden to make that dead soil rich with humus and teaming with life. I’m doing all this with items scavenged from around the house and garden, but if you want to speed things up or don’t have chickens or rabbits for manure nothing I suggest is expensive.
So let’s get started! Let’s make this a well-structured earth worm mansion! I’ll update you in a few months to see how it’s going and with my trusty (or maybe a bit unreliable) soil testing kit I’ll compare the results.
Ingredients
When soil is right it is like a rich chocolate cake: moist, dark brown, slightly crumbly, with just the right amount of air and of course teaming with worms, haha just kidding!
So here are my ingredients for chocolate cake soil, like all recipes if you know what each ingredient does you can adjust them to you (or your soil’s) tastes.
Organic Matter, Mini Swales, Water & Clay, Pioneer plants, Green Manure, Mulch, Chop & Drop, Perennials
Organic matter – a little bit of give and take
In nature plants drop their leaves to the forest floor, animals eat fruit, nuts and leaves and drop manure, little is wasted, it’s a closed loop. In the veggie patch we pull out dead plants and toss them in the green bin, we don’t have animals roaming dropping free manure and we harvest fruit, leaves and roots taking away all those mined and stored nutrients. We need to give something back or the soil will become more and more depleted.
My soil is just fill dumped by the council when they fixed the sewer line. Grey, devoid of earthworms, dry and fine as ash. It needs organic matter to provide food and habitat for beneficial microorganisms which make their stored nutrients available to growing plants. The term “acts like a sponge” is thrown around a lot in permaculture, but there is no better way of describing how organic matter helps to hold moisture in the soil.
Organic matter comes from the remains of organisms such as plants and animals and their waste products (not human waste products like old TVs, we’re talking manure, but don’t go using human manure either as like dogs and cats they contain way too many nasty bacteria.) I have a bucket in my kitchen where I put any household organic matter that won’t attract rats. So no fruit or cereals which go in the compost, but yes to: torn up paper and cardboard, leaves, flowers, coffee, tea, hair.
This is the lasagne or bolognese method for creating a no-dig garden with an optimum carbon to nitrogen ratio. I’m pretty casual about it (no calorie counting here), I just make sure I don’t put too much chunky carbon dense material in the garden beds I want to plant straightaway as this would bind up nitrogen as microbes try to break it down.
In the urban jungle there is quite a high risk of soil being contaminated whether it be from lead paint flaking off old weatherboards or the dodgy guy who used to strip car bodies in the backyard (no kidding this was what Dylan’s neighbour did along with other unsavoury activities). This is more of a problem for your leafy annuals and root crop where the soil might linger on the vegetable. Fruits have low levels of lead intake so this is what I’m mainly going to grow in this garden bed (fruit trees, tomatoes, eggplant, capsicum, beans, peas). Adding organic matter has also been shown to reduce the lead contamination in plants.
Step 1
So I empty my household organic matter in a bucket, mix in some chicken manure and steep in water for three days, stirring every day to keep it aerobic. If I have excess micronutrient accumulating herbs / compost activators growing I throw some leaves in too. Some examples of these are comfrey, yarrow and tansy. This soaking is like a lazy man’s liquid fertiliser and soften and saturate the dry high carbon materials like cardboard so they breakdown easier, moisten the soil and don’t fly all over the garden (learnt this lesson the hard way when a wind tossed shredded paper all over the garden so it looked like the Merri Creek after a storm). I empty my organic matter brew into rows about 60cm apart on top of the soil where I will plant my first plants.
mini-swales – water retention on a small scale
Like straight lines, perfectly flat surfaces are more of a human thing, and I can attest to the fact that a flat raised garden bed of hydrophobic soil + water is like watching oil rolling off glass! So we need to mould the soil to slow down, capture and direct water where it is needed so it is absorbed not lost whether from the hose or the sky.
Swales are often associated with large scale sloping sites to harvest run-off but can also be excavated hollows in flat lands and right down to the scale of an urban garden.
Step 2
So I added some “mini swales” to capture and slow down water to store it in the soil. I dug trenches between by rows of organic matter and mound the soil on top of them. The roots of the plants I grow on these mounds will not reach the organic matter until they need it and it has had some time to decompose so the nutrients are available. I make these trenches much larger than they need to be to capture water because I plan to build soil up in them to plant perennials in a year’s time, but we’ll get to that later.
