A Passion for Permaculture
Transforms a Cold, Wet Site. © Alanna Moore 1998
Rick and Naomi Coleman discovered a passion for permaculture when they did a PDC together in 1990. They had already quit Melbourne after years of working there and were renting a home in West Gippland. With great enthusiam to share their discoveries and Naomi’s teaching background they wanted to be able offer affordable permaculture courses for youth and disadvantaged people. Fortunately the Labor government of the time provided paid work opportunities for them, and they found themselves training kids in Frankston and long term unemployed people.
Since then they have been teaching around Australia and the world, in many types of climatic areas: in arid and rainforested parts of Mexico; in cold, high altitude Ecuador; in steeply mountained, tropical Guatemala; in arid and saline soiled Palestine; and, most recently, in the wet and drylands of east coast India. From their travels they have gained valuable insights into many international environmental problems and solutions.
At their last overseas project in East India, Naomi worked w ith some of the lowest and highest social groups of women, from constructing house gardens for upper caste housewives to assisting women from the impoversished and socially stigmatized prostitute class. The prostitute women were desparate to learn how to read and write, so that they could set up other businesses and leave the sex industry. Naomi helped them to write a submission for funding to start up a business.
” Sometimes social conditions are so bad that fixing up the environment and gardening has to wait” said Naomi.
Challenges in Gippsland
The couple were also travelling with two small children and practising permaculture on the home front in between their sojourns. Keen to see what they had put in place I was fortunate to visit in April last and be able to sit in on a PDC class and tag along with a property tour.
“We moved to Leongatha in 1994 and bought this ten acres and the house on it pretty cheaply. Then we watched and found out why it was so cheap” explained Rick, who was very off-colour, with a dose of typhoid picked up in India (despite vaccinations). “The land was some of the lowest around, so it was a drainage point for all around and flooded in winter. And the septic tank would flood then too. It could get pretty gross! At other times the reactive clay soil was rock hard, compacted from previous overstocking of cows.”
They had previously lived for seven years an hour’s drive away at Tooradin and were surprised to find that here the climate was quite different, with lots of frost and clay. Tooradin was warmer with sandy soil. They had to experiment all over again to see what grew best.
“The whole place used to be flat as a pancake with rusty barbed wire cow fencing everywhere and only buttercups growing in the water. And the winds that can blow here! We’re situated at the bottom of a long flat valley and it’s blowing north-west to south-west fairly constantly, You can see it in the way the trees are all bent over” explained Rick as we began the property tour.
Arriving home from India with an upcoming PDC to teach provided them with a deadline for redeveloping the home gardens, necessitated by the neglect that comes from travelling away. Located at the back of the house these zone one gardens had just been totally razed, redesigned and carpet mulched.
To create garden soil they imported sand to spread over the reactive clay and then built no-dig gardens over the top. Root vegetables were given an extra sandy bed. Old carpets were used to suppress weeds. Attractive and functional pathways of ‘sawment’ meandered around garden beds. These were made by combining four parts sawdust, 3 parts sand and one and a half parts cement, which was well moistened and packed down between edging boards on the ground.
With the short growing season there, a hot house is a must. Their’s is close to the house and very productive, full of lush vegetables. It’s made of scrap bits and pieces and plastic sheeting - effective and affordable design.
Dealing with water
“One of the first things we did was to covert the septic – an inadequate system designed for sandy leach beds” said Rick. Nowdays their grey water goes through a trench of bullrushes for natural filtering, then into a totally meshed in poultry yard, to a small pond for more cleansing. Berries and grapes grow all around and over this yard and after harvest ducks and fowl are brought in for ground clean-up. The pond water looked clear and inviting- lucky ducks!
The poultry night house nearby was designed upon passive solar principles, with an overhang far enough over and at the correct angle to keep out summer sunrays, while allowing winter sun in. Poultry were happily ranging through several yards full of young fruit trees at the back of the zone one gardens.
