The heat is on

Summer's here and the heat is

It's warming up and the humidity is high

Time to slow down and conserve energy

Time to look after our soil, plants, animals and people

Here's a 'how to' guide of what we do in summer

SOIL
We've all worked hard to get our soils full of microbial life over the cooler months - composting, worm farming, green manure cropping - it all adds up to soil full of life in the form of microfauna and microflora, and that equals fertility.

Your soil is a living entity and needs as much care as any other living thing in your permaculture system.

Now it's time to ensure we protect our precious investment from the harsh sunlight, heat and the coming torrentials rains over our wet season here in the subtropics.

One of the best ways to protect soil is by keeping it mulched. Mulching is easy and has a big impact on the quality of our soil. Mulch keeps the soil temperature more even, allowing the microbes to keep working in the cool top layers.

Mulching also helps reduce disease when the rain by absorbing the rain drop impact and preventing it flicking soil onto the underside of the plant leaves - which can promote disease.

Mulch thinly and often - keep the layers 'fluffy' and light. Better to have to keep applying thin layers of mulch that allow air and water through than a thick layer that acts as a barrier. The microbes in your soil need air and water to survive, so don't cut them off with mulch that is too thick.

Another way to look after soil in the heat is to plant a green manure crop - this acts as a living mulch and also encourages microbial life to continue by supplying food and organic matter to them.

ANIMALS

Help your animals, pets and livestock cope with the heat.

Think shade and water.

We are watering our worm farm every morning in this hot weather - this allows evaporation to keep the farm cool during the day, the castings will stay in good condition and it makes the farm a lot more comfortable for the worms.

Cool water + plenty of food = happy worms

CHOOKS

I posted just the other day about looking after our chooks in the hot weather. We check our chooks during the day ensuring they haven't knocked over their water and that they are coping okay in the heat.

If you are out for the day or at work off-site, perhaps think about getting a second water container for the chooks just in case. Also ensure their water isn't positioned in the sun.

Always, always, always ensure they have plenty of shade in their yard so they can get out of the hot sun.

BEES

Bees need water and lots of it. They use it to keep the whole hive cool. They will find their own preferred place for drinking, perhaps at the end of a nearby dam.

But you can offer your bees and any visiting bees a safe place to drink. Bees will drink from a very shallow bowl with a rock in it so they don't drown, floating water plants, wet sand or edges of pools.

These same type of shallow watering systems will also encourage dragonflies and butterflies - well worth setting up in your garden.

Also ensure hives are placed in a position that has good shade in the afternoon (bees like morning sun on the hive - it gets them up and active), and that they are also placed in a position with good air flow.

WILDLIFE

Your place can be a safe haven of cool water and dappled shade for wildlife too. Having a reliable supply of clean, clear water will encourage native wildlife into your garden and boost your diversity significantly. They also repay you with some pest management.

BELOW - a nocturnal tawny frogmouth resting in one of our shady trees during the heat of the day.

Fresh water topped up everyday will make you a real favourite with the local birds. Ground covers around the birdbath add to the cooler temperature and the plants benefit from splashing birds and you emptying the water out to refill it.

An Amaranth plant self-sowed near the birdbath on the western side, this means it casts a shadow over the bath in the afternoon helping keep the water cool, so it stays.

PLANTS

Some plants really don't cope in the heat of the day. BELOW - Vietnamese Mint looking sad and hot.

Pumpkin not happy Jan!

Comfrey BELOW is one of the worst - it looks like it's died in the middle of the day, but once the sun moves off of it and it gets some water, it will back as good as new.

And the Tamarillo will appreciate some water and shade in the evening.

We water our plants in the afternoon, once the sun is off them. We find this works best for us. Hand watering in the cool of the afternoon is a very pleasant experience. Our garden is well shaded by 4pm. It gives us the opportunity to see what needs harvesting, what seed pods are ready to pick, what insects are up to and it's even nicer with a glass of cool white wine!

