Joined: Jan 02, 2008 Posts: 403 Location: out dispatching ronan...
Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 6:37 pm Post subject: Permaculture : KEYLINE design (Farm Scale Sustainability)
Hi Folks,
I just got back from a 3 day workshop on keyline design Australian put on by the friendly and extremely knowledgeable Darren Doherty of central victoria. For those unfamiliar with Darren, he is a former student of Bill Mollison and David Holmgren before embarking on his own trajectory and making a name for himself in sustainable 'broad arce' permaculture design. Basically, permaculture on large scale farms.
I've got to say, it's been a very rewarding experience! For those unfamiliar with keyline design, I'll quote the wikipedia entry rather than summerising it myself.
Quote:
The basic idea behind Keyline is to examine the topography of the site identifying several features namely ridges and valleys and the natural water courses. In a valley, a point called the Keypoint can be found where the lower and flatter portion of a primary valley suddenly steepens. A contour line – the Keyline – is formed by plotting all the points on the slope that are at the same elevation as the keypoint. Plowing parallel to the Keyline, both above and below will tend to drift rainwater away from the valley centre and prevent erosion. As opposed to contour plowing, this technique has the plow go up in the valleys and down along ridges which keeps rainfall up at the ridge tops longer, rather than allowing it to run down the slope into water courses, thus improving soil nutrition and health. In Australia, it is important to get the most from the scarce instances of rainfall. The Yeomans technique differs from traditional contour plowing in several important respects and the limitations of the traditional systems was an important motivational factor in the development of the system.
It was a knowledge rich three days. We learnt volumes about soil care, farm design, natural systems, water harvesting and of course, the keyline plow system developed by P. A. Yeomans.
This plow is amazing! I'd gotten to the point where soil cultivation using tractors was almost a no go zone for me. This is made me do a 180 degree reversal. It's so useful for developing and caring for your soil. Used in combination with Keyline Design, it can transform a battered landscape destroyed by agricultural methods, and restore the soil vitality.
Here are a few photos from the course.
For those interested, or who operate farms I'd strongly recommend investigating these techniques. This has been a watershed moment in my thinking of sustainable farm management. We're having Darren visit our farm this wednesday to look at what can be done.
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