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Commenced:
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01/11/2010 |
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Submitted:
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12/05/2013 |
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Last updated:
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07/10/2015 |
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Location:
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Peterborough, South Australia, AU |
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Climate zone:
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Arid |
(projects i'm involved in)
Posted by Kate Battersby almost 12 years ago
In November 2010, following cancellation of a PDC for which I had enrolled, I was absolutely privileged when Tamara Griffiths visited Peterborough to deliver the best-ever consolation prize (better than first prize): my first permaculture theory and practical training, tailored to my own backyard.
On the upper third of the block we installed two small 'swales' (microswales). I learnt how to make a thingy that lets you find the horizontal contour of the land. Then we marked the cutting edge and dug ditches, piling up the spoil as the 'berm', downhill of the swale.
This area (aka 'the blasted heath') comprises little other than rock, a few indigenous woody weeds, and eucalypt and almond trees both contributing allelopathy to the thinnest imaginable layer of impoverished highly alkaline 'soil', whose main organic content was seed from ubiquitous barleyweed, deposited over many winters. The biggest challenge here therefore, as elsewhere on the block, is soil creation. [Yes, we had a compost-making workshop as well. :-)]
Since then, though further work on the upper third has taken lesser priority than establishing veggie beds and general soil creation, it has been instructive to observe happenings around the swales. Seed distribution, though enthusiastic, failed at the sprouting stage when lucerne, pumpkin and beans were devoured by gourmet pests. Water is certainly being held, possibly also nutrient, because more weeds now grow there than anywhere else on this upper third and some windblown wattle seed has sprouted. Old man saltbush is thriving. Even a little acacia, though very wobbly, has gritted its teeth and persevered on the berm, apparently thriving on neglect in contrast to its sisters who expired in more sheltered sites. Gradually I am increasing organic matter (pea straw and even a little precious compost), and soon the winter soil-creation offensive begins in earnest.
[Photos to follow]
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