We are noticing a change in the weather patterns and of course, with climate change, more of them are on the way. Our plants are going to have to adapt to these changes too. We tend to select plants that are hardy, we can't afford to have any free loaders in the system that are too delicate to cope with the heat, humidity and rainfall.

Factoring in good air flow throughout your garden is another way to help plants cope with the heat, walk around the garden and feel the air on your skin - are some plants blocking others? Do you need to thin out your plants, or do you need to plant new ones to provide shade on the western side?

Air flow also helps with preventing disease. If your plants can dry off quickly after rain, there is less chance of them developing fungal diseases.

Our new nursery ABOVE is the perfect place for our baby plants to find their feet (roots?). It's cool, shady, and open to the east, so it gets gentle breezes flowing through it.

PEOPLE

Taking care of people is important in the heat too. We don't have town water where we are, so we're reliant on capturing all our own water - easy to do when your average rainfall is about 1.6metres a year.

My husband John has just been cleaning out our rain water tanks and ensuring they are ready for the heavy rainfall coming our way soon over the summer.

I must admit, I'm hooked on rain water now and we've been spoilt with such fresh, clean water to drink. We don't have the issues of people living in towns where the water has things added to it and you don't get a choice.

It amazes me why more people don't have tanks.

We don't have air conditioning, we figure we moved to Queensland 12 years ago because of the weather and part of that is a hot, humid summer. The rest of the year is beautiful. So rather than installing an air conditioner, we put up with it.

We keep our dog cool with a paddling pool in the shade on the deck. He can go for a dip whenever he likes and it really cools him down. He does look a little embarrassed in the photo above doesn't he?

When things get really hot, we paddle pool side too.

So find some shade (or plant some shade for next year), drink plenty of water, make sure all your animals get plenty of water and shade and care for your garden beds, which in turn will care for your plants over the summer.

And finally, Eudlo is having its summer market this Sunday and Transition Town Eudlo will be there - it starts at 7am at the Eudlo Town Hall.

I'm running a worm farming workshop at 10am so come along.

Cheers,

Sonya

Heritage seeds, heritage breeds

I've posted here before about the benefits of growing, using and saving heritage varieties of seeds.

It really is up to each individual backyard gardener, each one of us, to keep these precious varieties alive.

If we hand the responsibility over to the multi-nationals and corporations, they won't necessarily select what is best for us - we need to take responsibility for that and keep the diversity in our food choices.

The other great benefit of heritage varieties is that you know what you're getting. They will be true to type, a replica of the parent plant.

That makes your life as a permaculturist much easier too. You know what you're going to get and what that plant needs. It makes planning and designing easier.

The best way is get involved in heritage seed saving is through networking - the Seed Savers Network, Permaculture networks or by buying direct from companies that support the philosophy of heritage seeds, like Green Harvest.

And it's not hard, you just need to get started and give it a go - learning by doing is the best way.

But it's not just our seeds we need to keep pure and diverse.

What about heritage breeds of livestock?

Whether it's goats, sheep, cows, alpacas or chooks, the benefits of keeping heritage breeds of animals are the same as growing and saving the heritage varities of vegies.

ABOVE - our purebred chooks - the one looking at the camera is a Bantam Australorp. The one on the left is a Pekin Bantam.

We selected our chooks based on their characteristics - which are pretty much guaranteed when you have a pure bred chook.

Hybrid chooks are common, there is a particular brown chook common in backyards, but these are hydrids bred to just lay eggs. They have had 'broodiness' bred out of them, so they don't get a rest from egg production and they often die young.

ABOVE - Pekin Bantam at the front, a black Australorp Bantam and the blurred chook at the back is a blue Australorp Bantam - speeding around the yard.

The Pekins are quiet and friendly. They lay small eggs, but they best qualities are their friendliness and ability to be handled. Great if you have kids.

