tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45931269209431526882024-03-13T15:21:19.599+11:00The Permaculture ForestThis is a blog about an attempt to fast-track a 15-acre paddock in South Gippsland, Victoria, Australia into a model permaculture system centred on a stable, diverse, and largely edible forest.Cielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00975864917759353582noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4593126920943152688.post-54388631659473405652007-09-09T18:32:00.000+10:002007-09-18T21:27:48.815+10:00Permablitz #29 at the Permaculture ForestWell yesterday and today we had a huge weekend, hosting <a href="http://www.permablitz.net">Permablitz</a> #29, having heaps of fun with about 20 wonderful visitors, and getting a heap done. As well as having workshops on hot composting (thanks Cam!), sourdough breadmaking (thanks Dan!), grafting (thanks Adam!) and even Chinese medicine acupressue points (thanks Kim!), we made enormous progress both on the zone 1/2 orchard and veggie area south of the house and the maincrop terrace north of the tennis court (which harvests water for the terrace) - see the pictures below to see what we achieved. On Saturday afternoon we had a tour and demonstrated some features of the mainframe water design, including bringing the South-Eastern spring sideways, taking the dam sideways along a swale, and converting all the swales into diversion drains by turning a pipe. Thanks so much to everyone that came along.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RuPNP4BLpcI/AAAAAAAAAKc/v8an0UItTWE/s1600-h/ShitArrives"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RuPNP4BLpcI/AAAAAAAAAKc/v8an0UItTWE/s200/ShitArrives" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5108152074987349442" /></a><br />Our lovely dairy farmer neighbours helped us out with two huge trailer loads of cow poo.<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RuPQsYBLpgI/AAAAAAAAAK8/1ZKZzp02IXw/s1600-h/CamExplains"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RuPQsYBLpgI/AAAAAAAAAK8/1ZKZzp02IXw/s200/CamExplains" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5108155863148504578" /></a><br />Cam explains the approach to sheet mulching the orchard, as part of a plan to turn it into an edible forest garden.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RuPQs4BLpjI/AAAAAAAAALU/jfoiyxbpxsU/s1600-h/OrchardDig"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RuPQs4BLpjI/AAAAAAAAALU/jfoiyxbpxsU/s200/OrchardDig" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5108155871738439218" /></a><br />Digging in the paths for the forest garden.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RuPNPYBLpaI/AAAAAAAAAKM/J4K_qmeYG-k/s1600-h/OrchardWork"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RuPNPYBLpaI/AAAAAAAAAKM/J4K_qmeYG-k/s200/OrchardWork" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5108152066397414818" /></a><br />Going for it in the orchard on Saturday.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RuPNPoBLpbI/AAAAAAAAAKU/Cem2alQjFx4/s1600-h/SheetMulchOrchard"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RuPNPoBLpbI/AAAAAAAAAKU/Cem2alQjFx4/s200/SheetMulchOrchard" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5108152070692382130" /></a><br />The sheet mulch (blood and bone, then newspaper, then cardboard, then cow poo, then woodchip mulch) down.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RuPNQIBLpeI/AAAAAAAAAKs/TPr_9PGWY_M/s1600-h/SpudMark"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RuPNQIBLpeI/AAAAAAAAAKs/TPr_9PGWY_M/s200/SpudMark" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5108152079282316770" /></a><br />Marking out the maincrop bed on the terrace.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RuPUDoBLpmI/AAAAAAAAALs/jLbvk-L8BNk/s1600-h/SpudPaths"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RuPUDoBLpmI/AAAAAAAAALs/jLbvk-L8BNk/s200/SpudPaths" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5108159561115346530" /></a><br />Putting in the paths in the (90 square metre) maincrop terrace, which we've designed to fit the chook tractor.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RuPUDYBLplI/AAAAAAAAALk/_WNxqSqHrrs/s1600-h/SpudPathDig"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RuPUDYBLplI/AAAAAAAAALk/_WNxqSqHrrs/s200/SpudPathDig" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5108159556820379218" /></a><br />Digging them paths and planting them spuds.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RuPQs4BLpiI/AAAAAAAAALM/4rn16DOyqoA/s1600-h/MulchSpuds"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RuPQs4BLpiI/AAAAAAAAALM/4rn16DOyqoA/s200/MulchSpuds" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5108155871738439202" /></a><br />Mulching spuds.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RuPUDIBLpkI/AAAAAAAAALc/MhUkuosRjk8/s1600-h/SpudMulcho"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RuPUDIBLpkI/AAAAAAAAALc/MhUkuosRjk8/s200/SpudMulcho" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5108159552525411906" /></a><br />More spud mulching. What we don't eat or give away out of the 90 square metres of spuds we'll leave to build the soil.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RuPUDoBLpnI/AAAAAAAAAL0/SHm1-cEz0uk/s1600-h/SpudsDone"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RuPUDoBLpnI/AAAAAAAAAL0/SHm1-cEz0uk/s200/SpudsDone" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5108159561115346546" /></a><br />The new maincrop bed at the end of the blitz.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RuPUD4BLpoI/AAAAAAAAAL8/CqBHuEkoB-M/s1600-h/Tour"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RuPUD4BLpoI/AAAAAAAAAL8/CqBHuEkoB-M/s200/Tour" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5108159565410313858" /></a><br />On Saturday evening we took the group on a tour of the whole site, explaining the core features of the design as we went along.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RuPQsoBLphI/AAAAAAAAALE/wLVKsZilTN0/s1600-h/CompostWorkshop"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RuPQsoBLphI/AAAAAAAAALE/wLVKsZilTN0/s200/CompostWorkshop" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5108155867443471890" /></a><br />Cam leads a compost workshop on Sunday morning.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RuPQsIBLpfI/AAAAAAAAAK0/Tgpo3H7C1yE/s1600-h/BlitzCrew"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RuPQsIBLpfI/AAAAAAAAAK0/Tgpo3H7C1yE/s200/BlitzCrew" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5108155858853537266" /></a><br />Here's the team - we got a lot done but had heaps of fun too, with amazing food from Di and a bonfire and even a firebath on Saturday evening.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RuPNP4BLpdI/AAAAAAAAAKk/XCetyHHLQ8A/s1600-h/SillyFace"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RuPNP4BLpdI/AAAAAAAAAKk/XCetyHHLQ8A/s200/SillyFace" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5108152074987349458" /></a><br />One more time...Cielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00975864917759353582noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4593126920943152688.post-76586949510613841342007-09-04T09:59:00.001+10:002009-12-12T17:34:46.438+11:00Permaculture Forest Training Camp in DecemberWe're running a one-week practical permaculture skills on-the-ground training camp this December. The venue is the Permaculture Forest, a beautiful 15-acre property near Leongatha in South Gippsland, Victoria, Australia.<br /><br />We've timed the course to follow on from the next Permaculture Design Course at Rick and Naomi Coleman's Southern Cross Permaculture Institute which finishes December 15th. Our course will then run from 9am Monday December 17th to midday Saturday December 22 (We're also planning to run a second training camp January 21st-26th 2008 to follow on from Bill Mollison and Geoff Lawton's next Melbourne course but more on that to come).<br /><br />This means that students of the acclaimed Southern Cross course keen to hit the ground can do so (we're only 20 minutes drive from Rick and Naomi's place) and that others who have done a PDC in the past can come along to get re-inspired and skilled up.<br /><br />The Permaculture Forest is the perfect property for the training camp, with a range of permaculture systems well into implementation, including goose ponds, swales, extensive windbreak plantings, large-scale nut, fruit and support tree plantings, irrigation systems, main and grain no-dig cropping terraces, strip/cell grazing systems, soil improvement strategies, chicken tractor gardens, deep-litter straw yard chicken systems, wetlands, revegetation, greywater reedbed and compost toilets.<br /><br />Students will learn about all aspects of broad-acre permaculture design, implementation and maintenance. We'll also be eating largely from the property (including veggies, carbs, eggs and possibly some meat) and will spend time in the zone-one vegetable gardens which includes compost and worm farm systems.