Fast compost – Soil Permaculture Design and Maintenance

Compost — by Murray Gray September 11, 2005

What is Compost?

Compost is humanity’s version of the humus found in nature, and the compost heap is a ‘digester’ – our tool used to produce it. Humus is made of broken down vegetation which releases nutrients back into the soil for healthy plant growth. Similarly, under the direction of the careful gardener, the composting process breaks down a rich mixture of ingredients to produce a potent humus which will regenerate soil and foster vigorous plant growth. Virtually anything which has once lived can be composted – although selecting the most appropriate mixture of ingredients from what is available can be seen at first as something of a ‘dark art’. Time spent in quiet observation of the natural processes of your garden will never be wasted. This includes experimenting with composting materials and methods, adapting ‘expert’ advice to local conditions, and learning from your own successes and failures along the way.

Why make Compost?

Strong and healthy plants have their own natural resistance to pests and diseases and compost is the natural, home grown, method of achieving this. Good compost added regularly to your garden will support healthy and rich soil – your plants in turn will thrive in this soil to produce healthy and nutritious food for you. Chemical fertlisers bypass many of the natural processes used to build healthy plants and thus healthy food. This can create an imbalance in which weeds, pests and diseases are encouraged – which in turn then demands more chemical responses in the form of herbicides, insecticides, fungicides etc. Composting is also the natural way of disposing of garden waste and turning it into something useful (and not into an environmental problem at your local landfill). Any garden which can increase its own fertility year after year while producing nutritious food for its owners is helping to save the planet – compost can help you do this!

How to make Compost

Many guides to composting recommend this or that material as being good for making compost. In most backyard situations, you will have to make do with whatever you have around, or if you want to, to buy in materials (eg bales of straw, bags of manure). However, the mix of ingredients is important for a good compost process and end product. If you only have weeds and kitchen scraps, make sure you balance them up with shredded paper or cardboard. Too much nitrogen material and the heap will stink, too much carbon and the decomposition process slows down

There are a number of different techniques used to make compost. The one which works best for me is the ‘hot’ process (also know as the Berkely method) described below. Others include the Indore method (as first described by Sir Albert Howard in Indore, India in 1913) and

composting bins – everyone is entitled to experiment and find the one that suits them best!

Ingredients for the compost heap (no matter what method is used) are :

Organic materials – anything that has been alive can be composted! – but like making a cake, there needs to be some balance in the ingredients. The two broad categories of compost materials are high-Carbon (woody, brown, dry) to high-Nitrogen (fresh, wet, green). The microbes that work in the compost digester need a starting ratio of approximately 30 Carbon to 1 Nitrogen to make protein (ie their body mass) – thus as good heap designers, this is what we should be aiming for as an overall ratio. If you want to start getting really technical, you can analyse the compost ingredients. As each have their own balance of C/N, the overall ratio of the assembled heap needs to be adjusted accordingly (see table).

Material C/N ratio

• Sawdust 450
• Paper 150
• Straw 100
• Leaves 60
• Fruit wastes 35
• Lawn clippings 20
• Food wastes 15
• Weeds 19
• Chicken litter (typical) 10
• Cow manure 12
• Chicked manure (no straw) 7

It also helps to have the materials in small pieces – this increases surface area and makes it easier to get an even mix. A mulcher will chop woody materials up nicely – a lawn mower can do almost the same job on small pieces of twigs and cardboard. You may also have to ‘stockpile’ materials until you have enough to make a heap.

• Micro-organisms – hundreds of species of bacteria and fungi are involved in the composting process. But don’t worry about arranging the party invitations – as soon as you assemble your compost heap, all the guests arrive automatically and get to work multiplying up into huge numbers. Its Free!!
• Moisture – it is very important to keep the heap at the correct moisture level. Too dry and the decomposition process will stop (you will be able to tell if this has happened as the ingredients will remain unchanged week after week, sometimes with dry powdery white fungi, and sometimes with the invasion of slaters). Too wet and the anaerobic bacteria will flourish leading to a different kind of decomposition, including foul smells. Regular turning and regular watering will help to maintain the correct balance of moisture throughout the heap. Also, keep the heap protected from heavy rain which can make it too wet and leach compost products away
• Oxygen – The bacteria we seek to encourage in the compost heap are aerobic (air/oxygen loving) as opposed to anaerobic (air/oxygen hating). Thus we need to supply a constant supply and resupply of oxygen throughout the heap. This is the primary reason why the heap is turned regularly.