ABOVE - a Pekin Bantam rooster

ABOVE - and our last pure breed - the standard Australorp chook. Australia's own breed, great layers, hard workers, but not so keen on being handled.

If you are considering introducing animals do your research and find out what characteristics you want - produce, meat, manure, for breeding... and then plan the best way to integrate them into your permaculture system for maximum yield for minimum work.

I recently found a great website to source livestock - Farmstock - have a look there and see what breeds are available.

Cheers,

Sonya

Our recycled Propagation Shed is up and running

Over the weekend we worked on getting our new (recycled) propagation shed to a point where we could start using it to pot on plants and get growing!

Propagating plants and saving seed have been major 'gaps' in the permaculture system of our garden and household.

We've been reliant on buying in plants and seeds - which just isn't sustainable - and we have to pay for them, which costs money of course - when we could be getting them for 'free' from the garden and helping keep the varieties we do have healthy and productive for years into the future.

I've been spending time at Isabell Shipard's Herb Farm at Nambour learning how to propagate plants - Isabell and her family have been running a very successful herb farm for many years and I've been learning a lot about plants and their wonderful properties.

The experience at the Herb Farm also gave me a lot of ideas about how to set up our propagation space to be effective, energy efficient and practical - everything a permaculture system should be.

ABOVE - we don't have a lot of flat space on our property, it's mostly slope. We do however have one place which is well-shaded in the peak of summer and close to the house so it proved to be the best place for it. First we cleared the weeds.

A word on weeding - there isn't much point weeding a space unless you are going to do something with it. If you just weed it and leave it, you'll be back weeding it again within a few weeks.

Weeds can be put in a black bin or plastic bag and left out in the sun, or put in a barrel of water to drown (or a combination of both, a barrel of water left in the sun to heat up) - organic solutions to weed control and to ensure you don't spread the seeds around the garden.

Of course we need to keep weed seed heads under control, but also plan to do something to suppress the weeds or you're just wasting precious energy.

ABOVE - we bought some weed mat to cover this particular area. The weed mat was one thing we bought new but it was on special, so we saved money there.

ABOVE - next we dragged out an old shade cover that the previous owners had left on the property. It's shadecloth stretched over arches of black polypipe. We hammered in star pickets through the weedmat and put the pipe over them to give the structure height, shape and strength.

ABOVE - the shadecloth still needs some work and tidying up but all in all it's in pretty good shape and fine for us to start using use as is.

ABOVE - next onto the benches. Building the benches gave us the opportunity to really strengthen the overall structure. We used square tube to build the frames for the benches - screwing them to the roof, the walls and each other making it very strong.

ABOVE - Across the back of the shed we used recycled pool fencing with the tube placed through it adding extra strength. The pool fencing was bought from the tip shop - recycled materials yet again.

ABOVE - next onto the side benches. We used slats of timber here - another thrifty find at the tip. We sorted them and converted them into benches that can be lifted out and cleaned or repaired if needed - see BELOW.

BELOW - one side finished

BELOW - and ta da ! the finished propagation shed

BELOW - I've started collecting some really interesting and useful medicinal herbs so this space will provide the perfect place to nurture them and to use them as stock plants to propagate from to ensure our garden has a lot of diversity and health.

ABOVE - the shed will also provide a place for students to learn how to propagate plants and plant seeds during our courses.

All that is left to do now is get some gravel to go over the weedmat and to buy/gather materials - pots, tools, potting mix, trays, watering system etc, but we can at least start using it.

BELOW - and finally here's a photo of our happy dog - Barney

Cheers,

Sonya

Herbs and pictures from a day in the life...

Here are some photographs I've taken in the past 24 hours... lots of herbs, a great example of a low-cost worm farm and python encounters in the chookhouse!

ABOVE - the gorgeous, soft dusty pink and maroon flower of the American Ground Nut vine, a hardy, deciduous legume. Rhizomes are edible.