<br /><br />The cost will be $500 ($450 low income) for the week including everything - food (but we'll all take turns helping prepare it), accommodation, day and evening sessions. Though we'll be spending most of our days outside, we will seamlessly integrate theory and practice so that you're learning on every level. Both theory and practice sessions will also be catered to the interests of individuals and the group.<br /><br />Teachers and facilitators will include Cam Wilson, Dan Palmer, Jessie Price, Carey Priest and Adam Grub. Along with long, productive days outside (you will sleep well!) we'll have evening sessions, workshops and guest speakers on a variety topics, including professional design consultancy, permablitzes, sustainable kitchen skills, and the soil food web approach.Cielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00975864917759353582noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4593126920943152688.post-83240049977132517592007-08-20T13:49:00.000+10:002007-08-20T14:09:34.864+10:00Belated report from the cutting edge of Permaculture Forest actionWell we're well overdue for an update here, with water flowing everywhere and over 100 fruit and nut trees in the ground! Here's a few pictures from last week to get the ball rolling:<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RskQ9-iSJhI/AAAAAAAAAH8/DCWczOhvLAg/s1600-h/SiltGoose"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RskQ9-iSJhI/AAAAAAAAAH8/DCWczOhvLAg/s200/SiltGoose" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5100626709918656018" /></a><br />Here's the silt trap and goose pond shortly after the tap was attached to the pipe coming through the goose pond wall - it's filling up fast!<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RskQ-eiSJlI/AAAAAAAAAIc/x6bntCvX-KU/s1600-h/GooseTap"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RskQ-eiSJlI/AAAAAAAAAIc/x6bntCvX-KU/s200/GooseTap" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5100626718508590674" /></a><br />Here's the above mentioned tap. Don't ask for the story about how we got it on...<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RskSIeiSJoI/AAAAAAAAAI0/Lwp4hTcD9Qk/s1600-h/TopSpringFlow"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RskSIeiSJoI/AAAAAAAAAI0/Lwp4hTcD9Qk/s200/TopSpringFlow" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5100627989818910338" /></a><br />The flow leaving the top flow this time of year - really responds to a bit of rain uphill, what!<br /><br /><br />And here are a few of the bottom swale-dam system:<br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RskQ9-iSJiI/AAAAAAAAAIE/NVnj2tm5Dho/s1600-h/P1010007"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RskQ9-iSJiI/AAAAAAAAAIE/NVnj2tm5Dho/s200/P1010007" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5100626709918656034" /></a><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RskQ-OiSJjI/AAAAAAAAAIM/UeXZTIJLgsI/s1600-h/P1010008"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RskQ-OiSJjI/AAAAAAAAAIM/UeXZTIJLgsI/s200/P1010008" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5100626714213623346" /></a><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RskQ-OiSJkI/AAAAAAAAAIU/s0F_tkP8Z58/s1600-h/P1010010"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RskQ-OiSJkI/AAAAAAAAAIU/s0F_tkP8Z58/s200/P1010010" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5100626714213623362" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RskSIeiSJnI/AAAAAAAAAIs/oviKL5mDRNQ/s1600-h/PlugHole"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RskSIeiSJnI/AAAAAAAAAIs/oviKL5mDRNQ/s200/PlugHole" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5100627989818910322" /></a><br />Here's our first plughole - a system where we pull a plug to convert an infiltration swale into a diversion drain, letting us either moisten or dry out the soil below at will.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RskSIOiSJmI/AAAAAAAAAIk/0eLFtZpnjPo/s1600-h/BatterPlants"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RskSIOiSJmI/AAAAAAAAAIk/0eLFtZpnjPo/s200/BatterPlants" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5100627985523943010" /></a><br />And here's the tennis court batter with a variety of native grasses, grevillias, oranges and olives planted out.Cielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00975864917759353582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4593126920943152688.post-45924729316354687652007-06-27T10:44:00.000+10:002007-06-27T11:18:58.664+10:00What's all been happeningJust figured out the main and grain crop terrace below the tennis court is 189 square metres of growing space. At 9 potatoes per square metre that's over 1500 potatoes planted! Scary! We have a rectangular chicken tractor (bottomless movable chook pen) coming that measures 1.8 metres across so will organise the paths on the terrace to let us use the tractor back and forward to remove weed and fertilise the ground before we plant it out. Bring on the mighty power of chicken.<br /><br />We had our first frost on June 14th - the ground was white and crisp.<br /><br />Also, after a little rain, a new spring started bubbling up out of the ground a ways up the hill in the north-eastern corner. May be scope for little annual pond we reckon.<br /><br />I picked up another 550 plants on the landcare order (only 950 left to go!) and a bunch of different allocasuarinas (media x 50, paludosa x 40, littoralis x 10). The plants as part of the order were: 50 Acacia dealbata, 50 Acacia melynoxylon, 50 Acacia verticulata, 100 Lemondra longifolia, 50 Poa, 100 Ghania, 50 tea tree, 50 Dionella and 50 Native Elderberry.<br /><br />Ian also gave me three Acacia Boormanii or Snowy River Wattle. Gave one to Rick and put one in the top main swale and one in the top orchard swale.<br /><br />Dafe Griffiths from Geometree came all the way down from the Castlemaine area to look over the property and advice on our tree planting strategy on Thursday June 21, Wonderful guy and great value with many years of tree system planning and planting experience. <br /><br />On Monday June 25 we deep ripped, thanks to Di who pushed it through in the nick of time (with the rain, three days later would have been too late). A downright lovely local contractor named Jacko came by with a yeomans plough. For the technically minded, we went about 25 cm deep with five tines using a 120 horsepower John Deer tractor and a Yeoman's plough with coulters but no rollers. We stayed pretty close to contour but in some places went slightly off contour from valleys to ridges ah la Yeoman's keyline design system. In some places even after about 50mm of rain over the last month or so the soil was bone dry even 10cm down but generally the moisture was reasonably good.<br /><br />Tuesday June 26 I planted an Acacia cognata or river wattle next to our three main ponds (goose pond, Cam's pond and the pond feeding the dam). The last week or so we've also filled in a few gaps in the Casuarina-based windbreak plantings on the Southern and Western boundary in the house corner. I also got a bunch more native legume shrubs for the mounds (pultanea and something else) and one or two of about 5 different kinds of wattles to chuck in the top mound and see how they go. A lovely bloke named Trev also swung by with two huge bales of rye straw. He noticed the tagasaste and was really interested, saying he grew it for cow and sheep fodder and thought it was fantastic.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RoG5w9XUyrI/AAAAAAAAAHU/XIQngfB36Ik/s1600-h/P1010001"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RoG5w9XUyrI/AAAAAAAAAHU/XIQngfB36Ik/s200/P1010001" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5080546105407883954" /></a><br />Jacko going to it.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RoG5xNXUysI/AAAAAAAAAHc/XKFqGVV1v4w/s1600-h/P1010005"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RoG5xNXUysI/AAAAAAAAAHc/XKFqGVV1v4w/s200/P1010005" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5080546109702851266" /></a><br />What a plough. About $10,000 worth apparently.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RoG5xtXUytI/AAAAAAAAAHk/x6-P1vT047M/s1600-h/P1010006"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RoG5xtXUytI/AAAAAAAAAHk/x6-P1vT047M/s200/P1010006" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5080546118292785874" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RoG5xtXUyuI/AAAAAAAAAHs/N_ekGryXqhw/s1600-h/RipWater"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RoG5xtXUyuI/AAAAAAAAAHs/N_ekGryXqhw/s200/RipWater" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5080546118292785890" /></a><br />Here's a close up of water collecting in one of the rips two days after they went in.