Regenerative Agriculture; Applied Syntropic, Biodynamic & Natural Sequence Farming
Natural Sequence Farming methodology to reinstate water in the farm landscape
Shane has been out observing the result of having Tarwyn Park Training create two Natural Sequence Farming contours in January 2022. The earlier work was started, with gully blocking to slow the flow around 2014.
We are observing the effect on ground water in the larger landscape, as well as on our vegetable gardens. First up, the larger landscape, and the leaky weir.
The leaky weir, farmscape hydrology.
This “dry gully” was our start point at ‘Kumbartcho’. For context, in December 2021 we were using the concrete causeway in the picture, to drive across… now underwater and shaded by some luscious arundo donax.
Having consultation with both Peter Andrews, and Stuart Andrews, work began to block the gully, slow the flow.
Now 9 years on, this gully runs water 12 months of the year, and is hydrating some 30 to 50 hectares!
One of the ponds within this system was down around 30cms yesterday, today it’s full.
Yes we had a gentle 11 mm rain, however zero runoff!
This gentle stream is spilling from the higher of the January 2022 NSF contours, back into the arundo donax above.
Where, you may ask, is the water coming from?
It’s reinstated ground water!
Yes, it’s almost “tidal”, responding now almost daily to weather events!
We are observing the water levels in the contour rise and fall in relation to the moon, cloud buildup, as storms are rolling in, and after rain… we even began checking the nearest tide times to see if we have become tidal…
Vegetable growing, garden hydrology
Below we are moving up to the house yard, well above the previously dry gully. And here we have various garden beds that are meant to be growing us vegetables.
I just went out, midday 6th March, a dry autumn day, and took the below photos of the gardens, all were watered 32 hours prior to the photos.
Shade tunnel with wicking beds
We have one shade tunnel with multiple wicking beds…
It is rumoured that a fork was driven through the bottom of these beds at some stage, meaning someone needs to empty them out, and replace/fix the base layer.
But, certain plants are still able to flourish in this environment, with rather sporadic attention.
Two days ago I soaked these from the top, and filled the pipes… I wanted to get the few flowering turmeric plants up, as well as start resetting these beds for the plants that are surviving in here…
The best thing about this is the joy brought to you when you forget and walk barefoot through the stinging nettle carpet.
North – South syntropic agroforestry, food forest rows
We also have lots of north-south syntropic agroforestry/food forest rows and we have a syntropic circle garden inside our circle driveway… all of the gardens mentioned have irrigation, sprinklers.
I went to the high, northern end of the syntropic row, and took photos of the area shaded by tipuana trees.
The soil here is beautiful, easy to work.
And all of them are lacking water.
The sprinklers were on yesterday for 2 hours. This is the time we worked out it would need to soak the ground from above.
The stress on the remaining plants is obvious, and most of the seedlings have long since perished. This garden was planted in January 2023, and has given us rather close to no crops, and very few meals.
Level Vegetative Contour. Garden level NSF
We have ONE Level Vegetative Contour that we have planted vegetable seedlings along both top and bottom… and it is my favourite.
Because it is growing, and in full midday sun it is not wilting.
The garden bed is exposed to full sun.
This photo was taken about 2min after the one of the wilted cucumber plants in our north-south syntropic row.
Midday, 6th March 2023… a dry Autumn day.
This garden wants for the contour to be filled every other day, with a timer, it is on for a maximum of 25 minutes, where it fills the contour and then soaks into the root zone of the plant.
Natural Sequence Farming
Knowing the landscape.
We teach a combination of agricultural methods, which we have refined and blended for maximum results, with minimum effort. We use syntropic planting, or agro-forestry, biodynamic remedies… all to help the landscape and vegetation remember the innate ability to be healthy, to function within the death/birth – blooming/living – death/birth cycles.
BUT
underneath these we are working along the natural sequence farming, level contour to reinstate the hydrology of the landscape, managing water and fertility.
Natural Sequence Farming is about working with the landscape, knowing your landscape, and honouring it… and the proof is in the vegetable garden.
