Creating a Forest from Nothing.

 

In the decade since we purchased our land, I have largely ignored the vast paddock which, at 10 acres, constitutes a significant portion of our land. Our neighbour would slash and bale it every year and share a portion of the hay with us. It was much appreciated by the orchards and gardens where our attention was largely focused.

 

It worked well. Our paddock was slashed, the weeds were kept down and what nutrients we took from the paddock went towards our gardens. The downside is of course, that after 10 years of slashing and baling (even more as the previous owner of our property also slashed and baled) the paddock was extremely devoid of nutrients. We had given nothing back.

 

The composition of the paddock was fairly simple, having been planted originally for cattle the species were minimal and seemed to grow well. Brachiaria humidicola, a virulent grass species, made up the bulk of the pasture and the rest was a mix of legumes, mainly crotalaria, vigna and desmodium varieties but I am not sure which ones. There were also a few weeds but most of these were kept under control by the slashing and the virulency of the pasture species. I suspect that it was the legumes that kept the paddock relatively lush and green despite the constant removal of the vegetation.

 

The soil is a very porous, course grained alluvial granite which you could literally leave a hose running on all night and have a wet space no larger than a tyre, such is the ability of this soil to drain away everything. I know from when we dug our dam that this soil goes deep and one could dig for days without coming across bedrock or clay. Perfect drainage it has but it is so good, many nutrients could be lost with it.

 

A few soil tests confirmed the acidity of the soil to be rather high which I suspected would be the case given that it once was rainforest.

 

All in all, if I was going to bring life to this paddock I needed a plan that would enable the soil to recover, rebuild and thrive. Eventually turning a once degraded pasture into a lush, giving ecosystem capable of sustaining itself.

 

Given my lack of faith in mono cultures and modern farming practices, I knew a permaculture approach was going to be the way forward. I was advised by some well-meaning people that I needed to deep rip the soil and turn in truck load after truck load of manure if I ever hoped to make it useable but  this defiantly goes against my philosophies. What precious microbes and organic matter existed in this soil needed to be kept near the surface and protected. Deep ripping would destroy it. Manure, a good idea but the costs involved of trucking in manure were ridiculous and then I thought of the weed problems that would be created by freshly dug and manured soil. These conventional practices are not an option.

 

I asked our local farm services professional to come and slash the entire paddock as this would allow me to walk around and really get an understanding of what was going on.

After this, the ground was covered in the freshly slashed pasture which we would need to replenish the soil. I know from experience that it would not be long until the brachiaria grass pushed through and grew back with a vengeance. Controlling the brachiaria was paramount.

 

Given that the size of the paddock I thought it best to start small by doing 2 acres at a time. Once that 2 acres was under control I can move onto the next. I used my rather robust zero turn mower which has a side thrower to further slash and direct the hay into lines. The advantage of this system is that each time I mow, these lines would be continually mulched with the cuttings as they are flung to the side.

 

Each line was about a meter across and nopiledw heavily high with hay. A perfect start for planting. The acidity needed addressing, especially as I wanted to improve the soil using nitrogen fixing legumes which don’t always like acidity. I spread lime over the lines and a generous quantity of dynamic lifter, just to get it going.

 

I chose as nitrogen fixers, pigeon peas, cowpeas and wynns cassia and purchased a bulk amount from a seed supplier, along with the appropriate inoculates that would ensure these legumes produced the nodules on their roots that would take nitrogen from the atmosphere.

The seeds were inoculated and palletised using lime, as per the instructions provided by the supplier. Given that I was unable and unwilling to mechanically sow the seeds using machinery, I needed a solution to sowing. I came up with the concept of “seed bombs” for the cowpeas and wynns cassia. By making balls of rich, damp soil and inserting a few seeds into each one and then dumping the seed bombs along the lines. It was time consuming to make the bombs but the results were outstanding with the seeds popping up and thriving. I planted the inoculated pigeon peas into tree bags. Once the cowpeas and wynns cassia had established I planted out the pigeon peas along with papaya plants, moringa olifera and cassia alata which I had also raised from seed.

 

Thanks to the wet season, everything is doing very well and I have continued to add to the tree selection with albizia lebback, Ceiba pentandra, Peltophorum pterocarpum, Ceiba speciosa and others – all grown from seed. I have also started to incorporate some chillis, eggplants and capsicums as well as rare and unusual fruit trees gifted to me by a friend involved with the rare fruits society. I am taking a see how it goes approach for many other species but my nursery is filled with seedlings of jackfruit, mangosteen, rambutan, cocoa and more. I have recently begun planting into the lines flowers, purslane, perennial vegetables and medicinal plants.

 

The new duck house has been built amongst all of this and it is my hope that one the areas is properly fence the ducks will feast on the pests. At present however, they are very happy with the evening grasshopper collection they get fed by my two children!

 

The process from the initial slash to now has taken four months.

 

I will keep you posted.