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RoG5x9XUyvI/AAAAAAAAAH0/x6gg5w0W_pg/s1600-h/SwaleWater"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RoG5x9XUyvI/AAAAAAAAAH0/x6gg5w0W_pg/s200/SwaleWater" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5080546122587753202" /></a><br />Here's a section of the middle main swale this morning after maybe 7 hours of steady medium rain.Cielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00975864917759353582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4593126920943152688.post-45107543567627475782007-06-12T21:09:00.000+10:002007-06-12T21:36:21.641+10:00Planting up a stormOn Saturday Di and I planted more natives down in the North-Eastern corner and where the creek comes in from the east. I planted lomandra longifolia and ghania sieberiana along the fence line and Di planted teatree (Melaluca squarrosa and Melaluca ericifolia) along the creek. Di put a few tiny honey locust seedlings in the west end of big swales one and two. I also transplanted nasturtiums into the swale mounds on big swales 1 and 2. In the last light of the day, Di and I planted out a Bunya pine in the South-Eastern corner. We planted it ceremoniously into some rich humus we took from the heart of the big old near-dead blackwood we felled a few months ago. From the end of the life of one great tree to the beginning of the life of another.<br /><br />On Sunday I finished planting out the three main swales in nasturtium and planted out sunroot tubers every metre or so along the base of the bottom swale and also into the batter of the level area we extended out in front of the shed along with a bit of the similar area on the dam wall. Sunroots inhibit the growth of other plants but will be about 1.5 metres and down hill from productive trees and do a good job of shading the mounds in summer as well as providing more chop and drop style mulch. I also placed a stake with a knife-cut at the height of the closest-to-the-house tagasaste on the top paddock swale. It's growing fast and now we can measure how fast.<br /><br />I also planted a single kowhai, a NZ legume tree in the middle of the top swale. We got the seed from Steve La Valley's botanical ark and just the one has germinated. I hope it does alright. I dotted a few albizias that Stacey gave us around the piped crossings on the bottom two swales and a variety of subtropical legumes here and there along the top swale. I put a passionfruit in the small broadbean bed to the west of the tennis court and mulched the bed with rice husks. There are bare patches here and there, especially on the sun-facing side, in the covercrops. Next time they predict a decent stretch of wet I'll scatter more. Bit by bit we'll cover them up so come Spring they rise up like one long green snake.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/Rm6An8cPAyI/AAAAAAAAAF8/SN2sv2bfOLY/s1600-h/NettleChickweed"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/Rm6An8cPAyI/AAAAAAAAAF8/SN2sv2bfOLY/s200/NettleChickweed" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5075135253820932898" /></a><br />Nettles and chickweed are colonising soil where it was disturbed by the last lot of cows. Pretty and edible!<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/Rm6An8cPAzI/AAAAAAAAAGE/WI747OfwyE8/s1600-h/WaterPipe"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/Rm6An8cPAzI/AAAAAAAAAGE/WI747OfwyE8/s200/WaterPipe" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5075135253820932914" /></a><br />Here's the flow the South Eastern spring is currently contributing to the top main swale. It's a small flow but is very persistant and will increase dramatically as the soil is recharged with Winter rain.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/Rm6AoMcPA0I/AAAAAAAAAGM/2Fzqz06nCZ4/s1600-h/SwaleWater"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/Rm6AoMcPA0I/AAAAAAAAAGM/2Fzqz06nCZ4/s200/SwaleWater" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5075135258115900226" /></a><br />Here's a pipe's-eye perspective of the water sheeting out along the swale.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/Rm6AoMcPA1I/AAAAAAAAAGU/gT8neGrLb1Y/s1600-h/HouseSwales"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/Rm6AoMcPA1I/AAAAAAAAAGU/gT8neGrLb1Y/s200/HouseSwales" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5075135258115900242" /></a><br />Here are the two smaller house orchard swales and to the right the diversion drain bringing road runoff sideways into the main system. We've already started planting out bare-rooted fruit trees into these mounds - so far a plumcot, a nashi, a nectarine and an apricot.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/Rm6AoccPA2I/AAAAAAAAAGc/aqczBUVPbhg/s1600-h/BillDiPlant"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/Rm6AoccPA2I/AAAAAAAAAGc/aqczBUVPbhg/s200/BillDiPlant" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5075135262410867554" /></a><br />Bill and Di planting natives down on the Eastern boundary last week.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/Rm6CT8cPA3I/AAAAAAAAAGk/kg7Uu4WNyt8/s1600-h/CareyClean"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/Rm6CT8cPA3I/AAAAAAAAAGk/kg7Uu4WNyt8/s200/CareyClean" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5075137109246804850" /></a><br />Carey cleaning out the tank above the house. Over a foot of gunk with a good-sized little tree growing in there too!Cielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00975864917759353582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4593126920943152688.post-20843006107997881482007-06-07T18:31:00.005+10:002007-06-07T18:44:08.241+10:00More trees plantedToday whilst Carey cleaned out and filled up the long-unused 18,000 litre tank above the house (For the record: main tank = 42,000 litres and the tank below the shed = 24,000 litres), Bill, Di and Dan planted natives down inside the Eastern boundary on both sides of the creek. We planted two kinds of melaleucas, blackwoods, silver wattles, prickly moses, varnish wattle, native currant, and grasses lomandra longifolia and ghania siberium (or something like that ) around a skeleton of casuarina cunninghamiana and casuarina stricta. The big trees at 3 metre spacings with the understory mixed in underneath. An amazing amount of worms in the soil presently. The slight rain we've had must have brought them up from the depths. Also an amazing amount of variability in soil types even from hole to hole. Concrete-like grey clay to the softest richest red clay loams.<br /><br />The top swale is looking good. The tagasastes are really shooting up and we now have, from mound base upward, comfrey, daffodils, two kinds of myoporum, nasturtiums, and of course the cover crop of oats and about nine different legumes. Who knows, but maybe all this will be enough to hold the grasses off until the trees are up. We shall see.<br /><br />Cheers,<br />DanCielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00975864917759353582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4593126920943152688.post-85444213766854176312007-06-05T22:14:00.000+10:002007-06-06T16:26:31.310+10:00What upHere's a few words penned last Saturday: Last few days have been pretty relaxed actually. On Tuesday night we visited our friends Rick and Naomi Coleman of Southern Cross Permaculture Institute for dinner. Later on Fern Okerby from Apollo Bay visited to see what we've been up to and on Wednesday we showed her around and stewed some apples. She also possibly identified our existing large late-season apple for us: Stewart Seedling. On Thursday we went to a talk by Sally Fallon, author of Nourishing Traditions, and that was interesting. She reckons we should eat more butter, bone broths, ferments, organ meats and stuff like that. If we do, apparently our children will be more likely to have full round faces and a straight set of healthy teeth. It's been raining and the cover crops are all doing great and the swales are accumulating long puddles of water up to about 10 metres long. Rick tells us we're due for more rain so I look forward to that magical moment when the swales and dam fill and overflow. On Friday I sowed more cover crops (lucerne, red clover and white clover) on the backyard swales, the area below the diversion drain that has the drain spoil spread over it by the bobcat and the new swale coming off the goose pond. Oh yeah, our mate Adam has started a sort of companion blog - check it out at http://www.milkingtherooster.neopeasant.com<br /><br />Oh, by the way, Fern the apple whiz recommended Freyburgh as a mid-season good eating apple from NZ and Devonshire Quarrenden from England 1678 as a good eating apple and sweet green coppin as a good cider apple.