Method (for a ‘hot’ heap)

The optimal shape for a compost heap is approximately 1.5m wide and 1.5m high and at least 1.5m long. Some Biodynamic farmers have heaps 100m long – needless to say they turn them using tractors! The length of the heap will depend on how much space you have in your garden, and how much material you have. Build the heap in thin layers of different materials approximately 5cm thick and water each layer before progressing to the next. For example, one layer of leaves, one layer of manure, one layer of weeds, then start again. Adding small amounts of soil into the layers will also help to ‘inoculate’ the heap with soil flora.

How it works

Living (or recently dead!) tissue, whether plant or animal, is made up of large and complex organic molcules containing carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and other elements in smaller quantities. Even before you have finished building the heap, bacteria and fungi have started to feed on the dead plant material and multiply in number. Plants are made of starch, fat, protein, cellulose and lignin and these become food for a huge variety micro-organisms that live in the soil. These micro-organisms – the soil flora, excrete enzymes which enable chemical reactions to take place, breaking up organic molecules into smaller and simpler pieces that can be used as food. This food is used to build the cell walls and cell contents, in the manufacture of enzymes and other exudates, and in multiplication.

The first group of bacteria to work on the heap are those that work in the normal air temperature range. However, one of the by-products of these chemical reactions is heat, and because of the shape of the compost heap, this heat is retained. As the termperature of the heap rises another group of bacteria take over – the heat loving or thermophilic group – and the heap can heat up to over 60oC within a day or so. This heat is important to human composters as it will kill unwanted seeds and pests. However, as available food is used up, the heat loving bacteria give way to other types of bacteria and fungi. Turning the heap every 2 days or so will re-mix the ingredients and provide more food in the centre of the heap, restarting the process.

Many complex chemical and microbiological reactions take place in the heap – one of the more important reactions is that which cycles nitrogen from organic matter into nitrate which can be used by plants. When the heap finally starts to cool down (and using the ‘hot’ method, this should be around 3 – 4 weeks) larger soil animals move in to feed on the organic material and on the bacteria and fungi. These include protozoa, nematodes, mites, collembola, worms, ants and others whose effect is to further condition and enhance the structure and content of the humus in readiness for use.

How to use it

Finished compost should be dark, fine and spongy with a pleasant earthy smell. You should not be able to recognise any of the original ingredients in it!

• The finished material can be applied directly to form a surface layer which conditions, fertilises and suppresses diseases in the soil. You can’t harm plants by putting on too much, but to make it go as far as possible, a minimum layer of 5cm is recommended. In Australian conditions, exposed layers of compost on top of the soil will quickly dry out and ‘die’. Thus a thick layer of mulch (straw, cardboard etc) should be placed on top immediately to protect it. New plantings can be dug though this protective top layer.
• Also recommended is to make a ‘tea’ with the compost by soaking it in water, then aerating it to build up the flora volume again. This can be filtered and sprayed onto the garden or onto the leaves of plants
• Sifted and mixed (1 part) with sharp sand (3 parts) and peat or coconut mulch, ( 3 parts), it becomes seed raising mix

Compost Clinic

“Crikey….something’s not quite right here!!”… Look upon your compost heap as a living organism – to find a cause for any ailment in your garden’s digestive organ, go back to the basic ingredients listed above (balance of ingredients, water, oxygen) and diagnose your heap against each one

“It stinks!!” – this could be the result of a couple of common problems

• noxious fumes are produced by anaeobic bacteria ie, not enough oxygen is available througout the heap, or its too wet or has large lumps of wet sludgy material. Or large amounts of unmixed kitchen waste
• Excessive nitrogen is unbalanced by too little carbon, and the heap is venting as ammonia gas. One remedy which would address both problems could be to turn the heap to aerate it more often and to add in some drier, fibrous, carbon rich material (eg straw)

“Nothing’s happening!” Your heap has done nothing for days and days on end – no heat, no change in structure of the ingredients. This could be

• Too little water – you heap is dry, effectively stopping any biological activity. Turn the heap, spraying with water constantly.
• If the ingredients are too rough or large this will also slow things down. Remedy is to remake the heap after chopping up the rougher ingredients (eg run the lawn mower over them!).
• Not enough nitrogen – turn the heap and add more manure or lawn clippings as you do it.

“I don’t have space for a compost heap”, or “I don’t have the energy to move all that stuff around around any more”. Don’t give way to despair! A worm farm could be just the thing for you. See our notes on setting up a work farm..

Sources and Links

“Composting – making soil improver from rubbish”, Handreck, K A, CSIRO 1979. The best little booklet on composting I have found, but proabably out of print now.

