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hi folks its Brett from limestone
permaculture it's been four years since
your last visit our little farm here on
the mid-north coast of New South Wales
so much has changed the farm is evolved
we're in the middle of a pretty serious
drought we've got some fires that aren't
too far away and making everything quite
hazy but we're going to go through and
check what's going on on the farm right
now so I bet you come for a straw
let's go this area here is the
integrated poultry run and this services
the chickens the layered chickens the
layer kaki Campbell ducks and the
breeding Kaka Campbell ducks we've got
some exclusion growing tunnels set
inside this integrated pen that allow us
to grow vegetables without the without
being harmed by the chicken and the
ducks it's important when considering
integrated animal management systems
that you try to promote natural habitat
for your animals you know one of the
things we try to do here in limestone
farm is incorporate forests layered
level systems to give them not just the
fodder but the protection they require
so these forest layers give shade and
essentially you're giving a stable
environment for the animals to enjoy
life and that's important it's been
amazing to see the farm really grow over
the last four years the design we
implemented back in 2010-2011 it has
moved forward in such a way now that
it's ramping up at a faster and faster
speed so nature is actually taking over
what we originally set up so excited
about that it's hard to be full-time on
a farm with an income that only has one
income stream you have to diversify so
even using permaculture principles in
your business is really important which
is a form of farm stating you know
homesteading which is making good use of
your own produce and on your farm and
farm studying is a way of making a bit
of cash from that as well to keep the
farm ticking so in February 2018 we
officially became full-time on the farm
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over here we've got our wicking beds
these things are fantastic for saving
water I mean you've got a raised bed
system has a water retention well in the
base of it you've got this wicking
action that via capillary action draws
water up through the soil it reduces the
amount of water that you need you've got
an integrated mesh trellis coming
through so which creates a kind of a
canopy we've got worm farms in over the
back over here which built in some
ecology to the soil because these things
are disconnected to the ground so
they're a great little integrated unit
and either on the farmer on in a unit on
a veranda these things are perfect we've
only been on this property since 2010 we
understand that but one thing we know is
that 2010 - pretty much 2015 we had a
relatively regular rainfall that met our
annual rainfall that comes with this
region that has dropped off dramatically
started dropping off at the end of 2016
and hasn't stopped we're now down to a
stage where we're not even making half
our rainfall for this particular area so
you need to set your place up in a way
that you've got a stable environment
that captures the morning Sun is
protected from the harsh winds has land
forming in place that retains moisture
retains water so when it does rain and
it does rain when it does you capture
every drop you get the maximum benefit
out of it over here we've got our three
bay compost system you can have two bays
for Bay's five Bay's it just assists you
with being able to turn your compost and
keep it in some form the idea of your
compost obviously is for promoting soil
conditioner which is something you're
putting the soil for good health but the
secret ingredient for making hot compost
is this really stinky manure and we - so
we use comfrey nettles dandy line we use
here our chicken poo usually the
sloppiest of the chicken poo and we make
these tea bags up and we we soak
about a week and then we use it
straightens in the different layers of
the compost build and it promotes the
biology in there to actually build that
compost into something really special so
guys this is the hybrid shade house
more importantly it's the Quayle Amazon
so when your last year it was mainly a
vegetable producing area and we've now
turned this into the Quayle Amazon and
thus the habitat that we've created here
is to actually give them a more natural
environment from their height looking up
they're looking at papayas they're
looking at various different bananas the
bonus we get back from the quail as well
they do very light scratchings they're
little poops that go through the soil
for us there's a nice little symbiotic
relationship of them looking after our
plants and us getting something back for
that in return so it's awesome
the gentleman's Pizza tour iam its water
saving and the most important part is
that when you're actually going to the
toilet to duel whe your wing onto a hay
bale and you're providing your rear into
a carbon base that's then removed and
used in a composting process and in turn
gives you great soil this is very worthy
cause really our northern market garden
here what's important about this little
area here is we've got little zones of
mixed plant guilds and forest layers in
this bed here this is a ginger crop
setup you can't see the ginger at the
moment because we're actually building
the forest layered canopy in readiness
for the ginger we're looking at corn as
being the canopy we're looking at
buckwheat as being the sub canopy we've
got beans and cucumbers that are going
to climb and then create a webbing
through there which they also make up
part of the canopy and that's going to
create a protective system for the
ginger growing through that harsh summer
so the gingers the main crop but in the
meantime as part of the protection
system we're getting corn we're getting
beans we're getting cucumber we're
getting buckwheat we also get purslane
chickweed to go into the salads so
you've got this ability to support the
main crop being the ginger which is the
idea around plant guilds beneficial
communities of plants supporting a main
crop or main plant and then you're
getting all that extra bonus food just
because you're setting up that
protection again this is just a worthy
example of how you can actually get the
most from each garden bed
the important thing for us when we're
actually setting ourselves up to be
working on farm is the diversity of
income so in the early days the first
thing that we could do was we could grow
food we produced vegetables herbs there
was some quick growing fruit that we can
put out and you know we started going to
markets and then slowly had you know
brought in farm tours because people
were interested to see what we were
doing we've got the courses we've got
the workshops we've got the farm tours
education for us would be the most
important factor of what we do now we
get a lot of enjoyment it's a passion
and so we're teaching on all different
levels the obviously Nikki's working
through food and nutrition and I'm
working through farm design garden
design planning growing you know plant
guilds forest layers you name it
yeah we're finding that people are
coming here at first year for not just
knowledge of how to take food production
back into their own hands but also they
are quite desperate for getting the
health back on track and their wellness
physical and mental we have
consultancies we do off-site project