(By the way - all the information about herbs in this post is from Isabell Shipard's book (BELOW) How Can I Use Herbs In My Daily Life? available at this website or the name of the herb is hyperlinked to her website directly.)

BELOW - the delicate, tiny flower of the Coconut Geranium - the seed pod is very similar to Herb Robert (see below further) which is also a part of the geranium family.

BELOW - a photo of the flower of Herb Robert - a wonderful herb that deserves a place in every garden.

BELOW - the flower of the Greater Celandine - this plant has a bright-orange latex sap in its stems. Another name for this plant is Wart Weed - so guess what it's used for?

BELOW - and here is a photo of the mature seed pod of the Greater Celandine ready for harvesting and seed saving.

BELOW - and here is a great example of a low cost worm farm. A polysterne box has had holes cut out of it to provide drainage and air flow, shadecloth has been sown over the holes to stop the worms escaping and... (see the next photo)

BELOW - the worms live happily inside. This sits in a cool, shady spot under the benches of a shadehouse - worm farms must always be in the shade and kept cool.

BELOW - tubers from a Giant Taro were collected and left in water, where they promptly set about growing long root systems - they are now ready for planting up.

Taro are often called the staff of life as they are an important staple food for many people around the world and grow easily here in the subtropics of Australia. The Taro is a hardy, productive plant, providing food any time of the year. Valuable as a survival food and closely related to the Coco Yam too.

BELOW - the leaf of the Taro.

BELOW - Ah, Gotu Kola - another wonder herb everyone should have. In this photo you can see the blurred pink flower in the background and the seed head in the foreground.

BELOW - another photo of the seed head.

BELOW - An Acerola Cherry baby - taken as a cutting and ready to be potted on. We have one of these right near the tap in the garden, so we can pick the ripe cherries straight off the tree and eat them.

BELOW - and this is NOT what you want to find in your chookhouse in the morning. A six-foot carpet python.

Luckily, there were no chook casualties and the snake left peacefully - with a little encouragement.

BELOW - I did manage to get a good photo of its underbelly though

BELOW - and it retreated into the Chinese (or Tree) Mugwort bush, hopefully not to bother the chooks again. Mugwort is cloaked in folklore and magic - use it to hang over your doors to keep naughty elves from entering your home!

It's also a good antiseptic plant to use in the chookhouse and its been used to fatten pigs, sheep and poultry. Planted next to guava and peach trees it may act as a fruit fly deterent. Use it in your cupboards as a moth repellent.

I hope you've enjoyed this day in my life...

As always, read up on herbs before you use them, or seek expert advice, particularly if you have underlying illness, or think or know you are pregnant.

Cheers,

Sonya

Local and or organic?

Do you buy local or do you buy organic?

What's your first choice?

What's best?

I was thinking about this the other day and it often comes up at our courses here and generates a lot of discussion among the participants.

Many people are choosing an organic diet - and for many personal reasons - some for health, some for ethical reasons, some for the environment.

But what's best?

Locally grown non-organic food or imported organic food?

We know organic is important for our health and the health of our families.

But having local food production and distribution systems is equally important.

If you have a nearby farm which is producing food it would be relatively easy for them to become organic in the future.

But if that farm stops production because it's not being supported locally, that land will be lost forever and no doubt concreted over.

And with the expected disruptions to oil supply and availability, and volatile pricing of fuel because of peak oil, going organic may become a necessity and the cheaper option for farmers.

The other issue is carbon and the climate - farms are going to have to reduce their carbon emissions at some point to assist in the mitigation of climate changes as we all are.

The way many conventional farms are run, they are heavily reliant on fossil fuels to keep them going and to get the produce to market.

Machinery, fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides... they are all fossil fuel (carbon) based. As fuel becomes more expensive (either through taxes on carbon or peak oil price volatility) the costs of conventional (supermarket) farming and food will rise accordingly.

Organic farms may still be reliant on machinery, but they have negated the need for petroleum-based fertilisers and all the other fuel based chemicals from their management systems. (The petroleum products used in fertilisers are a by-product of the fuel production process). Read about 'eating oil' in this research paper from the UK.