<br /><br />And here's a catch up for today: Yesterday Cam, Carey and I cruised down from Melbourne in the pano (panel van). We picked up a 200-litre barrel for brewing compost tea from Carey's place, a pile of daffodil bulbs and Cam's clear pipe for finding levels from Kim's house, and three bare-rooted fruit trees (plumcot, nectarine (Firebrite) and nashi (Shinsui)) and a bunch of ground covers (prostrate rosemary, myoporum, sea daisy). Hannah from the last Southern Cross PDC and Bill and Di are down too so there's lots of energy here this week. Today Cam and I dug in the diversion drain / spillway on the bottom of the two swales in the north eastern corner while Hannah planted tagasaste into the mounds. We (mainly Bill, Di, Hannah and Cam) sowed a cover crop (red, white & subclover, lucerne, barrel medic, oats) into the top swale in that corner and planted about 80 casuarinas continuing the same windbreak pattern down the eastern boundary. I picked up a ute-load of firewood whilst the paddocks were dry enough to do so. Carey's been masterminding the house water situation and cleaning out the tank above the cubby house, God bless him. Bill and Di planted the three new fruit trees and that was cool. Planting the first food-producing trees into swale mounds.<br /><br />Okay, over and out,<br />D.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RmZP1McPApI/AAAAAAAAAE0/4aR-zaNVCrU/s1600-h/CamRaking"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RmZP1McPApI/AAAAAAAAAE0/4aR-zaNVCrU/s200/CamRaking" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5072829805570753170" /></a><br />Cam raking around the goose pond.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RmZP1ccPAqI/AAAAAAAAAE8/2Z0OAZqpEHo/s1600-h/CoverCrops"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RmZP1ccPAqI/AAAAAAAAAE8/2Z0OAZqpEHo/s200/CoverCrops" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5072829809865720482" /></a><br />The cover crops creeping up to seize the swales.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RmZP1scPArI/AAAAAAAAAFE/gg7NJuQaO4k/s1600-h/FirstFruitTree"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RmZP1scPArI/AAAAAAAAAFE/gg7NJuQaO4k/s200/FirstFruitTree" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5072829814160687794" /></a><br />The first fruit tree goes into the mound of one of the orchard swales!<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RmZP18cPAsI/AAAAAAAAAFM/cRfAC-1QCyk/s1600-h/Glying"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RmZP18cPAsI/AAAAAAAAAFM/cRfAC-1QCyk/s200/Glying" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5072829818455655106" /></a><br />Glying the little dam below the spring dam with fresh cowshit from next door.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RmZP2McPAtI/AAAAAAAAAFU/yuq5NYu_czQ/s1600-h/Gly2"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RmZP2McPAtI/AAAAAAAAAFU/yuq5NYu_czQ/s200/Gly2" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5072829822750622418" /></a><br />We laid it down then covered it with cardboard to get it fermenting. The idea comes from Mollison's designer's manual.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RmZRdMcPAuI/AAAAAAAAAFc/Yolyqfd2eMQ/s1600-h/PreservingApples"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RmZRdMcPAuI/AAAAAAAAAFc/Yolyqfd2eMQ/s200/PreservingApples" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5072831592277148386" /></a><br />Can and Dan preserving apples with Rick's cool corer-peeler gismo.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RmZRdccPAvI/AAAAAAAAAFk/sZ7njgUqACY/s1600-h/SwaleWater"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RmZRdccPAvI/AAAAAAAAAFk/sZ7njgUqACY/s200/SwaleWater" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5072831596572115698" /></a><br />A swale with some rather long puddles during recent rain. Bodes well for levelness, what.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RmZRdscPAwI/AAAAAAAAAFs/VtYdvis35SY/s1600-h/SwanDam"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RmZRdscPAwI/AAAAAAAAAFs/VtYdvis35SY/s200/SwanDam" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5072831600867083010" /></a><br />We have a swan and its babies living in our dam!<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RmZRd8cPAxI/AAAAAAAAAF0/C_JFgPZrB0g/s1600-h/TractorPoo"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RmZRd8cPAxI/AAAAAAAAAF0/C_JFgPZrB0g/s200/TractorPoo" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5072831605162050322" /></a>Collecting the cow poo for glying from the dairy farmer next door. He reckons we can have an unlimited supply if we want it!Cielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00975864917759353582noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4593126920943152688.post-85585163906043295352007-06-02T05:32:00.000+10:002007-06-02T05:34:33.312+10:00First word from Di!A brief comment and heartfelt thanks from Di: Actually, words are pretty useless to describe how the the Permaculture Forest looks right now; we've had rain and there are little ponds and waterways glinting through the irridescent lushness that has sprung up so quickly, enticing one to wander and linger in the soft, verdant green that now covers those bared brown hills of that extraordinarily long, hot, dry, bushfire-devastated summer. We have the West Gippsland of old back again to love and enjoy; lets pray it stays, at least for a while.<br /> <br />After a couple of unexpected weeks away for me, while Dan, Cam and Carey worked so hard, late yesterday afternoon, with the rain pelting down and the swales filling, we wandered down to the dam and found a black mother swan and her three tiny babies swimming in the dusk and the rain. The new swales have significant water collecting in them and soaking into the thirsty soil and the seeds on the mounds are germinating, so one can begin to imagine how lovely it will be once the cover crops and trees have started to grow, and the soil to regenerate.<br /> <br />Although all lovely, my favourite ponds are the two on the North slope near the old willow tree, which flow so surely down into what will soon be a native, restored wetland, thanks to the amazing work, planning and inspiration of Dan and Cam, and help from Carey and Paul and Adam, as well as all the wonderful people who came to the permablitz weekend and before and after, too.<br /> <br />A big, undyingly grateful 'thankyou'!.The permablitz evening round the camp fire and chatting with friends, new and old, was what life is all about. It was great to see friends and fellow students from our PDC in December too - Dan and Cam, of course, Paul, Jodi, Michelle, Cat, Belinda and Andrew, Ray and Bruce from the following PDC.<br /> <br />So many things still to do - fix up a wood heater for Dan and anyone else who can make it down for a bit of peace/beauty (and planting - we still have almost 2,000 landcare trees to go as well as terraces, trial fruit and nut trees). What else? Chooks. Plant some veggies, including the terraces with potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes late winter - a good combo for the summer as the chokes may shade the potatoes from the full heat of that north facing slope. Pumpkins will go well there too in the spring as they'll help to shade the earth.<br /><br />Compost teas are high on the list, deep ripping and finding some system for stopping the couch grass from invading the wonderful swales and home orchard in the spring. If anyone know of a good source of felt/weedmat/newspapers/cardboard/mulch, we'd love to hear!!<br /> <br />One new thought to explore is to seed acacias/tags when we deep rip, thus providing a living mulch/cover/wind and sun protection over the whole property which can eventually be thinned and planted with main fruit and nut trees.<br /> <br />Cheers,<br />DiCielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00975864917759353582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4593126920943152688.post-67516637936131530902007-05-28T18:08:00.000+10:002007-05-28T18:43:55.784+10:00Earthworks are over!Right, here's what went down the last few days.<br /><br />On Saturday Cam and I fixed the new fence on the Eastern boundary. The tension of the wire was pulling about six star pickets out of the ground so we banged in another star picket below each one sideway and wired the existing one onto that. We also made a start on finishing by hand the two small swales in the orchard. I think we've done eight swales in total now. Probably about enough I reckon.<br /><br />Sunday we finished off the top swale and Cam thinned out the elms above the diversion drain while I marked all the power and telephone cables with coloured bricks for future identification purposes. We also decided to use the newly finished orchard swales as our winter garden bed so I planted out some broccoli using a newspaper sheet mulch to keep the kikuyu roots at bay. I also ordered a shitload more cover crop seeds along with some winter veggies. As the cover crops come up on the mounds we'll just sow more seed into any gaps.