Pioneer plants – weeds and succession
So let’s look to nature again, it’s not such a bad mantra. Bare earth doesn’t stay bare for long, where humans have interfered, along roads, eroded river banks and piles of dirt on building sites weeds set up camp and flourish. Living things want to survive and multiply so even under the harshest conditions some plants have learned to adapt so they can colonise even the most unappealing patch of earth. You can actually work out what kind of soil you have and its deficiencies by what weeds self-seed there.
So the tough “weeds” grow first, they mine deeper into the soil getting nutrients which they return to the surface when they die and drop their leaves. Their roots also make pathways for water and air whilst protecting the soil from erosion; in doing so make it habitable for a plethora of microbes, fungi, earthworms and other life which improve the soil further.
Once the soil has been improved other plants will start growing there and eventually these “weeds” will be shaded out as a forest grows. Deep green permaculture has a great article explaining succession. As well as using this as a tool for preparing the soil for trees, it can also be used as a way of controlling weeds. Here David Holmgren discusses usingshade to control blackberries.
Step 3
So I have transplanted some dandelions, nettles, clover, yarrow and globe artichokes in the mounds. I will let the leaves from these plants fall as they would in the wild to return the mined nutrients to the topsoil. I’ll slash them before they set seed as I have no shortage of these pioneers.
For heavy clay soil:
If you have the opposite problem to mine, heavy clay soil, spike rooted plants such as globe artichokes (cousin of the thistle) and comfrey are good at creating air and water pathways through soil.
Clay
For dry, hydrophobic, sandy soil adding organic matter may not be enough. In fact some decaying plant material such as that of pulses (grain legumes) create waxy, water repellent residues that can coat coarse sand particles.
So what is the opposite of sandy soil? Think about clay soils, they are nutrient dense, sticky and store water. The negatives of clay is that it can hold too much water and drown plant, it swells and contracts which can damage fine roots and can be hard for roots to penetrate at stunting growth. Combining the two creates a friable soil type that is ideal drainage, trapping nutrients and deep straight plant roots, this is called a “sandy loam”.
So how do you add clay to sandy soil? The answer may already be under your feet.
Step 4
I used clay / water mixture to line the bottom of the swale trench to further slow down water drainage and improve water holding capacity of the soil. Below is the process, it’s very simple.
For heavy clay soil:
Organic matter and deep rooted perennials are very important for improving clay soil, but some times you have to resort to gypsum, but beware it can cause more problems if you don’t use it correctly.
First – source it
Luckily where I am the subsoil is clay so if I dig down far enough I can easily get 1kg of clay. It’s pretty obvious when the soil changes to clay, it sticks together more, is often yellower and when you hit it with a trowel it comes off in chunks rather than crumbs. If you want to test though, mix the soil with a little water than roll it in a ball, you should be able to toss if from hand to hand even if it is sandy so don’t be fooled. The next step is to roll it into a sausage like dough, it should hold together well if it is clay and get a smooth quality to it. If you are then able to loop this sausage into a ring then it has a high clay content. Sandy soil will just break apart.
If you don’t have a clay subsoil, ask your friends for a spade full. You can find out the location of Austalian soil types at ASRIS website.
second – soak it
For 1m2 soak about 1kg of in a bucket of water for 24 hours to absorb water and break up large globs. It is easier if you dig it up dry as it sticks to your spade wet, then with a trowel, then gloves break it into crumbs. Once under water mix it so nothing sticks to the bottom. Any rocks will sink, organic matter will float. Skim the organic matter off as this will clog your watering can.
third – mix it and decant
Mix it so that the fine clay particles are suspended in the water (looks like chocolate milk shake) and decant into a watering can. Leave any solid muck that isn’t suspended at the bottom and fill with water again and give it another mix.
fourth – water sandy soil
All you need to do is increase the clay content of the sandy soil by 5% for it to improve water holding capacity so no need to over do it. I filled the trench with a watering cans worth of clay solution mixing in the soil removed from the trench. I refilled the watering can and repeated until only rocky dregs remained in the bottom of the clay bucket and all the displaced sandy soil was mixed in. You could also just pour the water out of the bucket for less even, but faster method.
The soil should no longer be hydrophobic and be able to retain nutrients from organic matter.
And as an added bonus the left over sand you have can be used in homemade potting mix!
mulch
In the bottom of the trench I am going to place more organic matter as a deep mulch. This won’t be planted out for a year when the soil is more stable for perennial fruit trees and shrubs. While the organic matter is being decomposed the soil is going to settle a lot which can damage delicate roots and I plan on adding more dense carbon matter in the trench which is good for drainage but may decrease the available nitrogen while microbes break it down.
