The internship at Zaytuna farm is over and I will be travelling north. I hope to make it up to Cairns, but we will see. The internship ended well. We had two more courses: Urban Design and Soils. The Urban Design course was much more about how to start and run a permaculture consultation business than its name might imply. It was taught by Nick Huggins (in blue on the right) who is a high end landscape designer prior to getting into Permaculture. He taught us his strategies and tricks for running a business as well as on how to effectively consult with clients.
We did two mock designs. One was a practice installation. We put in a small garden at a house plot near the farm. The other was a mock consultancy. We went to a 15 acre piece land. It was mostly a steep volcanic slope so we were focusing on the area closer in to the property. I started talking with them about plants and they found me most helpful so they asked me back for a real consultancy! I went back and gave them two days of my time. It went very well and I feel much confidence now and I got to leave the farm with a consultancy under my belt.
We did two mock designs. One was a practice installation. We put in a small garden at a house plot near the farm. The other was a mock consultancy. We went to a 15 acre piece land. It was mostly a steep volcanic slope so we were focusing on the area closer in to the property. I started talking with them about plants and they found me most helpful so they asked me back for a real consultancy! I went back and gave them two days of my time. It went very well and I feel much confidence now and I got to leave the farm with a consultancy under my belt.
Paul putting a bubbler on a ferment. The soils course was taught by Paul Taylor who has worked with Elaine Ingham and I highly recommend you look up. His company is called Trust Nature. The course was great. It really re-energized my interest in soil regeneration as well as teaching me in even more detail. Soil life is very important for our survival. If the soil is not healthy, plants will be unhealthy. I have heard many times the soil is responsible for 99% of the plants immune system. This is because the microbes feed and treat the plants in exchange for habitat and energy from the plants. The way our culture treats soil, clearly shows that the majority of us don't understand this relationship. Burning, the use of biocides and conventional fertilizer, over-grazing and over tilling are all destroying soil structure, causing compacted soils and dehydrated landscapes.
Luckily, we have solutions that can make visible differences within a few years. Paul Taylor has developed a soil regeneration method called the Bio-Vital method. It has three main components: Inoculum compost, liquid probiotic and bio-fertilizer. The inoculum compost is a ten week high quality compost. He makes it in a welded mesh wire basket and turns it every week.
The probiotic is derived from the compost which he actively aerates in a large tote. He sprays this on the soil to bring it back to life or decompact it. These microbes are aerobic. If you want healthy soils it must be dominantly aerobic. Anaerobic soils are compacted soils. The third component, bio-fertilizer, is an anaerobic ferment. However, the culture consists of facultative anaerobes. These little guys can survive in both low and high oxygen conditions. Basically, they out compete the other anaerobes and help the soil transition. Another worthy recipe is phosical, which contains phosphorus, calcium and silica; all of these crucial nutrients are often lacking in soils. This is a very valuable recipe to know because conventional supplements like lime (for calcium) kill most fungal life. Paul adds all these together into what he calls preparation 252 and sprays it on the soil from the back of a truck or injects it into the ground on the back of a keyline plow. In addition to Paul's method, natural farming is a great method that I think could be used in combination with the Bio-Vital for improved results. For more information, feel free to contact me.
Me and Star For the last week we worked on projects; my project was training the horses. Unfortunately for me though, it was decided to send Shadia, the main horse we were working with, to a trainer. This decision was made to save time. Before that, Zac (the wwoofer that I was working with) and I had been making good progress with her. We had done quite a lot of desensitising and almost had a saddle on her. She also loved being with us and was very responsive. We were having success with Star, the other horse, as well. Although we couldn't work with her as much due to injuries, we got her to trust us a lot more. Since she came to Zaytuna after a bad experience, rehabilitation was our main goal. At the beginning, she wouldn't let us near her and by the end we could get a saddle on her. We also gave her a bath which was a huge improvement to her coat. I learned a lot from the experience and will be writing an article about it.
Botanical garden After the internship, I went off with four friends. A couple had a van so we decided to all go camp around the area. We ended up camping mostly around Byron Bay, but there are some great beaches there. We then drove to Brisbane. One of my friends and I went to Mt Coot-Tha Botanical Gardens, which was a blast. We spent 3 hours in one corner of the place, writing down all the family and genus names we found. We learned a lot and I can identify plants better than ever. If you’re interested in botany at all, I highly suggest you start with taking a visit to a botanical garden.
Now, my friend Jesse and I are on a 150 acre property west of Brisbane. We made the connection through helpx.com. The people are great and a bit into Permaculture. And they have a bamboo forest!
That’s all I have for now and remember, life finds a way in the most difficult places.
Until next time, Wynton
Until next time, Wynton
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