<br /><br />Today the tracked bobcat came and cleaned up the diversion drain, leveled the terrace, and fixed up the driveway (leveled some rough sections and put in a woo-up to divert water sideways). It just left and all the earthworks are now done, finished, even paid for. Fantastic! It looks like it is just about to rain hard too which is a bonus - hopefully in time before the cover crops kark it - we've had a few hot days running now. Jay gave me a go in the bob cat and that was a bit of fun. It feels like being in a moon explorer or something.<br /><br />Tomorrow morning I've arranged with the dairy farmer to our north, east, and west to pick up a uteload or two of fresh cow poo. We're gonna try glying, or using a layer of fermenting organic matter to seal the second little water catchment below the south eastern spring.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RlqUm0o4XoI/AAAAAAAAAEM/Hb_vJCHbPGs/s1600-h/OrchardSwales"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RlqUm0o4XoI/AAAAAAAAAEM/Hb_vJCHbPGs/s200/OrchardSwales" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5069527725244964482" /></a><br />Here are the orhcard swales after they were dug by Jay in the 12-tonner and before Cam and I finished them off by hand. They actually look quite beautiful now.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RlqUnko4XpI/AAAAAAAAAEU/QcEkkKMODCM/s1600-h/DiversionDrain"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RlqUnko4XpI/AAAAAAAAAEU/QcEkkKMODCM/s200/DiversionDrain" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5069527738129866386" /></a><br />Here's Jay tidying up the diversion drain.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RlqUn0o4XqI/AAAAAAAAAEc/GnAXbqwkrvw/s1600-h/GoosePond"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RlqUn0o4XqI/AAAAAAAAAEc/GnAXbqwkrvw/s200/GoosePond" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5069527742424833698" /></a><br />Here's Jay tidying up the goose pond.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RlqUoEo4XrI/AAAAAAAAAEk/DeKNxt-2b4E/s1600-h/LevelTerrace"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RlqUoEo4XrI/AAAAAAAAAEk/DeKNxt-2b4E/s200/LevelTerrace" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5069527746719801010" /></a><br />Here's Jay leveling the terrace - now it varies by less than 2cm and slopes very slightly toward the north for drainage. Within the week we hope to once-off rotary hoe it, sow seed potatoes, and mulch it.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RlqUo0o4XsI/AAAAAAAAAEs/7XzLA7Ho5Lk/s1600-h/WooUp"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RlqUo0o4XsI/AAAAAAAAAEs/7XzLA7Ho5Lk/s200/WooUp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5069527759604702914" /></a><br />Here's Cam working Jay to put a water-diverting woo-up in the driveway.Cielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00975864917759353582noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4593126920943152688.post-87242882086975366792007-05-23T18:24:00.000+10:002007-05-23T19:43:24.948+10:00Another report from the groundOkay,<br /><br />Time for another update here. On Monday Jay managed to fix the machine and I worked with him to finish up. Before I arrived he filled in and rammed earth over the pipe through the goose pond wall. I had him ram it more, especially on the inside edge, when I arrived. Hopefully it won't leak. The 50mm poly pipe had two wetrings or baffles to prevent water seeping along the pipe over time and ultimately undermining the pond wall. We then put a spillway trench incorporating a short stretch of swale coming off the goose pond. We then went and built a little dam at the eastern end of the top swale. Dug down to what was very heavy blue and yellow-tan clay - maybe 100% clay even. Then dug a keyhole, then added and rammed in hard enough layers to bring the wall up to the height we needed to get water into the top swale. It looks great and is already full. I later put in the pipe and gate valve that lets us channel water directly into the top swale. Another bit of the vision is realised! <br /><br />Jay then put in a smaller pond further down where we can get water into the second swale, and then we went and scratched two lines in the orchard which we'll finish by hand into small swales for small fruit tree plantings. Yesterday Alan and Jay came to take the excavator away. I thanked Jay for his fine work and he said he'd enjoyed the job and was interested in coming back to see the system in future. I also gave him some dates and a contact number for a few of the short permaculture courses we have coming up around the place. Told him I could get him a good price.<br /><br />It was a great feeling to see the excavator go. It's done wonderful things for us but it is a big heavy hunk of metal and it does tear open the earth every time it moves. We're keen to get onto re-greening all the disturbed earth (there's rather a lot of it!) and fast-forwarding past this momentary blip in the evolution of this system. It's nice to realise. however, that even now, at the moment of most disruption, the whole place looks just gorgeous. And the cover crops are all germinating beautifully on the swale mounds. I should start taking daily photos and in a week or two the will be all green.<br /><br />We were thinking of getting a grader for the terrace and access tracks, but I'm now thinking we might get a tracked bobcat in to tidy things up and level the terrace. We can perhaps leave the access track till next spring, as it is already getting a bit wet and slippery. The last week we've had a fair bit of rain. Nice to see puddles forming in the swales. Interesting too to see what they mean about the red soil being free draining and the grey holding water. It's very true!<br /><br />Today I finished planting out tagasastes in the swale coming off the dam and raked and planted (broad beans and tags) in the short length of swale coming off the goose pond. It was a little demoralising to see green roselas and galas moving along the swales picking off all the oats, but they seem to be leaving the other stuff (about nine kinds of legumes) alone so I guess that's fair enough. But in retrospect would have been good to spread some rice husks or similar on top of the seed to confuse the birds. You can buy a huge bale for $37 at Leongatha rural.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RlP8UUo4XjI/AAAAAAAAADk/n23iQ3fAvFE/s1600-h/MiniDam"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RlP8UUo4XjI/AAAAAAAAADk/n23iQ3fAvFE/s200/MiniDam" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5067671431789698610" /></a><br />Here's the key little dam at the top of our swale system.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RlP8VEo4XkI/AAAAAAAAADs/Lb8UsCTmqm4/s1600-h/Minidam2"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RlP8VEo4XkI/AAAAAAAAADs/Lb8UsCTmqm4/s200/Minidam2" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5067671444674600514" /></a><br />Here you can see the gate valve that releases the spring-fed mini-dam into the top swale.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RlP8Vko4XlI/AAAAAAAAAD0/139cj5cGSqQ/s1600-h/MoundSprouts"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RlP8Vko4XlI/AAAAAAAAAD0/139cj5cGSqQ/s200/MoundSprouts" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5067671453264535122" /></a><br />Here's a close up of the mound mix sprouting. In a week or two you won't be able to see no dirt no more.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RlP8WEo4XmI/AAAAAAAAAD8/Hv63SvxMxGg/s1600-h/SwaleWithTrees"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RlP8WEo4XmI/AAAAAAAAAD8/Hv63SvxMxGg/s200/SwaleWithTrees" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5067671461854469730" /></a><br />Here's the top swale with the tagasastes spaced every four metres.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RlP8WUo4XnI/AAAAAAAAAEE/jwskrSYZmc4/s1600-h/SouthEastWater"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RlP8WUo4XnI/AAAAAAAAAEE/jwskrSYZmc4/s200/SouthEastWater" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5067671466149437042" /></a><br />Here's a shot from the South Eastern corner looking down over the various water storages we've created and also the main dam which was already here but now has a few hundred metres of swale feeding it. Come the first big rain and we predict it will fill up and overflow, eventually indefinitely.Cielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00975864917759353582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4593126920943152688.post-81218343820636594922007-05-19T18:43:00.000+10:002007-05-19T19:01:44.926+10:00The LatestWell, time for a catch up as we've been at it every day and a bit has been happening. We're nearly finished with the 12-ton excavator which has broken a bit of hydraulic pipe and once Jay manages to fix it we'll fill and ram in earth around the baffled pipe through the goose pond wall, put in a short swale and spillway off the goose pond, maybe make a start on the small swales in the house orchard (to be finished by hand) and that will be about us. We're planning to get a grader for the access track and to get the main crop terrace level. Then maybe a bulldozer for the wetlands - we'll see what happens.