“Permaculture – a designers manual” Chapter 8 is a classic primer on soil and its role within the context of human survival.

“Grasp the Nettle – making biodynamic farming and gardening work” Proctor P, Cole G, Random House 2000

“Biodynamic gardening” Soper J, Souvenir Press 1996. Both books give a good context for composting within a larger BD view.

www.soilhealth.com Uni of WA group promoting biological farming. Good basic description of soil biology

www.soilfoodweb.com the web site of Dr Elaine Ingham promoting compost teas

www.mastercomposters.com US based self help site with heaps(!) of message board archives to pore over

www.soilassociation.org UK based site devoted to organic farming – good resources section

http://www.soilandhealth.org/ amazing individual site including on-line library of soil classics!!

Parting Thoughts……

Composting is one of those things that’s too important to put off doing, just because you don’t think you can get it right…Remember – If it’s worth doing, its worth doing badly!!

“So Long as one feeds on food from unhealthy soil, the spirit will lack the stamina to free itself from the prison of the body” Rudolf Steiner

The Compost Song

(good agri-CULTUR-al practice should take important lessons and embody them in various artistic forms. These can then be taught to inspire us and can be remembered by society as a whole and over time . Our kids learnt this song at school- source unknown but nevertheless acknowledged.)

We are Compost Makers
We make Compost well
We know how to make it
So it will not stink or smell

If you pay attention
You can make it too
So listen to our good advice
And you’ll know what to do

Take food scraps from the kitchen
To a suitable outside spot

And mix them up
With old lawn clippings

And tea – leaves – from – the tea pot
Apple cores, fallen leaves And next door’s old dead cat
Some cow dung, chook poo,
horse manure and an old straw hat

Micro-organ-isms
Are living in the soil
They do all the decomposing
Work and all the toil

So add a couple of layers
Of good garden earth
And those micro beasts will
Multiply for all their worth

Water is essential
Make sure you add it too
but not too much, or it will stink
and your neighbours will be after you!

Turn it every coupl’a days
Stand back and feel the heat
Then wack it on yer garden
For veggies ya just can’t beat!

soil.permaculture@hermes.net.au Gardening Notes

Alley cropping in the tropics

General — by Murray Gray August 16, 2005

The problem of compaction within annual crop systems is a very difficult one in the tropics especially. The tropics make it difficult because they naturally lend themselves to diverse productive tree systems and often people have followed the annual cropping systems of European style of cultivation.

Ok so incorporating trees in the systems will help and mulching definitely will help and limiting the amount of walking on the fields will help. What I have found is because most of these people are used to burning mulch they cut at the end of the wet when it is still green and easy to cut and burn the same mulch in the dry season after it is dried right out and so easy to burn.

Then when you ask them to try using mulch they feel a bit weird and don’t want to be laughed at by other farmers who usually think the mulch looks untidy when their fields are all clean bare soil (a power trip over nature, control issue, and they also have the old idea backing them up “cleanliness is next to Godliness”). So when you eventually persuade them to try mulching a few problems usually arise unless you follow it right through with, and believe me these have been very hard and at times very disappointing mistakes to make.

Number one: local people usually do not want to look anymore different and get laughed at more so they cut their mulch at the same time of year as everyone else, this is a MAJOR mistake as the mulch lies in the full dry season sun with most of the moisture evaporating and with very limited soil life activity in the dry hot conditions and by the time the wet season starts again most of the benefit of the mulch is gone. You need to cut the mulch at the end of the dry at the beginning of the wet when the cloud cover increases and the evaporation effects go down.

This means that the shade from the trees is opened up to grow the crops and the ground is protected from the heavy rain reducing erosion and leaching effects of soil nutrients and the valuable manure fertilizer additions. The mulch also starts to break down quicker as the soil life activity is considerably higher in the rainy season with the extra soil moisture and lower soil temperatures, which means it becomes soil food, humus and potential plant food much faster also increasing the soils organic matter content and soil water holding capacity.

This means we can select legume trees which can be pollard cut every year, planted on contour in rows within the crop fields spaced so that all the mulch cut from the trees mulches the crop rows on contour (often only a double reach row in width so the crop can be attended to from either side of the row without walking on the soil between the crop plants) between the tree rows, Gliracidia and Leaucaena are 2 very typical trees used for this purpose.

