By Pru Saimoun
While I pawed through and pored over, the alternative ideas in my parents’ Earth Garden, Down To Earth, and similar magazines, in my teens, I have only recently put some of the permaculture principles into the creation of an abundant oasis.
A year ago, I moved to a very cheap cottage on an almost bare block in a little town in the NSW Riverina. I had a vision of a food forest based on some of the permaculture gardening concepts I had used in patches in other gardens, and on reading and observing.
A year on, and I am beginning to understand the reality of allowing plants to find their way after some initial trial and error.
The fecundity of this garden that now surrounds the little cottage and provides us with more, and more, than enough for ourselves and others, is incredible. At the moment we almost have to steel ourselves each early morning as we head out with buckets to pick zucchinis, cucumbers, beans, kale, carrots, beetroot, corn (including popping corn), lettuce, rocket, rhubarb, melons, pumpkins and cut flowers.
The fruit trees, vines and bushes are growing and we have had a few apricots, plums and passionfruit already. The seven avocadoes I grew from seed are taking off and the hazelnuts we grew from cuttings have got their roots well down into the red soil.
From what looked like a weedy, unhealthy ecosystem favouring a couple of insect species and nasty (think Cat Heads) weeds, has emerged a chaotic, crazy life-filled area, with very little mowing thank goodness, that we share with a huge variety of creatures, microbes and plants.
We are letting plants go to seed where they want to, which works for them and us, we also harvest seed and replant in other areas, we mulch paths to walk on then put that broken down mulch back on the beds, we cut back and use that as mulch, we create compost then put it back in the garden, we use fruit fly netting and garlic spray, plus get rid of any fallen fruit immediately to keep the fruitfly population at a minimal level, we are planting natives for more birdlife and garden structure plus protection for other plants from the severe heat in summer and frosts in winter, and working on better watering systems.
Water is probably our biggest issue, in that the garden takes a lot of water, despite mulching and composting. We are still learning after only a year.
To refine my energy in and energy out techniques, and to co-create with nature to have a sustainable and regenerative garden, I am now considering doing some structured permaculture study and joining Permaculture Australia to join the social ecosystem of like-minded people.
As I walk in the garden, amazed at the growth and life, I realise how humans are not the main feature of nature as we would like to believe, but a part of it, and if we don’t begin to understand that as a collective, soon, we may well be relegated to a much smaller part.
I am still a wanderer at heart, but the joy of an abundant edible, fragrant and beautiful garden to share with a myriad of life forms, is something else. Maybe with some permaculture training, I can work it so the garden can manage without me at times while I go exploring other gardens.
Before Photos
After Photos
