Compost Delivery
Weeds
Weeds are opportunistic plants that develop in disturbed environments. Their action can bring balance to the topsoil mining nutrients from below and making it available. However some species in some conditions are so invasive they can slow the natural succession phasing of growth. In these situations, a small, considerate and deliberate intervention can restore health to the ecology.
The most effective means to control invasive species has to be taken on a case by case basis. The use of herbicide was quoted by a local bush regenerator as amplifying the effect of human interaction one hundred fold.
A person working with the health of the system in mind can effect a huge change, this is sometimes necessary when an over dominant species has halted the natural phasing of the forest. However; Indiscriminate spraying of herbicides has a massive environmental cost it can destroy fertility in the soils and undermines the natural processes. Persistent herbicides remain and are concentrated up the food chain. Run off can pollute water ways. Particular products and additives, such as the surfactant used to stick round-up to plants has known toxic effects on frogs.
Plant identification and understanding are the greatest of assets. Knowledge of the land and its history can give a clear perspective on whether the regrowth is beneficial for soil re-balancing or if needs intervention.
This was the focus of our ABT. Plant identification is an art that notes the features. Many plants do not differentiate enough when young (and most easily controlled). Leaf shape and colour, flower, fruit, structure, smell, root system and location are all used to make a positive identification.
If you are unable to identify a species, a pressing is made, details are noted and can then be sent to a herbarium for them to catalog. 
A very effective and efficient way of identifying plants is to find someone that already knows a great deal. Plant varieties and species can be very localized, so the more experience your assistant has in the same area, the more likely you are to get a positive identification.
Some Jargon Native : These are plants that are indigenous to the country Endemic : This is more specific, plants that are indigenous to a particular area. Naturalised : These are species from elsewhere that have adapted to a new area and made it home. Successional Phasing : A forest develops in phases, first come the grasses, then fast growing woodier, taller species. Then pioneer trees.
One of the critiques of Permaculture is that it encourages the introduction of new species to an ecology. The ramifications of bringing in new species are often far-reaching and little known. Many out of control species are garden escapees.
This is Yarrow, used as a superb compost activator.
Some topsoil was bought and trucked in to the trust without seeing the source with it came a whole soil seedbank that contained some of the most noxious weeds to the area.
Nutgrass and Castor oil plant are two that once established will run and are next to impossible to fully eradicate. We heard stories of nutgrass seed being introduced in the tracks of hired machinery.
This is a native tobacco bush, often regarded as a weedy species it actually acts as a nursery plant for the next phase of successional growth.
There are many different grass species in the area. The local rule tends to be if the cows, roo’s or horses won’t eat it, it is a weed.
One of the techniques for plant control taught to us was the cut, scrape and paint.
The Cut!
The outer layer of bark is quickly scraped away revealing the green layer where the plant transports the nutrients around
It is then painted with the herbicide. Once the plant is cut, the vascular system shuts down very quickly. It is in this time that poison must be painted on to be effective.
This particular species is on a government list that controls the most noxious weeds. Land owners are obligated by law to control it on their property.
The permaforest trust is on a 100 acre title, only the top 10 acres are certified organic where plants are controlled by hand. The remaining 90 acres are controlled with the use of Round-up (Glycosulphate) a relatively benign, short lived and extremely widespread herbicide produced by Monsanto.
Dry Stone Wall Building
Our share is very sandy and prone to erosion. To slow the hill from creeping onto our driveway, and to provide a flat bed for planting we decided to build some permanent stone retaining walls.
The sand makes digging is made easy. The downside is the only stone we have on site is patchy sandstone. It is quite soft and at one time many millions of years ago I am told it was the bottom of the ocean.
Without a suitable building clay available on site and new terraces in need of support. The rocks for the wall would have to be trucked in. We are lucky, we have a good road to the top of the ridge. So everything is down hill. I ordered a full truck of unseen basalt from near where we sometimes work in Corndale. It was a large pile. And I didn’t really know what to do with it next. I had ideas and moved 10 - 20 barrow loads around the place but the pile remained massive.
At the same time, at the top of the creek, A friend had been collecting the rocks that occur naturally and abundantly near his home was learning the art and craft of dry wall rock stacking. After doing some wood work he invited me home to see the result. He has built a beautiful wall, and on the strength of that we asked him to do ours.
He begins work at 7:30am and goes with 2 5 minute breaks till 12. Stacking rocks. Every rock is different. Every rock had a face.
Our friend has completed his third half day of dry rockwall stacking. In the final stages aided by Robin who collected rocks trucked them down and sorted them in front of the wall. All together almost 13 tons of basalt moved by hand and wheelbarrow.