They will also have the beneficial effect of structuring the soil and fixing large amounts of nitrogen in the root zone and because they are pollard cut at the start of the rains to a tall stump (say 1.8m) they create very little shade during the main growing season. By the time the rainy season finishes they will have re-sprouted multiple long thin branches that will quickly leaf up and shade the ground during the dry season, this shading effect is more beneficial in the dry than mulch and as the trees have deeper roots than the annual crops the continue to grow on the deeper residual ground water well after the rainy season has finished. With the ground well shaded and the mulch from the pre-rainy season mulch cut well rotted into soil humus it is often possible to sow a dry season cover crop in the field as and extra soil conditioner, mulch harvest for the start of the next rainy season. After a few years of establishment of this system and the inevitable improvement of soil structure, organic matter and water holding capacity, it with be possible to take off some surplus legume tree pruning leaf material to feed animals and returning the animals manure to the field as fertilizer and take off surplus legume tree pruning branch wood material to use as cooking fuel, breaking the dangerous soil nutrient depleting cycle often practiced of burning animal manure for cooking fuel.

Number two, when mulch is cut to burn it is cut in the form of large pruning material and left propped up to quickly air dry so it will burn easily, once this much material has dried in long lengths it is very hard and brittle making it a great deal harder to chop up. But this is what is often done because local people don’t want to look TOO different in case it does not work. To get the most benefit from the mulch we need to chop it up and greatly increase its surface area and its capability to lie in contact with the ground so that beneficial soil fungi and bacteria can begin to work on it as quickly as possible. To get the most benefit from our effort we should cut the pruned mulch material up as small as practically possible (often a minimum of 150mm lengths using hand tools) while it is still green and containing its natural plant moisture to help increase the speed of its decomposition rate.

Number three, not enough mulch is added usually because local people are caution about doing something so different again. The mulch needs to be thick at least 100 to 150mm so that it has an intrinsic ability of holding moisture and also insulating the soil, which will require one tenth the amount of water once the thick mulch is initially soaked than bare soil. The subtle but precise placement of the mulch is often not taken seriously enough either. Initially the majority of the pruned mulch material should be piled in long rows close to the legume tree trunks, this will help relieve the stress on these useful functional elements of the system and help them recover. Between the pruned trees where the crop is seeded only a very thin mulch is required on top of the organic fertilizer that is being used (usually manure or ideally compost), a “germination mulch” just enough to completely cover the ground and germinate the crop seed but not TOO much to inhibit the crop seed from germinating, with a little bit of trial and error this measure of mulch is easily gauged.

Once the crop has germinated and has started to grow and as it is attended to the farmer can walk along next to the pruned legume trees on top of the long mulch pile greatly reducing the effort of compaction. As the crop begins to increase in size more and more mulch can be moved across from the tree lines to the soil surface around the base of the crop plants until at the end of the growing season the mulch situation will have completely reversed and the majority of the mulch will be around the crop plants and only a small amount on the tree lines. At the end of the cropping season the crop plants themselves can be cut and all unusable parts returned as mulch leaving their roots in position to root in position to decompose forming compost corridors in the soil enhancing soil structure further. At this stage chickens can be ranged through the field to evenly spread and further shred the mulch, eat weed seeds and insect pests and their larvae which are often dormant in the top soil at the end of the cropping season, this helps break the weed and pest cycles.

Increasing the speed of mulch decomposition because of the shredding and manure drop in turn increasing the fertility of the field and gives the chickens a good nutritious feed. When the chickens have turned over most of the mulch they should be removed and a dry season cover crop seeded for cutting as mulch at the beginning of the next wet season. At this stage chickens can be ranged through the field again to spread the mulch eat weed seeds, insects and deposit manure for a short period just prior to seeding the main crop and cutting the main legume tree mulch.

July 2005 newsletter

News — by Murray Gray July 15, 2005

Greetings and welcome to The Permaculture Research Institute Newsletter for June 2005.

Griffith University in Brisbane was the venue for the final Permaculture Design Certificate course taught by the permaculture research institute in November 2004. This was the first course for us to be taught in an Australian University and was co-taught by Geoff and Danial Lawton. Students attended from most states of Australia with a few coming in from overseas. The universities auditorium classroom setting worked well with state of the art information technology in place for audio, digital projection and direct web link all on hand.

This course was set up in such a way that the students organized their own accommodation and food requirements with many choices available in Brisbane and lunch available for purchase on site at the university. This allowed the lecturers to concentrate on a high quality course delivery. An organized site visit tour of Northey Street City Farm and a course design process on one the students local suburban blocks completed a very successful dynamic Course.