<br /><br />But all the main swales are finished! They look just beautiful. Curving across the landscape like level snakes. We've also put a crossing pipe for access over each one, raked them smooth and removed all the remaining grass chunks, then sowed them with a cover crop including oats, fenugreek, barrel medic, wooly pod vetch, lucerne, red clover, white clover, sub clover, purslane, rape seed, rye corn, yarrow and BQ mulch (a brassica mix from Green Harvest). Yesterday Carey, Cam and I started scattering seed on the three swales on the north-facing slope. We took one swale each and none of us made it much further than half way with our allocated seed, which was already about four times too much seed for the whole swale! The problem was that all that you could really see going out was the oats so for those first halves we have probably about 8 or 10 times too much seed. Bring it on! Overseeding Mother Nature style. So over the next few weeks we expect to see the swales be seized by our cover crops - accumulating biomass, fixing carbon and nitrogen, and keeping the grass away. Given there were showers predicted for the next five days we cancelled the hydromulch and saved maybe $2000 which was a bonus.<br /><br />Jessie has spent the morning planting out tagasastes on the mounds at four metre spacings and they look great. It's an excellent feeling to have the seed and trees in. It's as if step one is over. The swales are cut, shaped and planted. Still heaps to do but even if nothing more happened the swales will be doing their thing, fast-tracking soil growth and forest re-establishment.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/Rk67Wko4XdI/AAAAAAAAAC0/pj08awfKCEY/s1600-h/JayDan"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/Rk67Wko4XdI/AAAAAAAAAC0/pj08awfKCEY/s200/JayDan" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066192627305045458" /></a><br />Young Jay getting into the swale-making flow.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/Rk67W0o4XeI/AAAAAAAAAC8/5cNXsLxvkR0/s1600-h/BuffSwale"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/Rk67W0o4XeI/AAAAAAAAAC8/5cNXsLxvkR0/s200/BuffSwale" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066192631600012770" /></a><br />That's one buff lookin' swale.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/Rk67W0o4XfI/AAAAAAAAADE/a5upF9T-loI/s1600-h/Batter"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/Rk67W0o4XfI/AAAAAAAAADE/a5upF9T-loI/s200/Batter" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066192631600012786" /></a><br />The batter - what earthmovers call the angle put on any vertical cuuts so they don't collapse over time.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/Rk67XEo4XgI/AAAAAAAAADM/-fNZqh7FYLU/s1600-h/crossingpipe"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/Rk67XEo4XgI/AAAAAAAAADM/-fNZqh7FYLU/s200/crossingpipe" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066192635894980098" /></a><br />One of the three crossing pipes.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/Rk67XUo4XhI/AAAAAAAAADU/gkVAzbALmCY/s1600-h/CamDamSwale"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/Rk67XUo4XhI/AAAAAAAAADU/gkVAzbALmCY/s200/CamDamSwale" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066192640189947410" /></a><br />Cam putting a finishing touch on the swale and spillway that hooks into the east side of the dam.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/Rk68PEo4XiI/AAAAAAAAADc/p6igZ7m8XtA/s1600-h/PondPipe"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/Rk68PEo4XiI/AAAAAAAAADc/p6igZ7m8XtA/s200/PondPipe" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066193597967654434" /></a><br />The pipe going through the goose pond wall.Cielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00975864917759353582noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4593126920943152688.post-77418005149718081662007-05-13T18:45:00.000+10:002007-05-13T19:43:58.047+10:00Game on. Forest begins.Well a huge few days here at the permaculture forest. Absolutely huge. On Thursday we finished off the terrace area below the tennis court which now needs just a final leveling and loosening before we plant out the first crop of potatoes. On Friday the first swale went in. It was a bit nerve racking, but the technique we used worked really well and it lets you get both the swale base and the crucial point where the ditch meets the mound dead level. The way it works is that a tracked excavator with a tilt bucket digs the swale from the side with the ditch ending up the width of the bucket (1.4 metres in our case). Young Jay the driver actually outperformed his more experienced boss mainly because he was just more attentive and keen to get it perfect. Tomorrow he comes back and we'll put in the next two swales. Apart from a short dip of about 7 cm due the aforementioned boss being a bit overeager, the base of the first one varies by about 3 cm. Not bad at all!<br /><br />Yesterday (Saturday) and today we had a crowd of helpers up for a permablitz and planted about 700 trees on the western and southern boundaries. Di just got a landcare grant supplying 2500 trees which is awesome - pretty much enough to plant out the entire boundary and zone 5 area. This weekend we planted casuarina stricta (about 100), casuarina cunninghamiana (about 100 - tall & moisture tolerant), eucalyptus strezleckii (50 - tall), acacia melonoxylon (50 - tall), acacia dealbata (50 - medium), acacia stricta (50 - low), pomidennis aspuca (50 - medium), oleria argophylla (50 - medium), goodenia ovata (50 - low & moisture tolerant), coprosma ovata (50 - low & moisture tolerant), bursaria spinosa (50 - low, dry tolerant), and gahnia seibuiuei (50 - low). Whew! We'll get a photo of a sketch of the planting spacing and placing we used. Basically lower plants give the wind the initial lift which then is lifted further by the casuarina stricta followed by the cunninghamian, the blackwoods, and in wet spots the eucalypts. The big trees were all spaced 3 metres apart and placed so that the will grow into a fairly enven wind break. All we have to do know is keep them wet and make sure rabbits and the grass doesn't do them in!<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RkbRrCbCdQI/AAAAAAAAACE/8rYAg1-fQNk/s1600-h/SwaleWorks"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RkbRrCbCdQI/AAAAAAAAACE/8rYAg1-fQNk/s200/SwaleWorks" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5063965368339559682" /></a><br />In goes swale numero uno!<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RkbRrSbCdRI/AAAAAAAAACM/YZIa8eZTf9s/s1600-h/Swale"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RkbRrSbCdRI/AAAAAAAAACM/YZIa8eZTf9s/s200/Swale" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5063965372634526994" /></a><br />What a beauty!<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RkbRrSbCdSI/AAAAAAAAACU/Ti8JrQbJ-34/s1600-h/DamTrench"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RkbRrSbCdSI/AAAAAAAAACU/Ti8JrQbJ-34/s200/DamTrench" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5063965372634527010" /></a><br />Chucking a trench in through the dam wall for one of the swales we're doing tomorrow.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RkbRribCdTI/AAAAAAAAACc/n0oG7IHszho/s1600-h/ComfreyPlant"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RkbRribCdTI/AAAAAAAAACc/n0oG7IHszho/s200/ComfreyPlant" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5063965376929494322" /></a><br />Part of the permablitz crew raking, degrassing and planting comfrey root cuttings into both sides of the swale mound.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RkbRrybCdUI/AAAAAAAAACk/t0tgxlEj2to/s1600-h/CamPond"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RkbRrybCdUI/AAAAAAAAACk/t0tgxlEj2to/s200/CamPond" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5063965381224461634" /></a><br />And this is Cam's pond which he directed the driver to put in pretty much on the fly. It's already full and is a great example of the use of levels and spillways. Very beautiful and an option for pumping from in future.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RkbafibCdVI/AAAAAAAAACs/Bc2iCDIc_Bg/s1600-h/LunchCrew"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RkbafibCdVI/AAAAAAAAACs/Bc2iCDIc_Bg/s200/LunchCrew" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5063975066375714130" /></a><br />The tree planters taking some well-earned lunch.Cielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00975864917759353582noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4593126920943152688.post-77796981529894497312007-05-09T18:38:00.000+10:002007-05-09T18:53:22.926+10:00Off, like a rocket!So today the earthworks began! Alan and driver Jay rocked up at 9:30 with a 20-ton excavator and we spent the day on the top diversion drain, the silt trap for the goose pond, the goose pond itself, breaking up the old concrete slabs both above and below, and putting in the first terrace below the tennis court. It's looking good - and tomorrow it seems we'll have both machines going strong. Heck, at this rate we'll be finished in a few days! We are also thinking of getting in a bobcat for a half-day to clean up - give it all a really nice finish.