Charcoal from wood burned in our outdoor stove is one of the things I will be adding the trench. In his book Woodsman, Ben Law says the benefits of Biochar include: improving water holding capacity, allowing microbes and fungi to colonise, porous structure traps nutrients, helps prevent greenhouse gases escaping the soil.
Here are two interesting articles about Biochar, one questions the benefits of Biochar suggesting it might actually reduce nutrients in the soil and that on an industrial scale could be as harmful as biofuels. The other suggests that combining it with high nitrogen/liquid will help unlock the nutrients sooner. As we just burn prunings rather than deforesting forests a little bit of charcoal should be fine, better in the soil with a chance of improving it than in landfill.
If you make a trip to the beach, seaweed would also be a welcome addition to the mix to up the micro-nutrients.
Step 5
For the trench mulch I fill a bucket with more of the household organic matter and chicken manure to balance out to the high carbon charcoal, of which I add sparingly. I then fill the bucket with water as before, stirring daily. After three days the charcoal should be “charged up” with nutrients and saturated with water, ready to add to the bottom of the trench. I suppose if I soaked the charcoal in urine it would be even better, but for now I won’t offend the delicate sensibilities of my neighbours.
green manure & chop & drop
I’m sure by now you know the benefits of green manure, but if you need a refresher here is a great link to one of my favourite seed companies Green Harvest.
As you would find on the forest floor a mulch of fallen leaves helps keep moisture in the soil and provides habitat for top dwelling organisms. Here is a little bit about the chop and drop method of mulching.
step 6
I sow green manure on the top of the mound to act as a further living mulch to protect the soil from nutrient loss and stop erosion. Once the green manure has grown tall and before it sets seeds I slash it and the other “weeds” and use the leaves to mulch the soil whilst leaving the roots in the soil so as not to disturb it. As these are annuals they won’t continually resprout, the stems and roots will decompose and add nutrients back into the soil.
perennials
I’ve already touched on how perennial plant root systems mine deep to bring nutrients from the subsoil and hold the soil together. They are generally more resilient than most annuals to extremes and fluctuations and most importantly low maintenance and once established high yielding.
step 7
Once the green manure is cut back I will plant perennial herbs and small fruiting shrubs and berries on the top of the mound. When I transplant them I add some worm castings and/or mature compost to the hole to give the plants a little boost. Worm castings are also meant to “act like a sponge” to improve water holding capacity.
Next autumn when deciduous leaves drop I will plant some bare rooted fruit trees in the swale trenches. I will continue to mulch with household organic matter and chicken manure, but the ultimate goal is to have a food forest system where understory plants are a living mulch and companions to the fruit trees.
Other amendments
As I wanted to provide you with a free method of improving your soil without having to buy anything I didn’t include the following, but by all means go for it if you feel your soils needs that extra helping hand.
Mycorrhizal fungi – the symbiotic relationship between mycorrhizal fungi and their host plans is really fascinating and I invite you to read more about it in these article. These fungi occur naturally in healthy soil and form a kind of extension to plants roots.
You can buy packets of this at nurseries, all you have to do is dig the roots of plants you are transplanting in the powder.
Rock dust
Ground up rocks to add to depleted soil which normally could only be accessed by deep rooted trees mining deep into the soil. Aside from adding these essential minerals it is also purported to help retain water.
Big thanks to the volunteers and Nola for her amazing photos from the day!
The food forest has flushed green after a harsh summer that stripped the ground bare. The survivors: those born hardy or who retreated to the shadows of apple trees.
It was clear that we hadn’t quite gotten the balance right in terms of perennial plants, I blame the nasturtiums, they make everything seem so lush in spring but when it gets hot they are gone over night abandoning their companions to bake and burn. The same thing can happen in winter when a icy wind dislodges the last of the orange leaves and herbaceous plants tick their faces under the soil until next spring, it ends up looking like a forest of twigs and dirt, not ideal. That elusive perfect blend not only of the 7 layers of a food forest but of evergreen, deciduous, semi-deciduous, herbaceous and annual, a continuous dance of seasonal succession.
But thanks to a surprise donation from some nuns (I just love the randomness of that sentence, thanks ladies!) we were able to have a “take two” with our planting plan. And what a turn out! Despite our number limit, facebook invites are always a game of chance – is a yes a yes? what does maybe mean? This time Yes Yes Yes. Overwhelming at first, but once we got into our groove everyone worked together so well and we got so much done. We cheekily extended our boundary into an overgrown tree planter that the council’s gardening henchmen had neglected, it was a nest of grass and my hat goes off to the brave souls who bravely hacked back the jungle.