The Boxing Day tsunami in Indonesia immediately created rapid response action on the part of all The Permaculture Research Institute directors and project workers. Communications were sent out all our contacts within the impact zone and we are very please to say all responses came back having survived the disaster and most were in action helping the recovery.

We already had been involved in the 1998 New Guinea tsunami when thousands of lives were lost in minutes when a huge wave hit the North West coast centered at the remote fishing community of Sissano Lagoon.

We held fund raising events and were given free airfares from New Guinea Air to send in a team of consultants to research and assess the impact damage to come up with design solutions for future security of people in similar tsunami events. Over the following period of six months, two teams of permaculture teachers taught permaculture design certificate courses and set up a demonstration site in the area. The research we conducted concentrated on the areas deep within the impact zone that escaped major damaged and why. Rather the opposite of the global media and global research organizations, which seemed to be fixated on the sensationalism of the horrendous damages caused by the natural disaster.

Our research team of consultants came up with some very interesting findings that seemed to have been missed by most other people. Wherever there was a dense coastal tree belt more than one hundred and fifty meters deep on the foreshore all infrastructure on the leeward side escaped with minimal damage. Such tree belts dramatically reduced the impact and all large potentially dangerous objects being carried by the wave and were filtered out, becoming a slow surge of water carrying nothing but fine floating organic mulch. This mulch was left piled up in long windrows up to three meters high on the landward side of these tree belts.

The local people, who had run to the leeward side of the tree belts and wrapped their arms around a tree and particularly large clumping bamboo stems, which have great tensile strength bending and recovering under impact, told a repeated survival story to our researchers. These survivors recounted sliding up the tree trunks and bamboo stems like a sliding fishing float up a line and back down again repeatedly as each wave surge came through, but with all large objects filtered out that could potentially dislodge their grip they survived to tell us their story.

Bill Mollison added some of his research from working in Hawaii recording ancient systems of dense coastal tree belts planted by the old Hawaiian culture concentrating mainly on five rows of coconut palms across the mouths of settlement valleys susceptible to tsunami damage.

Immediately following the Boxing Day tsunami disaster armed with the New Guinea and Hawaiian research information our directors were in action Paul Brant and Andrew Jones in New York, Julia Harris in Canberra. The United Nations agencies involved were contacted, as were numerous aid organizations and all governments whose countries that fell within the impact zone. We received many emails thanking us for making our research freely available and the planting of large coastal tree tsunami buffer belts are underway as part of the future security planning. With the inclusion of many appropriate and productive species to add value to the work and function of this designed system.

With many years experience in emergency response aid work Andrew Jones was offered the job of heading up the post tsunami re-habilitation assessment consultancy team for the United Nations Environment Program based in Jakarta. Andrew in still in Indonesia based in Jakarta going back and forward to disaster area working in environmental management support for the UNEP with permaculture design and education at the top of his agenda.

Geoff and Nadia Lawton were invited by Jo Pearsall and Bryan Innes to present lectures and workshops at the New Zealand Ecoshow 2005, March 3rd to 6th at The Trusts Stadium, Henderson Waitakere City, Auckland.

Geoff presented four lectures with digital slide show presentations on different aspects of permaculture work performed by The Permaculture Research Institute. Nadia presented three hands on practical workshops on Bedouin cooking on an open fire. Both Geoff and Nadia also sat on a panel of experts to answer questions on the effect of permaculture globally. This whole event was very well attended and organized with extremely professional presentations and exhibits, demonstrating the high level of environmental consciousness in New Zealand.

After the Ecoshow they were invited to co-teach with Robina McCurdy of Earthcare Education Aotearoa and her partner Huckleberry for three days of a permaculture design certificate course at the Taranaki Environmental Education Center at Inglewood just inland from New Plymouth. This turned out to be a very beneficial sharing, caring and connecting experience for all involved, with a great group of students and a fertile cross pollination of teaching experience making it possible to assist in mentoring new local teachers into action by honing their skills.

After Taranaki Xavier and Caralina Meade invited them to Raglan to be guests in their beautiful rammed earth house over looking the famous surf break and to take part in the Raglan Permaculture Week. Nadia as an experienced beekeeper was also very happy to help Caralina with her bees helping to smoke and inspect her hives. They attended farm and garden tours, consulted on a Maori community and participated in a catchment management-planning meeting. One highlight was a tour of Extreme Waste, Raglan’s highly successful waste and recycling center.
Next stop was Rainbow Valley Farm, Matakana near Warkworth north of Auckland a world-class permaculture demonstration site, education center owned and run by Joe Polaischer and Trish Allen. This turned out to be another highly beneficial set of connections with many ideas, experiences and stories exchanged. They helped out with a cob oven building workshop with Nadia adding a great deal of traditional Middle Eastern knowledge and experience in building techniques and cooking using cob ovens. Nadia also made many types of Middle Eastern dishes and baked fresh bread both in the cob oven and flat breads an up turned wok on the open fire sharing recipes and techniques with the students.