When building a dry stone wall it is very important to get the foundations right. They need to be flat and level. The idea is that they are dug deep enough that the bottom rocks don’t roll out from below as the earth moves.
Once you have dug the foundation, rocks are then stacked on top of each other with the flattest face looking outwards. Try to fill in all the gaps with smaller rocks. There should also be a slight lean back up the hill, this is called the “batter”.
Once the rocks are stacked and secure, back fill in with smaller rocks to assist with drainage behind the wall. Finally cover them with dirt and plant.
The new beds have been created; all the aloe that was removed for digging the footers and laying the stone was replanted. It was then mulched with leave matter collected from the gutters.
Bamboo mulch and topsoil from under the ice cream bean was also collected, it is very rich in nitrogen. Pineapple was planted with purposeful design to stop people walking on top of the drystone wall and fruit production down the drive.
The stone walls are beautiful and durable.
Word of Caution
Lifting rocks can be very hard work on your back, use care and leverage at all times. Back injury can happen quickly and take a long time to recover from.
These walls are dry stacked, children can unwittingly pull the rocks from top of the stack on top of themselves. If you are going to be building a wall somewhere that there might unsupervised children, you must cement the rocks together for public safety. 
There are many crevices for snakes and lizards to live in - we must be very aware of this, especially at night.
Organic Gardening Training
Organic Gardening at the Permaforest Trust in Barkers Vale
The trust maintains two main gardens; the commercial garden and the kitchen garden. These are both located on northerly slopes in the top ten “certified organic acres”. The soil is a heavy clay. They are both well fenced to keep out kangaroos and the bandicoots.
There are extensive systems in place for their management.
We worked on the top bed of the commercial garden; a green manure crop of lab lab had begun to flower and now was the time to turn it into the soils to prepare them for garlic which is to be planted in shortly. It was raining very heavily, but after just hearing the importance of sticking to a crop schedule we weren’t going to let that stop us.
We worked three pitchforks until the clay got too much for one of them and slowed our pace to just two.
While someone was turning it in, others with hoes pulled the beds back together. They have a tendency to want to slide down the slope. Terraces have been built in the kitchen garden to stop this and allow the topsoil to build without being washed away.
Once this was done, some dynamic lifter was added in the form of chook poo.
This raised an interesting point of disconnection for me. In the theory classroom we were told that the true store of enduring wealth is in the soil. To then actually go in the field and spread the cheapest, battery hen sourced, uncertified manure around felt a little out of touch.
As with all the things I hear, I pick out the gems, the bits that I know are special and apply them. We faced a similar issue on my own share when we had the opportunity to buy very cheap, high quality compost from the Lismore tip to build up some beds the caveat was that it had plastic through it.
I made the choice then to stick to my gut and not jump at the cheap fixes and lures along the way. We have been building our soils at home slowly, from natural organic, happy and healthy inputs. We know that the food that grows has its foundation that, which to us is priceless.
Update: Tryton Waste Services has been improving it’s processes and is now delivering excellent compost that is virtually free from plastics. We have bought some to try on our place.
After the beds were prepared we were shown the irrigation technique used. Three cut dripper pipes are run along the bed and mulched over. The cut faces up so the water spills over the sides. This is attached to a tap so each bed can be watered independently along the main line based on its needs. The new plants need shallow, regular watering. As they reach maturity, less frequent but deeper soaks are needed.
There are several other growth experiments going on at the trust. One that seems very successful is the banana guilds. They are a working model of sustainable companion polycultures. A large hole is dug in the ground.
Around it an arrowroot boarder is planted and banana plants and papayas. The bananas only do one season before suckering off a new baby.
These are all big biomass producers and their output is thrown into the middle where it breaks down into premium, soft, fertile soil. Here you can plant watermelons, pumpkins, warrigal greens or other similar ground crops. After 10 years when the hole is full a fruit tree is planted and thrives.
They form a beautiful protected and lush microclimate.
Mulching Fruit Trees
Mulching and Weeding the Fruit Trees.
There have been two large piles of woodchips at the front of Avalon for a few weeks. Slowly they have been shrinking. Today I joined in and collected two rubbish bins from other jobs around the block and made two trips filling them.
This gave me enough mulch for:
These trees are the citrus located at the top of the ridge; they are well established.
This poor lemon has been attacked by termites - Still going though!
A huge white mulberry that fruits.
While at the Permaforest, Tim (our facilitator) mentioned that for the first metre while the trees are still young the grass is hyper competitive. Once the trees are away, they are able to shade out the grass but until then it is important to give them enough space.Some were immensely overgrown, while try to pull out the grass with my hands I was cut. There are still a few more to do. Some spots are so thick that gloves become essential.