Beyond the home gardens I began to see how the enormous water problem had been tackled. A main feature of their design solution – an aquaculture system of ponds, all connected together, took advantage of the heavy clay. Two of the ponds have been designed for yabbies, with terraced edges for greater edge effect. Unfortunately cormorants have proved to be a big yabbie predator here, so plastic meshing over the top will be required. Other ponds had silver perch growing in them.
Pioneering groundcovers
“When all the earthworks had been completed we saw the first colonisers returning – thistles, ribwort and dock. We slashed them down and now clovers and some land cress have taken over – a sign of improved soil conditions” explained Naomi.
To establish groundcovers on the freshly dug ground, hay was spread around bare clay areas and their ducks and geese would sit on the pondside manuring the hay. Grass was slow to establish in these parts, but golden wattles did well, proving to be excellant pioneers . Rick told us how these wattles have an edible seed, eaten when pods are small. Wattles had also been planted in the odd blackberry patch, designed to shade out the berries below.
Suntrap plantings
Hills and dales were created from spare piles of topsoil in the process of pond building, and these had been utilised for suntrap plantings. The suntraps were designed to block out winds and increase heat retention. Sun traps around ponds consisited of three rows of plants. Wattles proved to be the best pioneers, especially for the sub-tropical growing area. Prickly moses is another favourite nitrogen fixer which also provides safe nesting havens for little birds. Juniper trees were doing well and they hope to plant out a few cold tolerant macadamias around some of the suntrap wattles in future. Mounds around some ponds had clumping bamboos planted on them, while running bamboos had been planted on islands.
Fans of the aquaculture ponds, the Coleman’s flock of geese were serenely grazing on a neighbour’s paddock, totally self-sufficient in their needs. Great lawnmowers, they sleep on the dam walls and quickly hop in the water when the fox comes after them
The back 5 acre paddock has neighbour’s cows agisted on it. From it they are able to harvest enough hay to sell the excess. It provides them with garden mulch and also reduces the fire hazard. Eventually the aquaculture or woodlot potential will fill that 5 acre paddock.
Woodlot
Rick and Naomi were proud to show us their plantation of trees for timber and firewood. At only 15 months since planting, there was some impressive growth. The fastest growers enjoyed previous deep cross ripping of the compacted ground, trees being planted in the rip line crossing points. They towered over trees planted on hard ground. Species included Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon), Silver wattle (Ac. decurrens), Shining gum (Eucalyptus nitens), Blue and Grey gums, Yellow stringybark and the Riveroak (Casurina cunninghamiana).
Situated on the south-west of the property, the woodlot acts as a great windbreak as well. It used to be one of the lowest points on the property, receiving lots of surface water from the neighbour’s land. Now with the deep ripping and improved topsoil conditions, water is reversing back!
Permaculture – the AlpineWay © Alanna Moore May 1999
High on the edge of Victoria’s Alpine National Park, snuggled in a beautiful forested valley, is probably the most cold climate permaculture farm you’ll ever find in Australia. Approaching ‘Boonderoo’ the skyline is dominated by an unusual mountain range of ancient conglomerate rock, pushed up by some great Earthly hiccup from an ancient sea floor. (The only other similar mountains in this country are the Olgas in N.T. and southern Victoria’s Grampians.) Glowing a warm orange in the morning light, this spectacular range turns out to be in the 600 acre Boonderoo ‘backyard’, Boonderoo meaning ‘a rocky place’ in local Aboriginal lingo.
Gabi and Thomas Moritz are keen to demonstrate that permaculture can be productive in this environment and their aim is to establish a teaching centre on the property. Despite the restrictive climate their vegetable gardens were a jumble of colourful productivity, although the first frosts had laid low many plants just before I visited in April.
“In a worst case scenario we might only get two months frost free in a year. Light frosts are reasonably common even in December” explained Gabi “although it can get hot in summer, up to 37. We have to create microclimates for the plants to raise temperatures a degree or two in order to cope with the summer frosts.” In winter temperatures can plunge to minus 12C!