Koanga Organic Gardens was another classic permaculture site where they visited and were hosted by Kay Baxter and Bob Corker. A permaculture community property in action and flourishing with an excellent nursery and garden shop offering all kinds of appropriate products plus many varieties of heritage fruit trees saved by Kay’s long term thorough research. Geoff and Nadia joined Bob on a consultancy job on the West Coast near Kaipara, with a client’s brief to find land appropriate for a large-scale permaculture community development.

An advanced permaculture design workshop was held by Geoff on a eco-village community in the Kaipara Harbour area and was well attended by many of the Northlands long term permaculture consultants and teachers, resulting in many shared ideas to focus the movement into the future.

Manganui in Northland where Geoff and Nadia were hosted by permaculturists Richard and Alix, was the venue of a one-day permaculture design workshop at a local school where Yvonne Stynneman has established a great example of a permaculture food forest.

On returning to Australia Nadia presented a slide show and lecture on the Jordan Permaculture Project at the Women Earth Change Conference in Northern New South Wales. She also sat on a panel of speakers representing permaculture. In this situation Nadia was able to explain how permaculture has been able to help women in her culture and those women were creating positive change.

As soon as Nadia finished her presentation both Geoff and Nadia jumped in the car and headed straight for Melbourne to attend the National Permaculture Conference. Stopping over night in Western New South Wales with one of our directors Julia Harris and Majdy Adwan on their large grazing property at Premer. During the conference Geoff presented a talk on Global Permaculture Projects, which was very well attended and very well received.

After the conference Geoff and Nadia had the opportunity to meet with Bill Mollison for two days to talk about the up coming Permaculture Design Certificate to be held at Melbourne University in September 2005, co-taught by Bill and Geoff. This course will be filmed with the intention of producing an educational documentation.

Click to see large version

The annual general meeting for Permaculture International Limited was held at the end of the national permaculture convergence and Geoff was re-elected as a director.

Following on from the Geoff’s talk at the National Permaculture Conference in Melbourne he was invited to present a talk at the university of Wisconsin. The invitation came from their Global Environmental Management education center to keynote speak as part of an international seminar series, 2004-05 theme global security, Geoff’s requested topic “Permaculture development projects to enhance global security”. Geoff spent five days at Stevens Point College of Natural Resources and initiated enough interest in permaculture design to propose a future permaculture design certificate course and the set up of a typical local farm conversion to permaculture demonstration site. Also making links to our permaculture trained professors in Louisiana teaching permaculture in universities there, a very interesting connection as Wisconsin is almost at the top of the Mississippi water shed and Louisiana the bottom.

While in the USA Geoff was able to visit Paul Brant in Brooklyn, New York who has been working on a very big proposal involving permaculture in Turkey. Also Andrew Phillips from Hancock Permaculture Center organized a meeting with the Brooklyn Botanic Garden environment group and a talk in Hancock up state New York. Many new contacts were made on this visit and future courses are now being planned.

On the 13th June 2005 Geoff and Nadia started teaching a permaculture design certificate course at Murra Murra a 97,000 hectare (239691.3 acre) property owned by the Kooma Traditional Owners. Murra Murra is just east of Cunnamulla and west of Bollon in the Southwest Queensland outback. It is planned for this to be a Permaculture Outback Aboriginal Education Center and demonstration site. The course has been very well received by all of the participants who have accepted Geoff and Nadia as part of the family.

The Dead Sea Valley Permaculture project

General — by Murray Gray December 16, 2004

Geoff Lawton is an internationally renowned Permaculture teacher and design consultant. His story in the Middle East is a success story, rare in the politically tumultuous climate which rules the lives of many in this part of the globe. He has solved and offered positive solutions to many of the environmental problems typical to the Middle east; water shortage, highly salted land, agricultural production, and unsustainable housing.

Exporting this system to over 17 different countries around the world he is part of a growing global movement which uses permaculture techniques to provide human needs in an environmentally responsible way. His work has led him all around the world and has focused on relieving drastic environmental problems in many places of great need and often conflict.