This one is still to go.
Weeding, like cleaning gets exponentially more difficult the longer it is left. Thankfully with a few exceptions we have a full eucalypt canopy here. Growth here is quite healthy and even the areas we have left to nature seem quite balanced and happy.
Compost Training
Composting 27th Febuary 2007
We constructed Four Compost piles to experiment with how the different variables manifested around the environment and what the effect was on the process. Also to gain experience and a feel for the art.
There are four important factors that determine the quality of compost.
Moisture; The ideal level is saturated and well drained.
Compostion; The carbon/nitrogen ratio 25:1 is the optimum level for organic life.
Particle size; Maximising edge will mean maximum efficiency in the breakdown. It is important to use enough bulk to allow airflow.
Pile size; Big enough to insulate, small enough to allow oxygen. A cubic metre is the optimum.
Thermophilic batch pile
This was made in the compost chamber, a tried and tested formula was used.
We harvested several activators: tanzi, and another green leafy from around the bamboo. Azola, a red floater from the dam.
Blood + bone for nitrogen and mineral nutrients.
A slurry of fresh cow manure mixed with water.
Dry grass slashed by the tractor.
Once we had all the ingredients assembled; a team was organised.
Each layer was assembled with a fairly even distribution.
Water was added as we went until it ran from the bottom. We rotated until some twenty layers were heaped up and the pile was about a cubic metre.
It was observed that the last 30 centimetres seemed to compact the pile. Making final progress appear slow.
Grass pile
As freshly cut grass is almost the perfect balance of the composting factors a pile of this was made alone. It is worth noting that due to logistics and lunch the grass was allowed to sit for several hours after it was cut before it was collected and piled. During this time the nitrogen can evaporate and escape the system.
Fine particle pile
This pile took the most work, many more hours than the rest. It was the most physical and done during the peak sun of the day. Yang yang (?? Someone please enlighten me on the actual name), banana stalks, native tobacco and a few other green crops were pushed through a chaff cutter (made in late 1800!). This reduced them to a very fine green mulch. This alone would probably go anaerobic so it was blended through some dry cut grass.
Rough Pile
This woody pile was made from fallen needles from the Casherina trees and piled up with alternating layers of arrowroot broadleaves.
Although there is a lot of space for air to pass through the pile, the arrowroot leaves were whole with not a great deal of surface area for the magic microbes and bacteria to eat.
However the biggest factor in this pile is that it is very carbon rich and nitrogen poor not making the ideal conditions for them to thrive. It is very unlikely this pile will fire up and compost. It is more likely to moulder, a process that will break it down but over a much longer period of time.
Jargon: Hygroscopic - If the material is allowed to fully dry it does not want to absorb any moisture.
Thermophilic - These are the high temperature loving bacteria that really do the work on the breakdown. They are capable of reducing seeds, harmful bacteria or viruses and many other things to the base nutrients in humus. They can thrive in temperatures from 50-70 degrees C.
Anaerobic - These organisms do not require oxygen.
Supplementary Notes: Plants can thrive when they have the ideal balance of nutrients, moisture, sunlight and love all blended harmoniously in the magical medium of soil.
In conventional farming the essential nutrients are made water soluble from oil derivatives, this external source of nutrients is purchased by the farmer. These additives have the potential to be mismanaged and disrupt the delicate balance of natural systems as they are not integrated into healthy living soil like compost.
It does take work to concentrate nutrients. Cows, pigs, goats, chooks and worms naturally do this work through their digestion and deliver us this concentration. This makes them quite valuable resources on the integrated organic farm.
A common mistake in urban garden composting - The compost receives only vegetable scraps - they are large, wet and nitrogen rich. Without a bulking agent like straw or wood shavings the pile heaps and doesn’t get either the balance or oxygen it needs and the heap will begin anaerobic decomposition – characterised by an unpleasant smell and less viable end product.
TWO WEEKS LATER UPDATE:
I visited the piles we made two weeks later to see how they were doing.
First up; the grass pile. As predicted the pile was too dry and lacking in nitrogen by the time we got it together. It looks more like mulch than compost.
The second pile was the fine particles.
It went off, too much infact. The pile was 1/5th its original size and had definately broken down into a compost - but it also burnt itself out. If the pile had been turned a few days after building it, we could have kept the reaction going and composted more of the outer edge.
The last pile was the rough stack. It fell somewhere in the middle, inside there was evidence of mould. It will take a while for it to break down this way.
Adding more water, activators and continuing to turn it will speed up the process.
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A blog about my life in a cabin in the woods.
