All the links which inspire me are kept here. I hope you're inspired by them too.
This is a work in progress, so please bear with me as I add more...
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PETER ANDREWS
Peter Andrews was a man I came across through a discussion forum I frequented often. Someone suggested I read his book: they also warned me that he can come across as "anti-social", but it's only because he's a bushman. It's fair to say, even despite warnings, I didn't read his book with any preconceived ideas. It even took me a while to borrow his book from the library, but once I read, Back from the Brink, I was hooked on his ideas about the Australian Landscape.
I was hooked because everything he described, was happening on our 5 acres. The soil erosion, the weed invasion and then how the grass moved in. Patches of ground I thought needed ripping up and replanting, I realised after reading his book, were already being rehabilitated by natural sequences. If I had ripped them up, I would've continued to degrade the area.
This is why I want to share these links on Peter Andrews views on the Australian Landscape, because it's important we stop the damage we unwittingly cause. Gardening has become about digging a hole in the ground to plant a crop or landscape. What we've failed to register is that in a landscape such as Australia's, we have less water resources and how we manage our water has to be different to our Northern Hemisphere neighbours, who have the benefit of a freeze and thaw.
Whether you live on acreage or a suburban block, I feel this information is important to know.
Australian Story Program (video & transcript) on Peter Andrews - Right as Rain part 1
Australian Story Program (video & transcript) on Peter Andrews - Of Droughts & Flooding Rains part 2
Natural Sequence Farming - Website
Tarwyn Park - Website
A note on Tarwyn Park: Peter Andrews took Tarwyn Park at Bylong, NSW a barren, salt ridden property and by using controversial methods regenerated it so that it is now green and lush. He calls this process Natural Sequence Farming and this website is an online resource to assist in promoting Peter Andrews and NSF.
Land Regeneration - Part 1
Land Regeneration - Part 2
Land Regeneration - Part 3
Land Regeneration - Part 4
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JACKIE FRENCH
If you're an Australian gardener, chances are you've heard of Jackie French. She is (I think) Australia's version of Joel Salatin. By that I mean, just as Joel has learned to exploit the relationship between farm and animals to increase yield - she has learned to perceive the long misunderstood relationship between bush and food production. What we have on Australian soils is a failure to recognise Australian conditions. We are the land of immense diversity which we simply fail to register.This lack of recognition, causes us to kill it off, the very key to production.
One of my favourite books written by Jackie French is, "The Wilderness Garden". I loved her down to earth approach to gardening. Having a bush block ourselves, it was the kind of advice we were really hungry for. We were comparing our bush soils to that of farm soils - luscious black friable stuff! Reading her book helped us to see we had to be a little more patient and understanding of where we had chosen to set up home. It also helped us to pay attention to the wildlife a little more. Instead of seeing that weed patch down the back, as an eyesore, we saw it as habitat for lizards, quails and pheasant coucals to hide and forage for food.
Year after year, we have come to realise (just as Joel Salatin intensively farms his animals to pasture) we had to start intensively farming our native wildlife to our bush block. They are after all, the original fertility bringers of our Nations' Terra firma. The best part is, we don't have to tend to the wildlife every day, like a farmer does. We just have to plant the food to attract the animals, sit back and watch their wonderful antics. My daughter and I spent a whole morning, watching a Pheasant Coucal forage for food. Such a savvy hunter, walking on the ground, weaving in and out of long grass - climbing with such panache up and down our slopes. Then the dive bomb when it spots something! It launches in the air about 30 centimetres and head first, grabs the unsuspecting morsel.
Kind of funny I thought, considering it's a large bird that prefers to walk instead of fly - so it adopts this kind of Aeriel attack from the ground.There are many other animals we attract to the property now, all of which leave their droppings.
Which is why I have to include many links to her website, as I feel this is crucial to understanding our relationship to our unique landscape - even when you live in suburbia.
Jackie French writes about: Living with wildlife, My garden and her Blog