Commissioned in August 2000 by a Japanese aid organization to work in association with a Jordanian aid organization Geoff’s first visit involved the design of a flat 10 acre, highly salted, very alkaline, piece of land in the Dead Sea Valley, 400m below sea level and just a few kilometers from the Palestinian border. The aim was to demonstrate sustainable farming practices. A plan was drawn up and accepted and arrangements were made for them to return in December during the cooler time of the year.

During the December visit they each taught the 72 hour Permaculture Design Certificate course. Also on this trip they directed the installation of permaculture earthworks, which included the construction of one and a half kilometers of water harvesting swales, (contour ditches, with an un-compacted earth mound on the lower side which is typically used as a tree growing system). As well, a small in surface area, but deep dam was also installed as part of the design. This method of dam construction is essential in an area where evaporation is extreme. Click for more…

Rebuilding of Kandal Village in Iraq with Permaculture design and strawbale housing

Aid Projects — by Murray Gray October 8, 2004

Resettlement of IDPs in Kandal Village in Makhmur District through training of building alternative houses (strawbale), rehabilatation of their water system, provide basic livelihood elements for income generation; and generally educating the community on sustainable design systems and income generation using the science of Permaculture (Permanence in Culture).

Project Summary

Counterpart International proposes to initiate the resettlement of 34 families of internally displaced persons (IDPs), currently residing in temporary shelters in the village of Kandal Yarmija in Makhmur District, Erbil Governorate, Iraq. The project, IDP Return and Resettlement in Makhmur, will be accomplished through a three-pronged approach, one, the training of IDP laborers in the building of straw-bale housing structures and also on earth works that serves as water reservoir (small dams), two, the subsequent construction of straw-bale housing for IDP residents in this village; and three, provide basic training and techniques for income generation and community gardening. The project cost is 172,233$ in UNHCR support, however Counterpart International will pursue additional funds in order to continue and expand these activities, which promote sustainable, cost- and energy efficient housing for internally displaced persons in Iraq.

IDP Return and Resettlement in Makhmur will be implemented over an 8-week period, from July 17 – September 17, 2003. Based on the needs assessments conducted by Counterpart International Iraq in the village of Kandal Yarmija, discussions held with local government officials of the Makhmur District, and consultations with UNHCR, and experts in energy efficient housing design, Counterpart International has determined that there is an urgent need to provide permanent housing and a sustainable community services for internally displaced persons in Makhmur, in a manner that is cost efficient, energy efficient, sustainable, utilizes local resources, and is easy and quick to construct and establish.

Counterpart International has developed a comprehensive, three-phase strategy for the design, implementation, and evaluation of a high impact, emergency resettlement project, which will immediately respond to the housing needs of 34 families in Kandal Yarmija. This project will begin a process of local capacity building by addressing immediate needs for shelter and fostering community-led recovery as it promotes effective Iraqi implementation of straw-bale housing initiatives. Counterpart will provide full access to water, waste management and electricity and will incorporate all the elements and materials necessary into the housing design.
Click for more…

July 2004 newsletter

Uncategorized — by Murray Gray March 15, 2004

We’re coming to you live from the Dead Sea Valley again, the site of lowest permaculture project on the planet and central to the Holy Lands of the Middle East.

After arriving back in Australia in February this year Geoff and Nadia were immediately engaged in the designing and directing permaculture earthworks at Clunes in Northern New South Wales just inland from Byron Bay. A complete design consultancy job for total life style self sufficiency comprising two dams three swales with a total length of over one kilometer, plus some driveway work and levels.

In March we taught our first permaculture design certificate course in Cooroy, Queensland at the same site and time as the permaculture national gathering, which ran simultaneously during the three days in the middle of the course. The course was a great success with the students getting a unique experience with the national gathering as a bonus. During the national gathering the annual general meeting of Permaculture International Limited was held and directors for the year were elected from the membership. Geoff was elected as one of the directors standing as a representative of the itinerant teachers of the seventy-two hour permaculture design certificate course. This is the original teaching system promoted by Bill Mollison and taught by all teachers registered by The Permaculture Institute. It is the original institute of permaculture where Tagari Publications distribute books and certificates.

In the following months Geoff and Nadia teamed up with Greg Hallet and Jane Oliver of Footprint Directions on many design consultancies. These were mainly very large project developments on the Gold Coast in the new professional consultancy arena created by the local governments stipulations for “environmentally sustainable design” criteria. These ESD criteria will be enforced through out Australia and around the world hopefully. This field of professional design consultancy is enjoying a rapid growth spurt in many parts of Australia and any permaculture design consultant with some degree of experience can easily facilitate such design requirements. One of our ongoing engagements involves the implementation of the Currumbin Valley Eco-village. A state of the art development specifying best practices for sustainable development and we will direct some of the initial earthworks early in December.
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Much with Little: A Central American Journey with Sustainable Harvest International By Scott Vlaun

Aid Projects — by Murray Gray February 19, 2004

I’m standing on a hillside so steep that I feel if I stumble in the loose soil, I’ll tumble down to the bottom.

