Sydney’s Corner: One Week on a Permaculture Farm

This blog is going to be about permaculture. But before we start with the facts, I want to tell you about my experience with permaculture. We were helping out on a family run farm. There were 5 people living on the farm: three kids and a mom and dad. It turns out they are a permaculture farm. We stayed there for a week.

Since their water comes from the rain, I could only take a 3 to 5 minute shower. Besides the quick showers we had lots of fun. But my parents complained about getting up early. But of course, I was up at 6 am. After breakfast, we would start our chores. I would check for any eggs and then we would have to do other stuff. The chores always changed.

Day 1

First day of work, mom and I cut paper towel tubes into smaller pieces making seed starter pots. The family would ask for paper towel rolls from friends to make the seed starter pots. While we were making the seed starter pots, dad was making watermelon and pumpkin mounds. When dad was done I planted pumpkins and watermelons. Then we covered the mounds with straw to help keep the moisture in. Then we filled the seed starter pots we made with dirt. Next we planted zucchini, okra and other stuff. When the kids came home from school I went on a hike. The farm is 100 acres, so there are lots of places to hike.

Day 2

I collected eggs in the morning as usual. I watched how to milk a cow and then we built a spiral garden. First we stacked bricks into a spiral. Then we put hay into the spiral. Later we put seeds in it. A spiral garden is a garden in a spiral shape. It allows you to plant lots of plants in a limited space.

Day 3

Today we got a day off. Mom decided, we were going to climb a mountain. We were going to climb Mount Warning. We hiked and hiked and until there was a little ways to go. Mom was carrying the food. When we were almost to the top there came a part where there was a rock scramble. We were almost climbing straight up. Mom said she was too scared to do it. But Dad and I did it. I was starving at the top. I could not eat because Mom had all the food. The view was amazing. We saw all the way to Surfer’s Paradise. When we got down, mom was eating away.

Day 4 and 5

Today we worked extra hard so that we could get an extra day off. We scooped up lots of cow manure and put the manure on the garden beds. We also built a chick box. A chick box is where you put the chicks when they hatch out with a heat lamp on top. They were trying to incubate both chick and duck eggs. We also got to candle the eggs. Candling is where you see if there are any chicks or ducks in the eggs. Most of the eggs had chicks in them and all the duck eggs hatched.

On our day off, we just drove around looking at stuff. We also saw whales.

Day 6

Today dad built a workbench. I also helped build the workbench. We also planted strawberries, asparagus and beans. I fed the animals and collected eggs.

Day 7

Today dad finished building the workbench. I got to milk a cow. It was really fun. I also collected eggs and helped feed the animals.

Day 8

We surprised the kids’ dad with a workbench. This is our last day so we went to the beach with the family. I will miss the farm.

Facts about Permaculture

Now onto facts about permaculture. You probably know what permaculture is, but if not I will tell you. Permaculture is growing your own food in a sustainable way and helping the earth keep healthy. The word permaculture comes from the words permanent and agriculture.  Permaculture started in Australia.

The three main things that you need to know about permaculture:

1. Earth Care: Keep the earth healthy. Do not use poisons or pesticides on your crops. Treat the earth as you would treat yourself. Grow things that grow well in your area. For example, you would not want to grow something in the desert that takes a lot of water.
2. People Care: Take good care of yourself and be more sustainable.
3. Fair Share: Fair share is sharing what you have left with others. For example when you harvest crops, you might have too much food. Share it with others that may need it more. The other people will love it.

Things that everyone can do

• Walk or ride a bicycle.
• Turn off lights when you are not using them.
• Even if you don’t have a place to put a garden, you can help the earth by installing rainwater tanks.
• If you do have space, grow a garden.
• If do have a yard, you should raise chickens. All they ask for is a place to eat bugs, a place to sleep and food and you can get your own fresh eggs.
• Compost your kitchen waste.
• With the food you grow, you can also make your own foods such as using the strawberries you grew to make jams or preserves.
• They also had a saying on the farm. It was if it is yellow let it mellow, if it is brown flush it down. This is a good way of saving water. 🙂

If you do a lot of this, you could help mother earth a lot. If everyone tried doing this the earth could be a lot healthier.