Fruit and vege forest
Vegetables in the Moritz’s zone one garden are interspersed with fruit trees, whose shelter they appreciate in times of frost and heat. “I don’t believe in competition, because the plants are sheltering each other perfectly” said Gabi as we wended our way along sawdust pathways around the no-dig garden beds. Colourful unusual vegetables were thriving, carrots grew in a lush clover bed and birds sang in the trees above us.
“The sawdust paths have greatly reduced our slug problem” Gabi explained, “because the slugs don’t like to cross them”. Apart from cabbage moths in the cabbages they didn’t have many pest problems. ”These green zebra tomatoes here are good for fooling the pests. Because they stay green, the pests don’t realise that they are ripe” said Gabi, lamenting that this also meant they could be hard to sell at the weekly market stall.
Three years after planting, cherry trees are four metres tall and enjoying the attention received from growing amongst the veges. Under many of the fruit trees, a sprawling ground cover of 12 varieties of unstaked tomato were thick and weed suppressing.
Rare wildfood trees from around the world are being trialled here, including American yewberry, Hibush cranberry, snowberry and Canadian serviceberry (better than blueberry they say). Jostaberry, which has a tart berry good for juicing or cooking and can handle very cold conditions and neglect, was their favourite.
Goats at work
Of course animals are less prone to climatic extremes and you can always move them around to suit the seasons. The Moritz’s have a flock of 30 milking goats, British Alpines and Saanans, who are excellant weed eaters. When they aquired the property around 5 years ago the cleared areas were a sea of weedy blackberry.
They had the enormous job of erecting 5km of fencing to create 5 big goat paddocks. Then in went the goats to do their thing – near total destruction of blackberries! For the taller thickets Thomas had to first drive the truck over to knock them down. Then a high stocking rate of goat ensured a good clean up and afterwards a few goats are used for ongoing management, to keep down any new shoots and turn them into milk and manure.
Only five goats were being milked at the time of my visit and this was enough for the family of 3 plus visitors’ dairy needs. They make soft cheeses, while any remaining blackberry fruit is turned into tasty jam.
Harvest preserves
Living fairly isolated and self-sufficient, without a freezer – food preservation is high on the Moritz’s priority list. Luckily they are richly skilled in the age old ways of their Austrian forebears. Kitchen shelves are brimming with jars of preserves of peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, peaches and the like. Tomatoes are generally solar dried, but sometimes tomatoes and field mushrooms are dried indoors on top of the traditional European kachelofen (wood heater), where, at other times, fish and pork and goat sausages are hot smoked for a great flavour. Sometimes a pig is raised and salami made.
A large plastic hothouse extends the growing season for vegetables and the Moritz’s have dreams of growing a few sub-tropicals there. Inside, a crop of tobacco (once grown traditionally in the valley) was flourishing and a couple of avocadoes getting established. The hothouse initially housed the goat flock in the first winter that it went up. When they vacated in the spring it was richly endowed with manure and vegetables grew well, despite the poor soil.
Although the local soil has a low nutrient level Thomas has just had it checked for paramagnetism and found it reasonably vibrant (200cgs). “That must explain the good growth we get here” he said. With added organic matter – fertility is easily raised in an energetic soil.
Organic matter is put directly where it’s needed as sheet mulch. “This saves nutrients, which can leach away from compost heaps, and you don’t have to turn it.” The couple gather up their own grass slashings, neighbour’s stable manure or rotted silage, weeds and goat bedding straw for in-situ garden composting.
On the Home Front
The 5 acre home paddock, with house foundations already started, was mostly covered with 8 foot high blackberries when they arrived. The couple lived in a caravan at first. They had a dam dug and used the soil from it to make mud bricks, with a friends’ help, for their house. Making bricks one day Gabi started to feel strangely weak… They quickly finished the bedroom in time for the arrival, at home, with the help of two midwives, of baby Viviana.
