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chronicles

Dirty Rotten Claypans 2: P is for...

24/11/2011

5 Comments

 
Permaculture, of course. It's also for Plastic, Petrol and Power Tools. These aren't generally emphasised in permaculture philosophy but remember those compromises mentioned a couple of posts back? They mostly involve "P" words.

After a five-month absence from Muntanui, we arrived back in March 2010, all ready to get jiggy with my Quest For Fertility plan. But everything had grown so much over Summer that the place was almost unrecognisable. The vegie garden was a jungle, rampant with chin-high weeds.
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I'm sure I left a husband in here somewhere...
We had two and a half weeks to tame our unruly property. This kind of ruled out the low-tech option, which involved flailing about with machetes and looking demented.
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Don'tcha wish your girlfriend was HOTT like me?
Enter the Power tool/Petrol combo. Oh scrub cutter, how we did adore thee! You made short work of the vegie garden. You brought order to our driveway.  You ensured I wouldn't get lost between the berry patch and the house. You readied us for Plastic.

After the scrub-cutter carnage was over, we had a vegie garden with beds that were actually visible and a whole lot of chopped-up weeds that were already thinking about re-sprouting. We needed to kill them off and somehow improve the fertility of the soil in the beds, all while not living on site. That's when I turned to Jackie.

Aussie organic gardening guru, Jackie French, is one of my heroes. In her book, The Wilderness Garden, she mentions covering weeds with clear plastic ("solarisation") as an effective killing technique. When my mate Jackie suggests trying solarisation, solarisation's what I try. So we piled all the weed debris on top of the beds, nailed clear plastic over them and flew back to Oz. 
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Not as sinister as it looks. Honest.
When we removed the plastic eight months later, the weeds had indeed died but I'd been hoping they'd have broken down and made us some nice soil as well. They hadn't. They didn't. Bummer.
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Post-plastic. No-one said the Quest For Fertility would be easy...
A couple of friends who were staying with us at the time, Donald and Margaret from Abriachan Garden Nurseries, pointed out it didn't get hot enough here at Muntanui for the solarisation thing to crank up the composting process. We needed more heat... and for that, we needed more Plastic in the form of black weedmat. So on it went and on it stayed for another eight months until we arrived back at the end of August.
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Bringing in the big guns of the horticultural world!
The weeds hadn't rotted down completely but they'd made a lot of progress and we now had some organic matter to break up our clay. Phase 2 of the Quest For Fertility was complete. It was on to Phase 3... and one of the most hilarious P words of them all.
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Post-weedmat, ready for paths to be dug out and beds to be planted.
Posted by Farmer Nik
5 Comments

Famous already!

12/11/2011

1 Comment

 
This appeared in last Wednesday's Blenheim Sun, snapped while we were at the Marlborough A&P Show ("Agricultural and Pastoral") on the previous Friday. I think the journo singled us out because everyone else was walking around in shirt sleeves. Our breathtaking natural gorgeousness would've had something to do with it too.
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"Niki Morrell tucks into a whitebait burger while Ewan Morrell enjoys the A&P Show on Friday."
Posted by Farmer Nik
1 Comment

Dirty Rotten Claypans 1: The Quest for Fertility

7/11/2011

4 Comments

 
On the day we met Muntanui's previous owner (a farmer from way back), I asked him if he'd ever had the soil tested. "No need," he said. "It's typical New Zealand soil: acidic and low in phosphorus."

On each successive visit, as I observed and learned more, I began to see the evidence of his assessment for myself. The weeds that favour damp and acidic soils were everywhere: sorrel, dock and plantain. One of the paddocks had serious issues with bracken, another acid lover (but also a useful pioneer plant and nitrogen fixer, revegetating degraded land.) Creeping buttercup through the vegie garden warned us our drainage was bad. And for every five holes we dug, we were lucky if we found one worm.

But it wasn't all bad. Honestly. Sure, our soil is basically a mixture of clay and shale over a hardpan. Yes, it's a bit uncouth and rough around the edges and you wouldn't be too thrilled about it marrying your daughter... but it has promise. I found just enough fertility indicators (clover, chickweed and blackberry) to hint at the possibility that one day -- maybe in less than five years -- our dirt will be black, deep and full of life. Then we'll grow the sort of tucker that gives us superpowers.

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Hmmm... are we inspired yet?

To kick off our epic soil remediation process, I had a wee chat with the Librarian Who Lives In My Head:

-- What soil amendments regulate acidity? Acceptable organic and permaculture solutions only, please.
-- Lime, dolomite or wood ash and lots of organic matter.
-- What about phosphorus deficiency?
-- A passel of chooks should do the trick.
-- That's fine for the vegie garden and maybe the orchard but what about the paddocks?
-- Dunno, mate. Green manures? Pasture cropping? Strip grazing? Fukuoka-style seed balling? More animals? All of the above? Read more books or talk to someone who's already doing it. I'm off for my pedicure.
-- Pedicure? But I always thought you were a bloke.
-- Yeah? So?
-- Feeling awkward now.

That was in October 2009. I had the beginnings of a plan but it would be March 2010 before we were able to get back to Muntanui. When we returned, I learned one of the most important lessons associated with trying to live and farm sustainably: somewhere along the line, you'll be forced to make compromises...

Resources
NZ soil types: Landcare Research
NZ weeds: Massey University's weed database
Weeds as soil indicators: Woodrow, L., The Permaculture Home Garden, Penguin, Australia, 1995, pp 49-51. There's also a good general reference here: http://oregonbd.org/Class/weeds.htm

For an overview of weeds and the services they perform in soil building, check out Weeds, Guardians of the Soil by Joseph A. Cocannouer. Originally published in 1950, nearly 30 years before Mollison and Holmgren's definitive Permaculture One hit the scene, this delightful little book was something of a trail-blazer. It refers to the ability of weeds to stabilise soil and "mine" nutrients, and advocates their controlled use to benefit agriculture. Although written for a US readership, there's plenty that's relevant anywhere in the world. The link will take you to a free online library. It's definitely worth a look.

 - Posted by Farmer Nik
4 Comments

Impending Summer: a bit of a worry

5/11/2011

1 Comment

 
Today's date is 5 November. Summer officially begins in 26 days. And here's what we woke up to this morning:
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Muntanui in the snow
We covered our early cropping spuds with frost cloth last night, so I'm hoping that was enough to save them. As for the rest of the vegie garden, we'll have to wait and see. Most of what's in there is pretty hardy: lettuce, pak choi, rocket, broad beans, etc. The tomatoes are still too small to be planted out -- just as well, as it turns out.

For more artistic, snow-filled images... well, just look below. And enjoy.
Posted by Farmer Nik
1 Comment

    About Ewan and Niki

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    Farmer Wan

    Scottish mechanical engineer with a deep and abiding passion for good food. Outstanding cook. Builder of lots of stuff. Cattle whisperer. Connoisseur of beer. A lover rather than a fighter.

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    Farmer Nik

    Kiwi writer and broadcaster who hates cabbage, even though she knows it's good for her. Chook wrangler. Grower of food and flowers. Maker of fine preserves. Lover of dancing and wine. Definitely a fighter.

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