Postcode: 2146 (Not eligible)
Days of Work: 2
Dates: 11th January 2013 and 16th January 2013
People: Roberta (Host), Mark (French WWOOFer)
Well, I decided the best way to see if I liked the WWOOFing experience would be to find somewhere nearby, whereby I could just work for the day, and return to my mum’s in the evening. That way, if it wasn’t working out, I would only have to get through the day. Plan conceived, time to put it into action!
So, I grabbed my WWOOF Book and started searching through the NSW section for my mum’s postcode. Low and behold, I actually found a WWOOF host with the same postcode. A quick look on GoogleMaps told me it was within walking distance (25-30mins), and so I whipped off an email. A fast, positive response, and my first WWOOF experience date was fixed: 11th January 2013 – the start of my WWOOFing adventure!
I ended up with a lovely host, Roberta, who had a very large garden (don’t want to think how many times bigger than mum’s – maybe 20? ), where she kept chickens, a variety of fruits and vegetables, all within a permaculture-based designed garden. This was my first exposure to permaculture, and I really like the principles, although I would like to see how one creates a permaculture garden when chickens/rabbits/animals are not involved in the chain.
Permaculture
Permaculture makes a lot of sense, designing the garden with the elements like sun coverage, wind directions and water/drainage. It is also clever in the way that plants and the like are selected – nothing in a permaculture garden has just one use; they have two or more! That is the beauty of it.
Grey Water
Roberta had her grey water (used water from the washing machine/kitchen sink) redirected so that it heads down a pipe and straight into the banana tree section, making use of water that the rest of us, especially from Europe/America where water is readily available, would normally through away. It means the banana trees get watered, and therefore more bananas! One selection of fruit that will be fresh from the tree and free to eat!
Chickens
The chickens have multiple purposes, running around the garden eating the bugs, digging through the dirt and thus turning over and aerating the soil regularly. And of course, they poop everywhere, so there is plenty of manure to fertilize and feed the plants! Double bonus – they lay eggs! So, yet another food source, readily available, generally daily, if not every few days, and fresh! You can’t get much fresher than from the bottom of a chicken to your dinner plate, and there is nothing like FRESH eggs. Triple bonus – free food!!!
Walkway Paving
We soaked several layers of newspaper and then placed them over the soil (a kind of weed mat) and then used the leaves we had raked to cover the newspaper and then watered the whole combination. The idea here is to create a more natural pathway than just soil. Given a few months, the pathway will resemble a forest floor, where the leaves fall and naturally become part of the pathway.
Weeding
A very important job. For every weed that shares the soil with the fruit and veg, it is one more source that is soaking up the precious water and nutrients. Why feed the weeds when you can feed the tomatoes? Of course, there are a few weeds that are edible, but unless you planted them on purpose, then they’re still weeds!
Worm Feed
The worm farm dirt is used and mixed with water to make a feed for the plants that is both natural and very rich in the nutrients needed by the plants. It’s a bit like playing mud pies as a child, but because it’s all natural it’s all very good for the plants, and with the very dry NSW weather, it was important that the fruit trees got a can of water each, and then the rest of the bed got a really good dose around the roots.
Seed cleaning
Collecting and cleaning seeds from the stems ready to store for future planting or trading with the local seed store circle
Mulching
Using dried grass and other natural produces to make a layer over the soil to prevent weeds appearing
All in all, it was an enjoyable day. So enjoyable, that I returned for another one-day session on the 16th January! Because I had nothing else to do and I wanted to make myself useful!