The house continues to be built 4 years later and is fairly substantial now. It is designed to not only house them, but also up to 12 students during future courses.
They generate power from solar panels and cooking relies on gas, one of their few household imports. A planned cellar, half buried on the lower, eastern side of the house, will one day provide all important food storage areas. Above it a verandah deck will be built. This will help keep the cellar cool and enable them to enjoy the lovley north-east aspect with its view of forested mountains across the north-south oriented valley.
Inside, the kachelofen is an important part of the house. This is a heavy masonry heater which doubles as a large oven. It retains and distributes a lot of radiant heat, due to its heavy thermal mass (they used mud bricks) and a series of baffles which slow the escape of heat up the chimney.
A great source of help has come from a steady stream of WWOOFers, up to 35 per year, who help out with gardening, animals and building. “It’s always interesting to have WWOOFers. Our older daughter (now in the city studying) really appreciated having visitors from all over the world and meeting other young people” said Thomas, as he dashed off on the one hour drive to Wangaratta train station to pick up the latest arrival.
Reaching out
Living in an isolated location as they do, Thomas and Gabi enjoy getting out and about on weekends to sell their excess produce in the local area. For 10 years they have taken vegetables, preserves, books and organic seeds to Myrtleford and Beechworth weekly markets.
They are also involved with the Albury/Wodonga Borderland Permaculture group, which meets once monthly. They attend field trips, check out members’ gardens and do group design projects at new members’ properties. A recent highlight was a seed saving exercise with member Neil Padbury.
In April ’99 Gabi attended the ‘Eating into Our Future’ Conference in Adelaide and gave a paper called “Veging out in our Backyard’ , on urban food production, which was well received. She listened to talks about the superiority of organically produced food and how first world consumption habits are detrimental to third world agriculture. There were papers on the problems of genetic engineering and the link between healthy soil and healthy food and people. Rosemary Stanton, a dietician and nutritional scientist and Tim Marshall, of the organic growing scene, were amongst the keynote speakers.
A reccurent theme throughout the conference, Gabi explained, was the high degree of skill loss in the general population. The trend for the fast life dictates ever smaller kitchens. Many American apartments these days have a corner for a water jug and microwave oven and that’s it! People are just following food packet instructions and consider that to be cooking.
“When our teaching centre is ready, maybe by early next year, I want to offer practical workshops in traditional techniques of food preserving methods, in bread making, no-dig gardening and the like ” enthused Gabi.
Thomas has a background in electrical engineering and more recently in building biology. Sometimes he is called upon to check out people’s homes for geopathic and electrostress with his measuring devices. “It’s very hard to convince people that their favourite electrical appliances and systems are making them sick and to get rid of them. One client was being almost crippled by an underfloor electrical heating system…” said Thomas, who plans to offer weekend building biology courses at Boonderoo to help people avoid such household pitfalls.
“We wanted to get out of Europe and the last straw was when Chernobyl happened and it was all hushed up at first so nobody took any immediate precautions” explained Gabi. “My sister had a baby with no thyroid gland. She has to have artificial hormones and, luckily, is responding well to the treatment, although other kids are severely disabled by this problem. The doctors there are now very experienced with this condition, which previously would have been extremely rare.”
So the Moritz’s emigrated to Australia in 1987. Two years ago they visited Austria and were happily surprised to find supermarket shelves brimming with organic produce everywhere, a result of Austria’s joining of the European Union altering the economic basis of their farming methods.
They would like to eventually welcome more like-minded people to live as residents on their land and regulations allow them to build two more houses. The community of their dreams would have everything shared, including peoples’ incomes, so that everyone would be as equals.
I would recommend a visit to Boonderoo, with its envigorating climate and spectacular scenery. The blackberry jam is rather morish while the gardens are delightful. Perhaps some WWOOFer carpenters and builders will turn up to help hasten the dream along. All the better that this dynamic duo will be sooner sharing their vision and its bountiful harvest.