The most exciting part of the day was seeing our special flip top signs oiled and installed. Tom and Pat are the superstars who made my sign designs a reality.
Next food swap/permabee will be 2-3pm on Saturday 27th June! I hope to see you there to finish putting up the signs and adding the laminated “treasure hunt” style plant descriptions! It’s going to be so much fun! Check out the Flemington Food Swap facebook for information. (No facebook? Just comment on this post and I’ll add you to the mailing list) We will be having a potluck afternoon tea/food swap afternoon tea afterwards at 3pm! Hope to see you there!
The food forest a month earlier in need of some drought tolerant plants!Drought tolerant plants are concentrated around the edges whilst moisture loving plants are sheltered in the “natural swale” of the land near the fence which is supplemented by drip irrigation.Hardy indigenous bush tucker that was once eaten by Victorian Aborigines and is accustomed to our harsh, dry summers.Signs are made from off-cuts from Tom’s renovation! Can’t get much more sustainable than that!
Sign posts in! Thanks Tom!shop discount beach wedding dresses UK at prombee.co.uk
Taming the jungle! It is important to control grass at the edges especially fences and under trees where it is hard to remove once the garden grows up.
Running grass gone! Looking so much more spacious!This was a beautiful, fun and productive day. Activities like Permabees are a fantastic low stress way to build a sustainable community. I’ve tried organising other social community building events like picnics and food swaps, but when the main attendees were my friends and my family I realised two important facts: strangers are shy and won’t show up to “social” events without a “pack of friends” as a buffer, I’m shy and organising these things stresses me out too! You just can’t force these things. And after repackaging the food swap as a permabee, it made it clear if you make it attractive they will come and if it involves and activity rather than talking you’ll have 30 people there without even trying and it will be a blast! We’re already planning our July Food Swap as a documentary night. I’ve learnt my lesson.Below is a little brainstorm about the highs and lows of building a community, the things that make it worthwhile and the pitfalls to avoid. Maybe you can help me add to the list! At the end of the day if it’s stressful and isn’t fun for you, the organiser, then it’s time to rethink the path you have taken or perhaps you just need to find more people to support to make the going easier. A highlight of the last Food Swap Permabee was that one of my uni classmates showed up who I hadn’t seen for about five years! We hadn’t actually spoken much at uni, but we soon found out we had SO much in common and it was exciting to discuss possible joint ventures and remember that Architecture can be holistic if you can shake yourself free of all that convention spouted as truths.
Attractive
Activities and workshops where you can meet like minded people without social pressure.
Sharing knowledge, learning a new skill.
Swapping tools and food
Supporting each other, banding together for or against an important cause
Making hard tasks easier by delegating and utilising individuals’ strengths
Building friendships, combating the loneliness of the city and the isolation one can feel when fighting the sustainable cause. Connection.
Being re-energised by other people’s passionate and determination
Having fun, celebrating and eating amazing food other people have brought along
Mentally and physically healthy alternative to sitting alone on the computer or watching TV.
Unattractive
Awkward social situations
Burning out because everyone relies on you (or a small group of you) to take charge and organise everything
No one showing up to your events
Stress of organising events where a lot of people come
Insurance and oh&s associated with community events
Pressure to come up with ideas
Pressure to instigate other people’s ideas
Lack of privacy when you have one of those yuk days when you don’t want anyone to recognise you and you run into about 5 acquaintances on the journey. (don’t pretend you don’t know what I mean)
Dylan installing drip irrigation along the fence. We wanted to minimised irrigation so we have concentrated plants that need moisture like berries along the fence leaving outlying areas for drought tolerant herbs, shrubs and bush tucker.
It’s been six months since we had to say goodbye to our old house and garden. It’s sad to lose all that productive space, anyone who has bought or built up beautiful new soil will know how it feels, but I guess the positive is that it has really driven me to pour my heart and energy into the community gardens I’ve designed.
I had a lovely email from Annelies asking me to answer some questions for her research project on backyard food growing and I thought this was a good chance to share my last thoughts and photos of our garden which six housemates could get a salad out of for every dinner and a lot more in peak harvest season. It wasn’t going to replace farming, but with nearly every baby spinach encased in plastic nowadays it sure cut down on our garbage, water waste and pesticide ingestion. We’re not going to cover our wheat and rice requirements in a 9x9m backyard but salad is easy, and everyone, even an apartment dweller can do it and be a lot healthier for it.