implementation and we still get produce
sales it's just that the bulk of our
produce these days comes back into the
students it comes back to our guests so
what we're finding is yeah back into
Nikki's cooking I am so passionate about
good clean eating because it's not just
helping me with my overall wellness and
my gut health and my energy levels but
it also is helping other people as well
my personal experiences and my knowledge
I can pass on to help other people
because there are so many people out
there with that are desperate for
answers to their unknown illnesses and
not all of it but a lot of it can be
food-related I'm not just what we're
eating but how we're eating it
our guys we're in the Muscovy duck pen
they've got protection from trees that
actually drop fruit for them the really
good thing about these char toots is
that you give them a little shake and it
provides fruit the wind usually drops up
for us we have a self watering system up
here that gives the Ducks enough water
there to obviously drink and have a wash
in and the excess water runs down into
this pit area here this isn't actually a
pond it's actually a silt trap so the
idea is is that with all the Ducks
manure we add a little bit of hay to
that and we drag it up and we actually
make another form of compost when we
have a reasonable rain event it
overflows into here and goes down into
this little swale system and this once
again is a silt trap so the idea is is
we're always collecting nutrient and
that that nutrient and that soil then
gets used back in the garden and that's
important so this is the Hills Hoist
vineyard when we first moved here there
was a Hills Hoist clothesline sitting in
the back of the place so we've
repurposed it and we've used it here to
grow grapes over so it's a great
vertical growing structure we've got
three varieties a table grape it's
supporting as a canopy for the sub
canopy plants to grow it's nice and
protected throughout summer the good
thing about something like this is you
get high production in a small space
which is ideal
we've got bambam and buttercup here
they're in the gate run you guys this is
a bit of an integrated goat run we've
got vertical fodder trees running
through the center the idea is these
guys browse by climbing the sides of the
the mesh here so it's a protected zone
away from the goats but it actually
provides the goats with food
we don't introduce any pellet or
anything else to these guys they've got
enough here between the prunings from
the fruit trees the banner grass the
mulberry the vertical fodder and the
stuff that grows through the actual pen
itself the food these guys year-round
and we're pretty excited about that guys
we're in the Swale tortured area the
idea of a swale is is designed to
actually hold water for a period of time
and slowly release it underground and
two more right we've got a terrorists
area terrace beds and these guys don't
actually hold water they just slow water
down we've got our spelly apples through
here backed up by some of our larger
fruit trees and olive trees they provide
protection from the west this supports
and protects this little veggie garden
through here the system works we don't
use much water down here and it really
has been surviving the drought quite
well it's been really good really
exciting to see so much interest and
increasing interest in what we're doing
here on the farm and people wanting to
put that into practice in their in their
own life in their own homes
we're looking at probably educating
feeding nourishing over over hunt
probably your average about a hundred
people a month at the moment another
project on limestone farm is our goat in
Arbor it's an integrated system where
first and foremost it's going to
eventually protect the goats during
summer so the idea is our various
vegetable vines will grow over the top
of the arbor providing shade back for
the goats more importantly for us as
well is it's going to provide us with
approximately a hundred square meters of
areal growing so here we're going to get
pumpkins
wash shakers gourds cucumbers we think
that this will work for us and we're
watching it grow right now so we're in
their kitchen garden we're in the zone
one and we've been picking veggies out
of here since April what's now coming up
to November so the gardens have done
really well to get to this stage bring
the final throws now where most of the
veggies are going to seed which is
perfect that's our time for seed saving
so we're waiting for that to actually
produce its seed heads and dry out
there's still plenty of food in here I
mean we can just pick carrots out
willy-nilly I mean there's still plenty
of food to be had so we've still got
potatoes we've still got broad beans and
still some herbs to be picked and the
flowers are beautiful but essentially
what we're after now is seed for next
year's crops as the world is changing as
the environment is changing we're
changing as well changing our thought
patterns and adaption is survival yeah
we've got a farm that has become its own
ecology its own setup its own system and
we've now got the ability to be able to
show quite a few if not most of the
permaculture principles on this farm
we've learnt many lessons since us
getting here so you know we've been here
for nearly nine half years but more
importantly in the last sort of four
years and one of the biggest lessons
I've I'm really starting to understand
is that there's no such thing as a final
design don't get caught up on the stuff
that you can't do right now learn about
the things that you can get happening
and putting it into action and you'd be
surprised once you start to live this
type of life whether it is in urban or
rural and start to eat fresh vegetables
and watch nature and live with the
seasons it makes you a much healthier
happy person
this is their outdoor oven it's very
special to us it took three months to
build not only can you set the fire up
and cook pizzas on the first night but
once you get to a certain core
temperature you can then shut the door
the fire goes out and we get four more
nights of cooking after that the
temperature does slowly decline but we
cook according to those temperatures
what's important also for this oven is
that all the Timbers we use come off the
farm so we've got cherry wood apple wood
pear wood I case your timber and usually
only takes about a wheelbarrow load and
essentially we've got enough timber to
then look after this and that for us
brings some form of self-reliance on our
ability to cook into this farm so we
love using our own timber offer farm and
it makes a delicious pizza
we feel privileged to be able to say
that yes we can survive we can earn
enough income to pay everything we need
to pay live a healthy and happy life and
be where we want to be any our dream
property I mean does it get any better
than that seriously taking a bit more
control of our future yeah absolutely
I know handling it you know I'm happy
yes we've got so much more to do here
and I think that's that's the beautiful
thing you never not want to have
something to do yeah so you always want
the challenges you always want something
destroyed for and for us we just think
that this is this place this this
property has so much to offer to us back
and we've got so much to give to it and
we'd like to think that maybe in a few
years time you'll come back and check
that out
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