Andrew's endless experiments

[andrew_k]

I was lurking around here last year some time, probably April-May but was in the midst of getting our old place ready to sell so I bookmarked this site for later. Well, later's now, and we've been at our new place for 6 months so I figured I'd sign up and say hi

Some details:
We're on 3 acres in central Victoria, Australia. "We" are me, my lovely partner, our almost 3yo daughter, a son due in May, and 3 khaki campbell sisters. Soil is dense black clay, former flood plain that goes from boggy standing water in the wet season (winter), to entirely dry impenetrable clay rock in summer. We have two seasons - frozen season and fire season, with bitterly cold winds blowing from the south or dangerously hot winds from the N/NW. Our place is basically all former pasture, with zero windbreaks anywhere and very little in the way of usable micro-climate.

I've started keeping a simple photo log of bits and pieces I get up to at our place - http://permaculturing.tumblr.com .
Unfortunately I'm pretty much restricted to being a weekend gardener, as I commute 4-5 hours per day to work in Melbourne as an internet nerd.

Tomorrow's a big day, I'm marking out a 1/2acre of contours for swale/mound planting ~70 black walnut, and ~30 blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon) next spring. Much like George Collins, I'm planting these trees are for my kids -- although I reserve the right to fell one of each in ~35 years to build a guitar and some furniture.

I look forward to joining in the conversations here and hanging out more, as this place clearly lacks the egomaniacal dictator factor that I can no longer endure at a more populated permaculture forum.

[Lollykoko]

Pleased to meet you, Andrew and welcome to the group!

I liked the first page of photos and will go back to see more, I'm sure. Great idea to use sunflowers for maintaining your soil. For several years now I've gotten some young (under 14) kids at my place, given them a bag/box of wildflower seed and told them to sprinkle it anyplace they can see dirt under the grasses. Yes, it does make a difference!

I'm wondering what critter that is? It resembles a porcupine except for the snout, IMO. Not that I've seen a porcupine in the quill, of course.

[pa_friendly_guy]

Welcome Andrew, I am glad that you decided to stop lurking and start to contribute to the conversation. We are glad to have you aboard. You have a wonderful vision for your property and it seems that you have made huge progress in a very short time. The location has a lot of challenges for you to over come and I think your ideas have already started to show progress in over coming the issues your climate has thrown at you. Sorry that you have such a long commute, that much time out of each day can be a killer. Maybe you can find a way to do your computer nerd stuff from home, even telecommuting part of the time would be a great thing for you. The area seems pretty Flat, at least from my point of view , but you have a very nice view. How far can you see ? BTW I am here from that other more populated permaculture site, and for the same reason. I got tired of worrying about world Domination and just wanted to talk about permaculture and learn and share. This site has been great for that. I have learned a lot. Again, Welcome.

PS I too enjoyed the photos and the write ups, keep up the Great Work.

[pa_friendly_guy]

Oh, by the way Andrew, we have a number of members from Down Under. You guys have some very unique problems and weather conditions that I am totally unfamiliar with. Boo has talked about the harsh conditions, rain fall and extreme weather conditions that you guys deal with every day. People from the South West of our country have many of the same problems with lack of water, but they do not get a real rainy season. As we get more members from Australia I hope that you all can share what works for you and what you have done, and are doing to combat your unique problems. Good Luck with your Homestead.

[GrahamB]

Welcome Andrew. You won't find a friendlier bunch on the internet as you find here. I also am a refugee from 'that' site. You can throw any ideas you may have into the pot here and everyone will give you nothing but friendly advice and encouragement. I enjoyed looking at your photos and how you are showing not just the things that work but also your failures. It can only help other people visiting your site, to see what works and what doesn't.

[matt walker]

Welcome Andrew! Love your tumblr. Man, you've done a lot in a short time there, very inspiring. I'm looking forward to picking your brain on your fruit tree hugels. I'd love to know your theory on where on the mound to put trees, orientation of your beds, and on and on. Glad to have you here.

[andrew_k]

Thank you all for the warm welcome and your kind words.

Lollykoko: Getting kids to throw seeds is a great idea. My little girls gets right into it, especially if she harvests the seeds first as well. The animal you're asking about is an echidna, one of our wonderful unique natives. Beautiful creatures, but incredibly shy.

pa_friendly_guy: I am definitely moving towards commuting less, but in the meantime I use the train rides to contemplate observations I've made on our property and possible designs utilising what I see, as well as plenty of reading. It doesn't hurt that my train ride is through country and includes passing easily 50 dams, ravines, natural and planted windbreaks -- almost all of which are in very similar climates and soils to my own. There's always more to observe if I can open my eyes wide enough. Seems like Boo is very near to me, probably only ~30 minutes north judging by her reference to former gold-mining areas. Small world!

GrahamB: I definitely agree that this site encourages a friendly melting pot of ideas. There's a disappointing single-minded devotion to the practices and opinions of a particular (highly accomplished!!) Austrian permaculturist elsewhere, which I especially struggle with since the formal Permaculture Design syllabus originates from a couple of Australians. Chuck it all at a wall and see what sticks I reckon

Matt Walker: I have very little brain to pick on the hugel planting decision process, I'm afraid. I planted at the (very small) apex for my first experimental one on this property due to our seasonal soil shifts. In the tropics, swales are planted on the lower wet gully edge (at least by Geoff Lawson, a huge swale advocate), and as you'd know Holzer plants his trees between the hugels, in the dips. However, he also runs his almost diagonally off-contour to prevent standing water (and probably other reasons). Mine are almost on contour, hopefully providing a vast reduction in silt-loss in the wet season and getting that water into the earth for dry season. I have attempted to combine absorption swale and hugelkultur to the best of my current ability. Time will tell. The slope of our property is southwards, which down here is away from the sun. The six swale/hugel hybrids I've laid down so far are east-west, except one which is closer to north-south due to contour.

[andrew_k]

Progress wise, I had a couple of good stints on the weekend; ended up going for a roughly 8ft x 15ft spacing for the walnut layout, with the contour lines starting at a 15ft spacing and then weaving too and fro as they do. Mapping contours in a >20mph wind with an A-frame is a frustrating experience -- that plumb bob just doesn't want to stop swinging. Ended up with at least 60 tree spots in the triangular section of land I've put aside for the walnuts, unfortunately when trying to rip the contour lines with a 3PL ditch ripper I turned a corner too sharply and bent the ripper all out of shape. Potentially expensive lesson, as the top hitch point connector has been utterly destroyed on its first use and the ripper is going to need some heavy-duty massaging to get it back into shape.

The other aspect that got a little attention is something I'm very excited about, our lean-to hoophouse with heated soil bed. I'll start a thread for that in the future when there's some more to share. For now here's the result of the first 90 minutes of slinging concrete:


(click through for some more details if you like)

[matt walker]

Nice one Andrew. Sorry to hear about the implement. I'm having a bit of a hard time viewing your tumblr, not sure why. Can you post a hoop house photo here? I'd love to see it.

[boo]

I'd love to see more too please Andrew. Your place is lovely and I can't believe what you've done with your soil in such a short period of time!