Subject: How to improve shale/clay quickly

From: Kalenn Amand <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 07:59:47 +1000

Hi
We've just purchased a 12 acre property in the Gold Coast Hinterland.  It
has been used as an Ostrich farm for the last 3 or 4 years but we aim to
create our own little paradise loosely based on Permaculture principles. 
The soil is a poor shale/clay and we were wondering if anybody has
suggestions for a suitable temporary crop to improve the soil and add
organic matter etc.

regards

Kalenn Amand
Digital By Design
Australia
61755974051  ph
61755974053  fax

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From: Terry Haven <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 22:17:04 +0800

Dear fellow permie/Kalenn
hi there i came across your email re your suggestions re your new
property.Like you i have the same/near soil type i live in mundijong 45
klms south of Perth W.A. i live with the hard baked clay base with a deap
mix of old railway line with the remaining blumetal type stone in a deep
mix .what i had to do was loosen the clay base to enable low rooting plants
to grow .ive been on this property for 18 months now and have a fair amount
of sucsessso far due to starting off with a plan to loosen ,fertilize,add
humous to a soil that was rock hard to something that would enable me to
feed my chooks/chickens to enable me to sell chikinsfor a way of earning a
clean safe healthy living the permaculture way.choks as tracters make an
ideal way to do al the things i wanted to do to tthe land that i live on.i
did this for about 12 months and then rested the are a(at moment)and am now
starting to grow my veges in thge area that was used last year to grow this
years veges and next year do the same continuing on untill i have three
areas and then i can give one area off to rest for off year all these are
have a mixture of trees in to compliment existing native trees i have
planted tagasties and albizia lopanthato fix nitrigen and supply seeds at 2
years of growthwhich have a high proteen value to feed my chooks to egg
laying standard for no cost .i also have a supply of local type decidious
trees so as to ad fresh mulch every year ie AUTAUM
which in turn feed my worms that are starting to appear every winter.if
chooks are not your idea of fun try a mix of legumes seeds to start off
with .i beleive any vegetation is better then no vegetation any bad plants
can be destroyed as an when spotted before setting sead.i also suggest
keeping or sarting night shade plant sometimes called deadly night shade i
have eaten fruits and no ill effect only the green berries are deadly
.little birds luv them and chooks,clovers are another good crop.OR even a
meadow hay crop ,anduse slashing to add mulch to the ground at harvest
time, self seeding as well.I would alsao strongly suggest you get hold of a
book written by JEFFREY HODGES  called NATURAL
GARDENING and FARMING in AUSTRALIA it doesnt have the skill of BILL
MOLLISONS books wich are great but has the philosiphy of BILLS wich really
opened my eys up this man has an incredible ....sense....  By the way i
live on six acres here but only able to run chooks on aboy 3 of them due to
the fact of having a horsey wife lols but have managed to pinch a bit of
hers to grow some more trees so they can feed our expensive horse as well
...we used to have 4  im winning lols.Also my cooks are only surrounded by
3ft high wire but locked up in their shed at nightwhen they jump my low
fences i sell them    lols
another suggestion is to cart grean waste into your place and spread it
around or piles everywhere let the worms do the workplant where the wastes
rot use it for chook food as well.
im writing this you probly hate chooks lols oh well you only asked for
suggestions id like to know how ya go as well we can all help oneanother on
here .
good luck 
Terry Haven 
[email-masked]
----------
> From: Kalenn Amand <[email-masked]>
> To: Permaculture WA <[email-masked]>
> Subject: How to improve shale/clay quickly
> Date: Tuesday, 23 June 1998 5:59
> 
> Hi

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From: William Bryan Evans <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 10:01:54 -0700

Watchout using common names..."nightshade" around here means stay away. 
Nevere tested what eveerybody said was a poiusonous plant. check your
references, i could be mistakenmaybe some varieties are edible at some
stage, could the birds bee wrong. Hmmmm
william evans

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From: Mike Mattys <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 10:13:04 +0930

The nightshade that terry wrote about grows wild in Western Australia. It is not
really a nightshade. The botanical name is Solanum Nigra, Known here as Black
Nightshade and is edible. Not to be confused with Deadly Nightshade which is
DEADLY

Regards
Mike Mattys
Alice Springs
(Back in Perth 27th July)

William Bryan Evans wrote:

> >.i also suggest
> > .little birds luv them