People have grown vegetables for thousands of years, but how did they do so before the age of irrigation on tap and mulch/manure by the truck load? More recently the process has become even more input intensive with the proliferation of greenhouses, hydroponics, sprays and plastic everywhere.
Cultivation systems exist on a spectrum from intensive (that use many inputs sourced from far away) through to extensive (that use less inputs but rely on more time and space). This workshop explores the rediscovery of these zero input systems for growing autumn vegetables in the sunshine coast hinterland environment that rely on natural rainfall, on farm fertility inputs, hand tools and extensive crop trialing and breeding to find plants suitable for zero input agriculture.
About the Presenter:
I am a lifelong plant nerd that has grown just about everything I could get my hands on from a very young age. As a child I took over my mother’s flower garden just as drought and water restrictions became a fact of life. I decided to stop all irrigati
on and only grow species that thrived on natural rainfall. That work was featured on Gardening Australia.
After a career as an academic and science teacher I retired early to a slice of ex-dairy farm in the Sunshine Coast hinterland with a new focus on sustainable agricultural systems. Here I am working steadily to trial, select and breed new plants with a particular focus on hardy staple crops that can supply essential calories. I am also working on integrating food producing trees with my beloved geese and goats.
just how easy it is to make re-usable wax wraps in your own home. You will learn about various methods, what materials you need and where to source products.
increasingly to Regenerative techniques to bring the majority of our soils back to life, and for our crops to carry the nutrition they once did. A boost in focus on the microbiology of soils has also led to the potential to reduce our use of fertilizers while still improving the soil.
This workshop with Tom Kendall provides an interactive platform to get an understanding of how to create systems to increase productivity on your property. It defines the value of creating your own fertility systems and gives you an understanding of what is lacking and what needs to be added to improve fertility. In the first workshop Tom will give participants an understanding of fertility systems, and the information for participants to go home and discover what may be lacking on their property. In the second week possible system implementation and /or improvements will be discussed. Tom will emphasise low outside input systems, so it is affordable and feasible for everyone.
of the PRI Sunshine Coast Inc and PRI Luganville, Vanuatu and runs PDC courses and Permaculture training for the PRI Sunshine Coast Inc. at the Kendall Permaculture Farm Education and Training Site. Tom has a talent to identify and repair damaged and eroded landscapes, focusing on soil health and transforming damaged land to highly productive land. He repaired 7000 acres of dry land farm which had been conventionally farmed for many years and which was experiencing loss of top soil and erosion, by converting it to organic / bio-dynamic practices and making it profitable again. He also repaired around 10 acres of degraded, low fertility, sub-tropical ex-banana farm land, which is now a lush, flourishing Permaculture Demonstration and Education site on the Sunshine Coast. All land improvement was done on a low budget with minimum outside inputs, and was designed to derive an income from the land. Being brought up in a remote area of Western Australia, he was taught from very young to be inventive, innovative and self reliant, a practise he still continues today and teaches to his students.
Choice is yours, because once you know the technique you imagination is the only limit.
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