Although, having said that, a lot of organic farms do rely on human-scale and using human or other biological resources to 'farm' the produce.

Locally grown non-organic food

Buying locally grown food supports local farmers. Buying local supports the systems that supply our food and bring it to our tables. Local food has travelled less, has less food miles and is fresher.

Farms can convert to organic or biodynamic.

But once that farm is lost - it's lost.

Once the land is sold and houses or industrial estates or dams are built on it, it's gone. You'll never get that land near a town or city again. It will be snapped up by developers, governments, companies...whoever, but it will be lost to the community and to your local food supply network.

Consumer education can bring about change - supply is controlled by demand. If people begin to demand organic, the supply will change to meet that demand.

Ask for local organic in the shops.

Imported organic food

If we allow the majority of our food to be imported we are putting ourselves in a vulnerable position.

Do we fully understand the organic standards of other countries? Do we know the growing conditions our food has been produced in?

Imported food = food miles

Food miles = fossil fuel reliance

Peak oil = increased cost of imported food

An average shopping basket of 24 goods purchased in a supermarket in Victoria had 70,000 kms of travel attached to it. (Read more about Australian food miles here)

So imported organic food isn't the solution either.

It also leaves us vulnerable to economic changes too - the overseas supplier may not see Australia as a very viable market in the global scheme of things and stop selling food to us.

Of course, if you are on an organic diet due to health reasons, that is different, but perhaps we can appreciate and support our systems of local food and work on refining the detail of going organic in time.

A food supply system is the same as any system - an eco-system, a transport system, an education system - and all can benefit from having permaculture principles applied to them.

Let's look at our food systems through permaculture design eyes and make them more functional, more diverse, more resilient and less wasteful for the future.

Organic or local? (Let's add grow your own too!)

It's your choice, but be informed when you make your choice and understand the big picture of our precious food supply system, we don't want to lose it.

Cheers,

Sonya

PS - the images used in this post (except for the first one) are from the Sunshine Coast Regional Food website and feature Sandy Creek Organic Farm - a Community Supported Agriculture system (CSA) at Beerwah on the Sunshine Coast. Contact them to buy locally grown organic food, picked fresh for you.

Sandy Creek Organic Farm

2471 Old Gympie Road, Beerwah. 4519

Ph. 07 5496 9501

Email: sandycreekorganic@bigpond.com

Don't cook your chook

I heard a sad story the other day about two chooks that died in a chook tractor on a 37 degree day recently.

This is a timely reminder for us all to remember to help our pets, livestock and other animals through bouts of hot weather.

Chooks, like all animals need shade, particularly in Australia with our harsh summers.

So as part of good permaculture design, we ensure we have sufficient shade for our animals - along with a reliable source of clean water, good food, a safe predator-proof shelter, good fencing, and whatever else that particular animal needs - for example goats and chooks are social creatures and like company, so don't have just one.

Shade from vegetation is the best type of shade - just stand under an iron roof, then stand under a tree and feel which is cooler and more comfortable.

Plan good shade in or near your chookhouse - check the sun patterns and take into account the sun's summer and winter solstice points - these give your the two extremes of where the sun and shade patterns will be for the year.

Choose varieties of trees and plants that have multiple functions too.

Plant them to the west to protect animals from the worst of the hot afternoon sun, the taller they are, the earlier in the day the area will be shaded.

If you're setting up your design and don't have the mature vegetation there yet, find a suitable man-made alternative - eg we have bird netting over a section in our chookyard, which in the peak of summer, is exposed to full sun, so we put palm leaves over the top of the netting to provide a cool, shady spot - a great short term solution.

So to chook tractors - these are movable cages with an open base that allow you to move a small group of chooks over the lawn or your vegie gardens to weed, manure and generally tidy up areas for you. ABOVE - one of the more popular chook tractors currently available.

