Positive Ripples in Permaculture. Home & orphanage farm tour with Morag Gamble & Silke Bollmohr PhD.

Take a tour of two permaculture projects. Morag Gamble (https://moraggamble.com) welcomes environmental scientist, Silke Bollmohr PhD (https://hamana.org), to her Permaculture Masterclass series. Silke lives in Kenya and is a foundation member of the Permaculture Education Institute (https://permacultureeducationinstitute.org). Her focus has been on teaching people how to create thriving local food gardens in Nairobi and helping farmers to transition to natural regenerative farming methods.

She has applied permaculture in her home farm, in a children's home for orphans, and helped to ripple permaculture through her neighbourhood, to local farms, to teachers and beyond.

It is remarkable what can happen when you choose to step up and take positive action.

Through this film, learn how Silke has made these projects happen. Hear also the perspectives of local gardeners and farmers on the value of permaculture in Kenya.

It is a practical and heartwarming story of hope and positivity.

(NB: We apologise for the compromised film quality due to limited internet streaming capacity from these Kenyan projects back to Australia)

This film was first screened as a masterclass on 27 Jan 2020. Below is a summary of the questions and comments from the live session.

SUMMARY of the Q&A that accompanied Masterclass #21
People participating from around the world and responses coming from Silke, Morag and the participants.

Q: Hi Silke, to get things started in the beginning, did you bring in mulch? or did you do your own green mulches?
A: I brought in compost, but I used my own mulch.
Q: what kind of leaves do you use in tea fertilizer?
A: In tea fertilizer I use comfrey, pumpkin and passion fruit leaves mainly. But generally any green leaves which are available.

Q Can I use sweet potato leaves for tea fertiliser?
A: I use green leaves for green tea and chicken poo for the chicken ‘tea'

Q: Silke do you use the no dig method?
A: Yes I try to do no digging. However, sometimes due to the high clay content I need to dig. But mostly I try to keep the soil loose through ground cover and mulch.

Q: Do you use old chook poo for the tea?
A: Most of the poo is stored , so its rather old

Q: what do you do with the Mexican marigold to use it on the pests
A: Mexican marigold: I take a bunch of leaves, flowers, branches and cook it with 1/2 L of water-add a drop of natural soap and use it to control white flies and aphids. .

Q: while using chicken poo for fertilizer, how do prevent contamination in for example tomatoes?
A: I make sure that the tea is not touching the tomatoes, as I water and feed the soil and not the plant.

Q: any suggestions for fruit fly
A: I use the sticky yellow sheets which catch aphids and fruit fly which are attracted to yellow.

Q: Can you eat the pumpkin leaves if they have powdery mildew?
A: yes only tender and small leaves, which do not have fungus.
A: Also do not use the fungal effected leaves for tea or compost.

Q: By the way, does anyone have any recommendations for ridding or reducing grasshoppers? The little green ones that eat all my herbs?
A: Chickens, Ducks, Frogs, Lizards, Create habitat for predators, Net things that grasshoppers eat

Q: does worm tea lose its oomph with long storage?
A: Mostly we do not store the worm juice for a long time, since we need it regularly. However, nurseries store them for up to 6 weeks.

Q: hi, with the compacted clay soil that you had at the beginning (which was probably too hard to dig with a spade?), what was the first step(s) you carried out to get things growing?
A: Before I planted anything, I did double digging and started planting bulbs plants( to loosen up the soil) and beans/ peas

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

Well done Silke for spreading knowledge and helping the kids and parents too.

This is a wonderful project you’re doing, its wonderful that you can help so many people.

OMG he was gorgeous. Love his enthusiasm (about Jooma)

It's been an extraordinary shared story and experience! Great learning outcome! Very inspirational! Thank u to all of you xxx

Lots of great information and ideas as usual. Thanks Morag, Silke and everyone.

An absolutely incredible information & the wonderful work helping the Children's Home. They all looked so well & happy. Great knowledge to pass on, so beneficial & the importance how we could all benefit in a healthy living practising Permaculture.

Thanks Silke. Very inspirational :)

Very inspirational!!! Thank you Silke and Morag!!

Thanks to Morag and all of you to show interest in the work we are doing here in Kenya.

To contact Silke Bollmohr
silke.bollmohr@gmail.com
https://hamana.org

To learn permaculture with Morag Gamble
https://permacultureeducationinstitute.org
Online combined Permaculture Design Certificate and Permaculture Teacher Certificate with bonus permaculture business planning and development modules.

Видео Positive Ripples in Permaculture. Home & orphanage farm tour with Morag Gamble & Silke Bollmohr PhD. канала Morag Gamble : Our Permaculture Life