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RkGKnybCdLI/AAAAAAAAABc/WVVlg2WbvJ8/s1600-h/MachineArrives"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RkGKnybCdLI/AAAAAAAAABc/WVVlg2WbvJ8/s200/MachineArrives" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5062479872295859378" /></a><br />The machine arrives.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RkGKnybCdMI/AAAAAAAAABk/V-0QkwVKRuk/s1600-h/DiversionDrain"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RkGKnybCdMI/AAAAAAAAABk/V-0QkwVKRuk/s200/DiversionDrain" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5062479872295859394" /></a><br />The diversion drain goes in.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RkGKoCbCdNI/AAAAAAAAABs/Ar7c5xGBfvI/s1600-h/GoosePond"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RkGKoCbCdNI/AAAAAAAAABs/Ar7c5xGBfvI/s200/GoosePond" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5062479876590826706" /></a><br />The goose pond goes in.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RkGKoSbCdOI/AAAAAAAAAB0/3KfzMytoLfo/s1600-h/LongReach"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RkGKoSbCdOI/AAAAAAAAAB0/3KfzMytoLfo/s200/LongReach" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5062479880885794018" /></a><br />What a reach! Moving some rumble we found from the terrace area to enlarge the flat area in from of the shed.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RkGKoSbCdPI/AAAAAAAAAB8/ClG48_4MXyI/s1600-h/FromTagHedge"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RkGKoSbCdPI/AAAAAAAAAB8/ClG48_4MXyI/s200/FromTagHedge" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5062479880885794034" /></a><br />Here's a photo from the same spot as yesterday at around the same time.Cielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00975864917759353582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4593126920943152688.post-17695402340900794732007-05-08T20:40:00.000+10:002007-05-08T20:56:55.399+10:00Earthworks delayed again!But funny how things work out for the best. Alan of Gippsland Excavations is working with us and genuinely sorry that the 12-ton excavator has been delayed. The upshot is that tomorrow he'll send a 20-tonner which will arrive by 8am. With that we'll get to work on the access road, top diversion drain, goose pond, breaking up the old concrete, the terraces, the crossing pipe wetland, and the pond below the willow, along with a few other bits and pieces. Then the 12-tonner will arrive Thursday to cut the swales. So we'll probably have two machines on the go at once, and great to be able to use each for the job it's most suited to.<br /><br />Meanwhile, today we started the first small swale in the orchard behind the house (Cam, Jessie, Adam and me).<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RkBVzCbCdHI/AAAAAAAAAA8/9SQ45eOZlU4/s1600-h/CamSwing"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RkBVzCbCdHI/AAAAAAAAAA8/9SQ45eOZlU4/s200/CamSwing" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5062140316476404850" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RkBVzibCdJI/AAAAAAAAABM/sWHOPyiB10U/s1600-h/Swale1"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RkBVzibCdJI/AAAAAAAAABM/sWHOPyiB10U/s200/Swale1" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5062140325066339474" /></a><br /><br /><br />And here's a few more photos taken just this evening around 4pm with long shadows across the slope. Tomorrow from 8am, this will begin to change.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RkBVzSbCdII/AAAAAAAAABE/4neW-VhXX_s/s1600-h/EasternSlope"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RkBVzSbCdII/AAAAAAAAABE/4neW-VhXX_s/s200/EasternSlope" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5062140320771372162" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RkBVzibCdKI/AAAAAAAAABU/GyT-LFvwfO8/s1600-h/NiceView"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RkBVzibCdKI/AAAAAAAAABU/GyT-LFvwfO8/s200/NiceView" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5062140325066339490" /></a>Cielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00975864917759353582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4593126920943152688.post-78065857260903205552007-05-07T13:36:00.000+10:002007-05-07T13:49:19.559+10:00The Quiet Before the StormToday Cam, Jess and I are just taking a breath prior to the party which begins tomorrow. Yesterday Cam and Bill finished replacing the northen fence and Jess and I marked out the dam swale and several small swales in the orchard area to the South/South East of the house.<br /><br />A tree feller/fella came today and took down a dead eucalypt near the shed and we chopped up a blackwood that was leaning on another tree near the spring. Another bloke arrived with six 2.4 metre long 225mm wide crossing pipes to get the access road across the swales. Cam and I just had a think about the location of the diversion drain above the house taking water from Hydes road to the goose pond. The slope will be about 50:1 but we think that will be fine. It will be a shallow wide trench. Later today we'll haul a ute load or two more firewood to the storage pile we set up in the to-be chook area (automatic termite and white ant control) and remove the fence below the tennis court so the excavator driver can get to work on the terraces. As soon as Di gets here with her Jimmy-bar.<br /><br />We heard from the nursery guy the other day that Di has been awarded a landcare grant which gives us 2000 trees to plant out our boundaries. If we can get them by this weekend we can plant them out on our working bee, perhaps. What else? Well, our first hot compost pile is kicking along well and today was about turn four. So in a few weeks we'll have some good compost and can start brewing compost tea!Cielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00975864917759353582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4593126920943152688.post-24622767756862791762007-05-05T14:31:00.000+10:002007-05-05T14:40:45.709+10:00Warming up for earthworksToday Cam (the birthday boy - 28 today!) and I marked out the top swale with a lazer level. We put a stake every ten metres or so and a small pile of ground limestone every metre or two at the point where the downside of the swale ditch will meet the uncompacted mound. We were pleased to figure out a way of getting it above a large eucalypt near the house fence. What we'll do is make a concrete pond where the spring flow comes underneath the blackwoods. We also picked up a ute load of fire wood from the dead blackwood we chainsawed up yesterday. Bill bought a mid-sized stihl and it's a ripper. Oh yeah, went up the road to ask Warren and BIll to move the 150 calves off today so we can remove the fence below the tennis court, and old Bill the farmer said that what we were doing made a lot of sense and that if it worked he was going to do the same thing (integrated swales and dams etc) on his farm. After that we shot down to Koorooman nursery and picked up another 100 of both Casuarina cunninghamiana and stricta along with a few promising mulch plants called blanke leaf and strawsonia or something like that. Right, off to mark out another swale!Cielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00975864917759353582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4593126920943152688.post-87973468410599291232007-05-01T21:20:00.000+10:002007-05-01T21:34:42.951+10:00Some more Before PhotosThese were all taken on the 14th of May 2006 when Permaculture Soltions visited the site for a pre-purchase property assessment. It was a bit overcast but it will be good to compare these with photos from the same spot taken in a week or so!<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RjckHSbCdCI/AAAAAAAAAAU/CRCB772p1HA/s1600-h/NElookingS"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RjckHSbCdCI/AAAAAAAAAAU/CRCB772p1HA/s200/NElookingS" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5059552413996971042" /></a><br />The block is roughly a rectangle about 200 by 273 meters oriented north-south with a valley and stream running through from east to west. This is from the North Eastern corner looking South.<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RjckHibCdDI/AAAAAAAAAAc/4DyjyCGX64Q/s1600-h/NElookingSW"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RjckHibCdDI/AAAAAAAAAAc/4DyjyCGX64Q/s200/NElookingSW" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5059552418291938354" /></a><br />This is from the North Eastern corner looking South West.