Hi there, My husband and I have just purchased an 80 acre grazing block approx 32 km NE of Warwick. It is our goal to move out to this farm within the next year and live sustainably off the land. (Fingers crossed we can make it out that soon). Currently we are still working full time in Brisbane. The farm we have purchased is bare and has a minimal number of trees. The block is split into 3 pieces by a ravine. It is mostly on a slope, yet there are patches of flat ground. This has lead to major erosion issues throughout the block that we feel we need to put to the top of our priorities. Using “Permaculture Plants” as a guide, I have started to grow trees from seed, such as nitrogen fixing and erosion control plants. I guess the issue we face is the design. Are there any designers in the area who offer consultancy services to assist? Or does anyone have any advice or quick wins? Thanks muchly, Rose
Take a look at these people close to you - Done Hansford or Nick Huggins For a project of this size a professional design will probably save you a packet in the long run. My advice is that there are no quick wins - small and slow solutions work best.
Quick win is definitely get someone with broadacre experience to give you a hand or you will be non-stop researching and implementing a piece at a time, and making mistakes along the way. Stopping the erosion is your most pressing problem and you are entirely right to think that. Nick, that eco suggested, appears to have done a Keyline course at Milkwood recently, which is one of the most recognised broadacre courses and will manage all of your water. Even Milkwood themselves have small-scale erosion implementations that you may want to look at - Zuni Bowls. You can never have enough plants so expand your nursery.
I agree, getting the right earthworks done is vital and pressing. I reckon if you get this right straight off the bat, you are going to save yourselves in almost every way, physically, emotionally, financially, spiritually... It will be worth the investment to get someone to help you with this. In the meantime you could read up on swales and keyline systems. When someone starts talking to you about them you will know exactly what they are talking about. good luck.
Thanks all for your replys. Yes I have been reading up a lot on swales etc but I still need to get some expert help. I am also thinking that I need to get the block surveyed for the contour mapping. Anyone out there with a GPS RTF system that would like to have some fun? Or possible lend it out for a weekend? The Zuni bowls are very interesting. I got excited when I read up about them. Does anyone know if it will work with a 5m head cut? Thanks again all.
Hello Rose, How wonderful and exciting for you acquiring 80 acres. Sounds like you are in the stage of observing and beginnings of interacting with your site. My advice would be to first look at your contour lines, find your keyline points and understand how water is flowing for capture on your site. After you establish how your water can move around your property you can plan the flow and tree lines. Redirecting your water flow can also help the erosion issue in the long run. Defiantly have a consultant out there to assess the ravine and tree planting there. Might be just my opinion, but growing trees from seed can take a really long time (3+ years) to get them big enough for replanting if your starting them in pots. Personally, with property and urgency of land repair, you might want to look into obtaining trees that are already a good 6' tall or more in growth. If your planning on continuing the grazing as income, maybe look into planning out rotation of a variety of livestock ( sheep, llamas, horse, cow, ducks) maybe get some consultation about that too. Rotation would be moving cattle out of an area every 24hrs or so, and have land resting for several weeks between...might keep you pretty busy, but there are studies that show biodiversity and natural herding can benefit growth on the barren land when its managed properly. Heres a couple links i pulled off google. We are so lucky these days to have so much available data online. GoodLuck to You and yours. Keyline https://permaculturenews.org/2013/02/22/before-permaculture-keyline-planning-and-cultivation/ No-Till Case Study animal rotation https://webcache.googleusercontent....download.php?id=422+&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
Google maps can give you the basic contour lines as a start, zoom in click terrain. Even better the USGS stor site map locator, zoom into your site https://store.usgs.gov/b2c_usgs/usg...rea=2&ctype=areaDetails&carea=0000000009)/.do
Thanks crystaldawn. I did originally get someone in to have a walk around and he gave us lots of ideas. We have thus far done some major earth works and it has helped considerably. We are now manually collecting rocks and filling in holes and trying to stop churns in the big rains. Have lots of trees growing all over the place too, thanks to the rain. Need to do more earthwork so am saving up now to buy a machine so we can dig Swales ourselves. Food forest is planted and am just waiting for it to grow bigger. Always plenty to do.
It would be nice to see some images or a progression of what you have done. A good design is like a road map for decisions. Hope all is well. -2ºF here today. Goats are in winter quarters. Dan
Hi, Kim Best is my name and I'm a certified permaculture designer (Geoff Lawton is my teacher) in Brisbane. Are you still looking for some support? 0406 123 259 [email protected]
Ha, good one. So cute The main planing of zone 1 has not been done as we tackled erosion issues in zones 2-5. Here check out my ff progress. https://forums.internationalpermacu...30-What-I-have-been-up-to-Food-Forest-Warwick I did have a cow get in and eat my cover crop in September and it hasn't looked that good since, including getting more summer cover crop seed. I will get some pics and update the ff thread.