It was actually really therapeutic to reflect on our first permaculture garden journey and I’d like to thank Annelies for the idea. I had forgotten how much we actually got from that garden and it has given me the inspiration to transform our new garden! I hope it inspires you too!
I love reading your comments and enjoy responding to your questions, so keep them coming! 🙂
From humble beginnings
Earth bag raised garden beds filled wit herbs and salad plants.
How much of the food you eat do you grow on your property?
SALAD NOT STAPLES
– know your gardens limits & understand your climate
We didn’t grow staples such as rice, wheat, lentils, chickpeas or corn. We have experimented with them, but with our climate, space constraints, time required in ground and their nutrient demands it just wasn’t feasible.
We concentrated on growing greens and fruit. We were about 90% self-sufficient in greens (e.g. lettuce, spinach, chard, bok choy, tatsoi, etc). We grew almost all our herbs including bay, rosemary, oregano, thyme and chives. Our fruit and nut trees required a few years to fruit productively but by the time we left we were getting: bananas, avocados, apples, nectarines, peaches, almonds, plums, babacos, strawberries, lilly pillies, oranges, lemons. We also had kiwiberry, currants, pomegranate, elderberry, passionfruit, goji berry and lime trees that were yet to fruit. In a few years this would have easily been enough fruit for the year, but not enough nuts.
Other seasonal treats such as tomatoes, cape gooseberries, eggplants, broccoli, pumpkin, zucchini etc were enough for 1-2 months of the year when they were in season, but there was not enough to preserve for the rest of the year.
How have you managed to grow this quantity?
PERENNIALS, KING OF THE LOW MAINTENANCE POTAGER
We had raised garden beds for annuals, but from experience you can get a greater yield with less maintenance from a food forest system primarily comprised of perennial edible plants.
GROW UP – make use of vertical space in small gardens
Where space and light is limited using fences and other vertical space is important.
KNOW YOUR MICRO CLIMATE
Careful analysis of miroclimates on your site is important, for instance our garden was south facing, but one corner in the south west got sun all day and this is where we planted out cool banana.
– save time, water and grow more resilient deep rooted veg
The most effective annual garden beds are wicking beds as they require less time for watering in summer and plants in them are more resistant to extreme heat which were are getting a lot of in Melbourne.
We practiced a four year crop rotation to reduce the risk of disease and keep proper nutrient balances in our soil. Plants from the same family generally have different nutrient/pH requirements as well as propensity to fall victim to the same soil borne diseases so letting the ground have a rest from a plant family for three years helps avoid issues. Green manures and legumes help fix nitrogen in the soil and improve its quality.
The tropical corner, a microclimate warm enough for a ‘Cool Banana’ to fruit
AVOID CHEMICALS
Chemicals are a quick and dirty fix that lead to long term problems. Killing pests will stop beneficial insects immigrating to your garden to take care of the job for you and might even harm the good guys you already have. Likewise herbicides & fungicides damage the delicate balance in your soil not only getting rid of weeds but killing off the good bacteria, mycelia fungi and earthworms that contribute to rich beautiful soil.
It might take a few years to get your garden in balance and some plants might be sacrificed, but once it is filled with soil life, ladybugs, birds and bees you’ll never look back.
COMPANION PLANTING
– nurse maid plants, beneficial pairings and alleopathy
In Australia we have plenty of light so the English way of planting in neat little rows with a halo of dirt around in unnecessary. Grow plants tighter so they shelter each other and use a mixture of plants to confuse pests with silhouette and smell. Some plants work especially well together such as carrots and onions. companions-planting
RETHINK WHAT IS A WEED
Nutrient filled, hardy, self-propagating, edible, when is a weed not a weed? Instead of pulling out those dandelions why not try the leaves in salad and the peeled root in a stir fry? Nettles make a tasty pesto and attract butterflies and protect their larvae. edible-weeds
WORM FARMS & CHICKENS
– garden helpers to improve your soil
These permaculture pets area great source of manure and soil conditioner without the need to increase your lettuce’s food miles with the bought stuff. Worm castings also help your soil retain moisture and both are great way to quickly process food scraps. diy-worm-farm pascoe-vale-permablitz
MULCH
Protects your soil from drying out and adds nutrients as it decomposes. Why note try 1. Living green mulch – ground covers such as clover, 2. Chop & drop, 3. Seaweed. seaweed-mulch using-seaweed-mulch chop-drop
Bamboo & bananas need a lot of water, but can tolerate the salts and soaps grey water. They also grow very fast and are great for screening out neighbours to the southIn our garden edible flowers are fixed with vegetables, not just to add colour to a salad but as bee forage.