The heat is oppressive. We’re all soaked with sweat after an hour and a half drive on a rutted dirt track and another couple of hours of hiking through the hills to visit these remote farms tucked away on steep, marginal land in north central Honduras. The scene before me is familiar. A farmer stands proudly in his field, showing us the progress he has made since he started working with Sustainable Harvest International (SHI).

The crop diversity, soil erosion barriers, seedling nursery, and hand-dug aquaculture ponds full of fish and rice plants (or “ricipicicultura” as they call it here) are signatures of SHI’s low-tech approach to small-scale sustainable development. Florence Reed, the founder and president of SHI, listens intently and surveys the scene proudly, while Bruce Manuum, SHI’s field coordinator, assesses the situation, taking notes and making suggestions. Along with us is Jorge Rodriguez, an SHI extensionist, who has guided and assisted Ignacio “Nacho” Castro to develop his farm for the last three years.

As I have seen repeatedly, the conversation evolves from the successes of the project to the dreams of the farmer. “If only we had a well, an irrigation pump, or a way to get our produce to market…then we might actually be able to make some money, send our kids to school, put a metal roof on the house, or buy medicines for the old ones.” The list goes on. The needs are so great here; the poverty wrenching. As the conversation shifts, so does the expression on Ms. Reed’s face.
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Strawbale building manual for Kandal Village project Iraq

Aid Projects — by Murray Gray January 28, 2004

Counterpart International proposes to initiate the resettlement of 52 families of internally displaced persons (IDPs), currently residing in temporary shelters in the village of Kandal Yarmija in Makhmur District, Erbil Governorate, Iraq. The project, IDP Return and Resettlement in Makhmur, will be accomplished through a three-pronged approach, one, the training of IDP laborers in the building of straw-bale housing structures and also on earth works that serves as water reservoir (small dams), two, the subsequent construction of straw-bale housing for IDP residents in this village; and three, provide basic training and techniques for income generation and community gardening.
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July 2003 newsletter

News — by Murray Gray March 15, 2003

–== Live from Al Joffah, Jordan in The Dead Sea Valley! ==–

Welcome to first Permaculture Research Institute newsletter coming to you live from one of the front lines of permaculture activism Al Joffah in The Dead Sea Valley in Jordan, the lowest place on earth (400m below sea level)!

In fact, just a few kilometres from the border of the Palestinian-occupied territory of the West Bank — one of the world’s most tense conflict zones — is where you’ll find the Permaculture Research Institute working on demonstration projects, consulting, designing and teaching courses for over 3 years now. These valuable actions have all help contribute to more sustainable future not only for Jordan but the Middle East region and set examples for arid land systems world wide.

Just recently, a concentrated effort has been made to demonstrate productive home gardening techniques with workshops on fast compost making using the 18 day berkley method, and some extremely hot piles have been constructed using goat and pigeon manure mixed with garden leaf litter and pruning material that would normally have been burnt. Many of our permaculture design course graduates now have exceptionally good and productive home gardens and some are now taking on teaching their own small groups in a mentoring program. Click for more…

Water in the Mexican landscape

Dams, Swales, Water Harvesting — by Murray Gray June 5, 2002

Water gives life and can also destroy life.

When we allow rain water to flow gently over the landscape taking the most time making the most contact with earth water is most fertile. But, when running uncontrolled it can cause erosion and death. No food can grow on land which is eroded and farming can only flourish on fertile soil. But only eco-systemic farming systems can create soil.

At ITT we believe in eco-systemic production systems which allow interactive diversity to develop and to become stable and fertile. To achieve it, we must create a great number of useful connections between the diverse elements on our land.

Two weeks ago we initiated the development of our training centre in permaculture here in the dry tropics. On our site in the municipality of Ejutla, Oaxaca, Mexico, we get approximately 800 milimeters of rain per year. Before the rain gods open the water gates, we invited the water harvesting an earth works specialist Geoff Lawton from the Permaculture Research Institute in Australia to assist us in the construction of an efficient rain catchment and water administration system. Geoff an expert consultant in water harvesting and management with great earth dam and swale building experience in over 17 countries.

These are the basic principles our experts recommend:
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