Introducing Yeo Mini Farm
After another successful food trail in October, a discussion was had to how best improve the guests experience to see how Yeo Farm worked. One thing that stood out is that there is some fantastic concepts and design elements on our farm but how to show the public without traipsing across paddocks to physically show the swales and systems.
Day Two 9NOV19 - Looking along the main swale above the alley cropping system and the banana and compost area swales above.
Yeo Farm’s 95 acres is designed around the capture and redistribution of water “into” the landscape not over it. Permaculture and Yeomans Scale of Permanence heavily influence design concepts across the property beginning with the collection of nutrients and water as high in our landscape as possible.
Week Two 18NOV19 - This is a view across dam to filtration dam, extra water is added into here in dry times and allowed to percolate through sand and reed filters. Baby sunrose cuttings are in place around top of bank for ground cover and weed suppression.
Hydration schemes are then designed throughout the property around water centric ecosystems, hydrating the soil profile more deeply and encouraging greater biodiversity and consistency of moisture in the whole system between the extreme ends of weather events we face.
On the Great Lake Food Trail days, Andrew held two farm talks where he briefly covered property planning and design concepts, which were very well received. In the post event briefing from the last food trail the idea was conceived expanding this sharing of knowledge and creating a mini version of the farm within the square confines of a quarter acre paddock.
The paddock has been used as a sheep holding yard within the homestead area of the property so that visitors could see the sheep. Since creating the Mini Farm, it now enables an immersive experience of the properties concepts and animal systems. In ten weeks through the driest season in 40 years at Bulahdelah this area is a useless patch of grass no more! With this mini farm, new and old approaches to farming and permaculture are able to be trialled and the experience is shared with visitors with the details of the design, what worked and what has evolved.
Week Ten 16JAN2020 - An overview of the dams high in the landscape, the series of alleys for cropping and swales growing windbreaks for shelter.
The Yeo Mini Farm includes high dams and water filtration, swales and animal nutrients, biomass and food, alley cropping and curved fence design, windbreak and shade system plus much more. The approach within this small demonstration are easily implemented elsewhere on both a larger and smaller scale, giving visitors genuine ideas to take home. Really looking forward to sharing on the Yeo Mini Farm Tours.
Yeo Mini Farm Tours are free and Andrew takes you on a journey through the mini farm explaining the design concepts and functions that you can take home and apply in your own garden or farm. See you soon!
Week Ten 16JAN2020- The alley cropping livestock display area being fenced ready for our little house flock to come and get some love from visitors.
Day One 8NOV19 - The project begins with the pegging out of contour lines to create swales and water management infrastructure. A laser level makes this a very quick one person task.
Day Two 9NOV19 - After constructing dam structure with a tractor scoop an excavator was used to dig a deeper centre sump. Also note the compacted clay core of dam wall before top soil is added back on top.
Day Four 11NOV19 - Old fence posts were laid at different points around inside dam then covered with top soil to create different depth growth shelves for the aquatic plant layers.
Week Two 18NOV19 - Arrowroot with bana grass canes on western side for protection. Arrowroot is for biomass and stock feed and being located in dam catchment here it first absorbs waterflow before it reaches the dam inlet.
Week Seven 24DEC19 - View of first raised garden bed below chicken coop, and large stepping logs allow access with out compacting while maximizing growth area. Bananas in foreground absorbing the first flow of water and nutrient maximizing biomass.
Week Nine 7JAN2020 - The chicken coop / run in construction. High rails to support a climbing canopy over the top, raised coop allowing rear access to nesting boxes and focused nutrient droppings washed through with dam overflow. IBC Tank stand for gravity fed wobbler sprinklers spreading fertigations like bio cast across gardens and alley cropping.
Week Ten 15JAN2020 - This view from the west shows the vegetation growth already dissipating the damaging effects of the afternoon sun and damaging winds. Fast growing annuals like millet condition the soil and become a knock down mulch later in the season.
Day Two 9NOV19 - Swale building technique used is to rip on contour with a single tyne below grow mound final location before using a roto till to create a channel of friable soil to drag up creating grow mound and water catchment.
Day Four 11NOV19 - Rock stabilization and habitat on dam inlet point, pretty happy to have our first frog move in the next day… Water is being pumped from another larger dam on the property, better up here creating an ecosystem than down evaporating in an unprotected paddock dam.
Day Five 12NOV19 - Filter dam ready for water with deeper sump and shelf for water filtering reed bed. Top soil is quite deep on top of bank to encourage water seepage through bank for accelerated plant growth on and below banks.
Week Six 16DEC19 - Ag pipes run water through underneath running water further through and removing excess, avoiding waterlogging.
Week Eight 2JAN2020 - Raised garden beds below dam full of deep rooted vetiver grass for bank stabilization, seepage through dam bank drives healthy growth. Vegetables like corn, beans, squash and pumpkins in bed behind.
Week Ten 15JAN2020 - Main swale below dam and chicken run after first rain event showing the water that overflowed from dam catchment being captured and allowed time to absorb into grow mound and penetrate deeper into soil profile.
Week Ten 16JAN2020 - Water in swale above the mini farm after 60mm in 20minutes rain event, hydrates the hill above and overflows into the top dam starting the water cycle of this area. This is the centre of the planned wind break system above dam.