– support small business rather than the duopoly supermarkets (people versus corporation)
We also support our local Foodworks grocery store where the owners know us and we feel loyalty towards them. For staples we visit various organic grocery stores and buy things in bulk and use our own containers. Some include: friends of the earth, Ceres, Lygon organics
BUY IN BULK
(affordable organics, dried staples, less packaging)
Organic food is more expensive and as backwards as it seems things made in Australia can also be! If you buy dried instead of tinned and buy in bulk organic is a lot more affordable (about the same as the small packets of non organics in the supermarket. Plus there is the added bonus that you use your own containers so you don’t have to feel guilty about packaging. wholefoods friends of the earth ceres grocery
What changes have you had to make to your diet to source food sustainably?
ETHICAL MEAT
(reduce over consumption of meat, degradation of land, animal cruelty & trawling)
We now eat mostly vegetarian with the exception of fish/seafood we have caught ourselves or sustainably sourced. Dylan also has a little bit of kangaroo or beef from the Farmer’s market where you can talk directly to the farmer about how their animals have been raised. fishing adventures
BUY AUSTRALIAN GROWN & MADE
We limit tofu and soy in our diet and try to get bulk NSW rain fed rice and Tasmanian quinoa. This is starting to sound a bit Portlandia so I might as well go all the way there…we eat a lot of Australian nuts, seeds and berries. (Yikes what hipsters! ha!)
Affordable, fresh, local, nutrients not lost, well-rounded balanced diet
David Holmgren’s wife Sue told us how one year she didn’t eat tomatoes all winter because she hadn’t grown enough and couldn’t bear to buy any. She said she felt really good, better than she had felt in ages and although she would preserve tomato for the coming winter it illustrated how even good things should be eaten in moderation because toxicities can build up. It’s good to give your a body a break every now and then like we would have before cheap oil made all year tomatoes, bananas and strawberries a thing.
I try to limit packaged foods to reduce waste and plan on trying a rubbish free month this winter which hopefully will help me develop better habits.
We try to eat as seasonally as possible and buy organic preserves such as canned tomatoes if we can.
(don’t get caught out when your at your most vulnerable – tired, hungry, under pressure)
Being prepared is a must: soaking dried pulses for future meals, making excess so we have meals to take to work makes a huge difference so we don’t end up having to head out for a sneaky takeaway too often. We try to make eating out a fun treat not a lazy convenience (but we haven’t perfected this one).
I work full time and Dylan is at uni so our blender has made a huge difference in making it possible to quickly and painlessly make pasta sauces and soups from scratch come dinner time.
Has there been an impact on your wider lifestyle?
With only a small shady backyard there has been a real incentive to actively contribute to local food security. The Flemington Food Forest I designed with the support of The Farnham St Neighbourhood learning centre has morphed from a fun community garden in a local park to an education tool with signs for school students and I get a lot of joy from it. I have also taken over organising the Flemington Food Swap which my housemate set up, I am really trying hard to develop a nurturing sustainable community in my suburb to bring together like minded people and make sustainability fun and social. Someone’s glut is someone else’s zucchini brownie after all.
What are the groups/networks that you utilise to source your food? Both formal and informal.
Flemington Farmers Market
Racecourse Road Foodworks (if you ask them to get something organic or ethical they are always happy to oblige)
Organic Wholefoods Brunswick & Flemington
Friends of the Earth
Ceres
Natural Tucker Bakery
What food items have you found difficult to source locally and/or sustainably?
Coffee
Tea
Fish/seafood
Chocolate
Coconut
Monocultures – corn, rice, wheat, etc
Bananas and other tropical fruit
Sugar
Cashews
Pine nuts
Brazil nuts
Pepitas not hulled overseas (many are grown here then exported to China for processing)
Dates
Are there any alternatives to this?
We use a lot of beans for our main staple as we can grow some at home and they add nitrogen to the soil.
Almonds are the main nut we eat and we occasionally make almond milk as it is not so easy to find milk such as Elgaar where they rest their cows and reuse their glass bottles. No soy milk!
Honey instead of sugar and maple syrup, we keep our own bees. We are also growing yacon as this is meant to be a great sugar substitute. We grow stevia, Dylan likes it, but I don’t.
Peppermint and other herbal teas
Dylan likes his coffee but he gets it from Streat where it is Faritrade and they hire & support local homeless people.
our beloved chooks, more trouble than they’re worth, but lovable all the same