There are many designs on the market and they're not cheap - a lot of work goes into them, we should know, we built our own from scrap materials and it still cost a lot.

But they are an excellent idea and great for a small garden or the kitchen garden of a larger property.

ABOVE - this chook tractor (on the left of the photo) has a row of salad greens growing on the roof - great for small spaces.

ABOVE - the chook dome is popular with a lot of people in permaculture - although I must admit we don't use it - I found having a tarpaulin strapped over the top stressed the chooks out when it flapped about in the wind.

I see these types of chook tractors out in full sun and it's sad - the poor chooks are having to live under a tarp in full sun - you try doing it and seeing how comfortable that is.

This one ABOVE would be more comfortable as it has natural fibres on the roof (and this photo is from a site in New Zealand so it's probably cooler weather too)

ABOVE - and here is the one my husband and I built - it's great, predator proof overnight perching and easy for one person to move.

Yes, it's out in full sun, but this photo was taken mid-winter.

But chook tractors can become ovens - you've got a small space, concentrated heat and no shade - so you've got a solar oven

Always ensure you're chook tractor is in full shade over summer. Find places in the garden that are shaded all day.

Also ensure all your animals have access to plenty of clean fresh water - and don't forget about the wild visitors in your garden too - keep water bowls and bird baths in the shade, filled up and clean.

BELOW - happy, healthy chooks enjoying a shady summer afternoon in the peak of summer

Cheers,

Sonya

What can I do?

ABOVE - flying the flag for solar clothes drying...

Okay, so you might be thinking "What can I do to help the planet?" or maybe you're sitting there thinking "How can I incorporate permaculture into my daily life?"

The little changes you make DO make a difference.

1. Because you're changing your behaviour and that WILL have an effect on the people around you.

2. Because you'll learn some neat new skills (nanna technology not nano technology) that will probably come in very handy in the near future - if you believe all the climate change, food crisis, global economic collapse and peak oil talk going on.

So be ahead of the pack - be a pioneer of the new way of living - be an ambassador for a better way to live.

And start today.

Here are a few ideas to get you started.

First up (see image ABOVE from www.greenathome.ca) - use the clothesline - not the clothes dryer. Fly the flag for an innovative idea for clothes drying. Tell people you have a 'solar clothes dryer' they'll want one too.

Next Idea - Plant a tree - prefereably one that has multiple uses - eg fruit, bee fodder, butterfly attractant, mulch, bird habitat... you get the idea

Next idea - build a no-dig garden. Easy to do, make it as big or as small as you like, build the garden, plant some seedlings, enjoy!

Next great idea - make a compost - turn waste into wow! Make soil for your garden, keep your green waste out of landfill and close the nutrient loop of your food.

Sprouts - start growing sprouts at home - see my post here on how to do it. You'll always have something fresh and crunchy to add to your lunch.

Mulch the garden - protect the soil, suppress weeds, retain the moisture in the soil... so many reasons to mulch

Turn off lights and electrical points when not in use - one of the first things many people do, but we need to keep doing, keep refining it and cutting back even more.

Use the cold wash cycle - wash your clothes in cold water, use a water and energy saving machine and only do a full load.

Start a worm farm - easy to do, fun to watch, become a worm farmer today!

Reduce car trips - when you do head out in the car, make it work FOR you and the planet. Use your economical car (with it's tyres inflated correctly) to make the most of each trip out. Link trips together so reduce the overall kilometres you travel. Don't 'duck out' for anything. Stock up at home, get creative with your cooking (so you don't need takeaways), bulk buy, get things home delivered, share a lift and walk or cycle when and where you can safely - this is a challenge in most part of Australia.

And the final word does go to NANNA TECHNOLOGY - find a wise woman or man to teach you a nanna or poppa skill - knitting, sewing, crocheting, mending, repairing, using hand tools...

So, hopefully you've got some ideas for things you can do right now.

Enjoy,

Sonya