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RjckHibCdEI/AAAAAAAAAAk/1Q5o3GUbct8/s1600-h/NElookingW"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RjckHibCdEI/AAAAAAAAAAk/1Q5o3GUbct8/s200/NElookingW" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5059552418291938370" /></a><br />This is from the North Eastern corner looking W.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RjckHybCdFI/AAAAAAAAAAs/CF9RR9Q5fE8/s1600-h/NWlookingE"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RjckHybCdFI/AAAAAAAAAAs/CF9RR9Q5fE8/s200/NWlookingE" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5059552422586905682" /></a><br />This is from the North Western corner looking East.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RjckHybCdGI/AAAAAAAAAA0/PzOWzOqgNAo/s1600-h/NWlookingS"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RjckHybCdGI/AAAAAAAAAA0/PzOWzOqgNAo/s200/NWlookingS" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5059552422586905698" /></a><br />This is from the North Western corner looking South.Cielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00975864917759353582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4593126920943152688.post-5991340223480050272007-04-30T20:59:00.000+10:002007-04-30T21:00:41.522+10:00Today was an Excellent DayToday Di and I got busy preparing stuff for the earthworks which is now happening next Monday. We seriously pruned the oaks above the house so the excavator can dig the diversion drain and access road. We organised heaps, including a certified cable locator who will visit to tell us where the telstra cables are so we don't cut them to shreds by mistake. We went and bought 180 trees - casuarina cunninghamiana x 50, casuarina stricta x 50, blackwood (acacia melanoxylon), several varieties of native legume shrubs, silver wattle (acacia dealbata) and a few other things. Ian Starky of Koorooman nursery just up the road is wonderfully knowledgeable and happy to share. On his advice we're thinking of, for the boundary plantings, sheet mulching with cardboard and then with gravel. We also spent some time thinking design thoughts about the area south of the house, really focusing for the first time on how important that area will be as the initial entry and gathering point for future tours and other visitors. We went into Leongatha and harvested some cardboard and bought some more stakes, nails, dowel for the chicken house entry, an 85 mm openal pocket knife for Di, some drill bits, a washing machine and a stereo. Slowly we're getting organised! Soon we'll even have a camera here so we can post photos and we're borrowing a movie camera to get footage of the earthworks.<br /><br />Even though we're just getting started, it's nice to be eating from the property. The little quince bore two big quinces yesterday and cooked up they were absolutely divine. We also harvested and ate a fig from the fig Di planted too close to the deck. From the garden we've been eating silver beet, parsley, eggplant, tomato and zucchini. Also been eating rhubarb, apples, and lemons all from on site!Cielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00975864917759353582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4593126920943152688.post-57077619979343272622007-04-30T02:08:00.000+10:002007-04-29T10:15:55.758+10:00Earthworks delayedAs per the warning of old Bill the farmer, the earthworker we had booked has been delaying his arrival after saying he was quite sure he could be here with a machine on Tuesday. So we called another earthworker named Alan from Gipplsand Excavations and he kindly came out on short notice to take a look yesterday. He was a really nice guy very straight up about when he could have a machine here, and for the same price as the other guy ($110 per hour) could get us a 12-ton excavator with a tilt bucket that will let us dig the swales from the side. So we've switched over to him and moved the earthworks to begin Monday May 7th. Meanwhile Warren the farmer from up the road (Bill's son) has put 150 calves on the block to chew down the grass giving us a better view of the profile of the land for the earthworks. It's amazing the effect 150 calves can have in a few days...<br /><br />On the fruit front, the existing large apple tree east of the house is bearing heavily - very late in the season. And the experimental cucumber type things we planted below the tennis court are bearing prolifically with no watering our attenion through the end of the dryest summer in a 100 years or whatever it is...<br /><br />Just walked around the property. The calves ate one of the three surviving casuarinas near the spring. The pipe feeding into the dam was for the first time visible with a flow of 370 ml (the size of the tea cup I was holding!) every 10 seconds (3,200 litres per day or 11 million litres per year) and the central valley flow through culvert was 370 ml every second (32,000 litres per day or 1 million litres per year). Not bad for the end of summer!Cielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00975864917759353582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4593126920943152688.post-47374325280601503702007-04-26T04:16:00.000+10:002007-04-25T11:15:21.019+10:00The PlanOkay, so we'll get up what's been happening over the last 6 months or so up when we get a moment. But presently we have a 12-ton excavator and then a grader arriving to start work in six days and are pretty focused on that. In a nutshell, we are planning to put in 650 meters of swale, several ponds, an access road, diversion drains, terraces and a few other bits and pieces. Then we'll have the swale mounds hydromulched with a slurry including purslane, rye corn, oat, fenugreek, vetch, medic, clover and much else. The we'll plant a tagasaste every 4 meters along the swales and start planting out the boundaries with casuarina and others. Then we can fence and get our goose system chook system and even our zone one veggie system started. So we are about to radically alter this landscape with some serious reconstructive earth surgey aimed at fast tracking what has for many years been cattle pasture into a permaculture forest that happens to be called the permaculture forest.Cielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00975864917759353582noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4593126920943152688.post-58244211123193217272007-04-24T04:03:00.000+10:002007-04-25T13:03:24.317+10:00Permaculture Forest Blog Launched!<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RiwGnOc-ypI/AAAAAAAAAAM/x0LaUKhGavQ/s1600-h/Leongatha"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TTCmvMvW5Pw/RiwGnOc-ypI/AAAAAAAAAAM/x0LaUKhGavQ/s320/Leongatha" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5056423752594541202" /></a><br />The permaculture forest began with a woman named Di and a rural block of land in South Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. Di purchased the land out of her deep concerns about peak oil and climate change. She wanted to use permaculture to achieve a lifeboat or safe haven where 20 or more people, including her two teenage daughters, could supply the majority of their needs on site. She also wanted to establish a first-rate working example of a permaculture system and ultimately a diverse, abundant and low-maintenance 15-acre forest of food.<br /> <br />From a permaculture perspective the site itself was and remains delicious. Fifteen acres of ex-cattle pasture two thirds of which with a north to north-easterly aspect, a good portion of free-draining mineral-rich volcanic red soi on the higher land and grey clay on the lower, a gentle slope, a great diversity of microclimates and distinct areas, and most importantly water. The property includes two perennial spring-fed streams and an actual spring located at one of the highest points. There is a 2.5 meg dam, and a good deal of uphill catchment as well as scope for channeling in water from Hydes road by which you access the house (this water is currently barreling down the drive straight into the shed). There is an existing house and a copse of mature oak trees south-west of the house, protecting it from the prevailing wind. I don't think we mentioned the tennis court yet, but more on that later.<br /><br />With help from a team of several designers including herself, Di has not only obtained a permaculture design for the property, but is about to begin its implementation. A bit like Ran Prieur’s land blog (http://ranprieur.com/land.html), this blog has been set up as a resource for others with similar aspirations. Read about what we’ve done and learn from our mistakes! We started with a .5 metre contour map with existing features indicated and we've then developed a water design which will go in shortly (will upload these when we get a chance). Think of the above photo as a before photo. For it is all about to change.Cielahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00975864917759353582noreply@blogger.com1