A Permaculturist In the Making

Pat’s smallholding, Ourganics Evolving Systems, features a large polytunnel, a flood garden and a forest garden, all of which she harvests and sells to the local community. The local spring is used to water the crops which then joins the River Bride and a small caravan and yurt offer a place to stay, providing extra income.

Ourganics Evolving Systems is a real example of how off-grid living is a labour of love where work and play are interchangeable and a job doesn’t mean paying rent, but living a richer life.

Words and Photography by Jo Jackson, PR & Social Media Coordinator

Shane Eades is a striking man, and not just because of what he calls his “mountain man” looks, “farm couture” outfits, and “eyebrow” – singular – The only kind of monocropping he actively supports. He also has presence – the kind of presence that can run a place like Terra-Khaya, a 38-acre backpackers and eco-farm in the Amathole mountain range, just a stone’s throw away from Hogsback.

Born and raised in Durban, it was his childhood dream to live this life. He bought the wattle-choked property thirteen years ago, and moved onto the land permanently in 2009 – roughly the same time he became friends with Greenpop’s directors Lauren and Misha. He has been transforming the place ever since. 

Terra, from the Latin word for “Earth”, and Khaya, the Xhosa word for “home”, perfectly sum up the spirit of the project. “When I moved here I made a pledge to do the best I can, with the current knowledge and resources that I have at the time, to honour the Earth and not just to take.” Spurred on by rolling blackouts, high petrol prices and a strong belief in sustainable living, Shane realised that “if I was going to start on a clean slate, I needed to start on a clean green slate and not go the fossil fuel route. Our self-sufficiency or ‘off-the-gridness’ goes as far as water, waste removal – we send nothing to the landfill – and solar power, although we still use a few paraffin lamps and candles, and when we use power tools we use a generator.”

The buildings on the property are a patchwork of natural materials and upcycled waste – what Shane calls “scalvaged material” – scavenged and salvaged from wherever he can find it. “Just keep your eyes open. It’s literally everywhere. Some people’s litter is other people’s buildings. Half of South Africa lives in recycled homes. That’s why I named the shacks Khayelitsha, Khayalethu, Khayamnandi and Khayalam.”

Terra-Khaya also has a growing food forest and permaculture garden, and the property is home to a menagerie of animals. Shane calls his twelve horses his “babies” and practices natural horsemanship. “Horses are really gentle creatures. They’re loveable and friendly and we’d rather build up a relationship of trust than a relationship based on fear. Humans generally like to control, not trust. We don’t want to believe that such a big animal would want to listen to us, or please us. We believe we have to control it. When you change that mind-set and believe it will listen to you, then it will.”

Throughout our conversation, we keep coming back to the idea of “working with nature, not against it.” This philosophy is also at the heart of Terra-Khaya’s reforestation projects.

The Hogsback area is stunning, but most of the trees growing in its forests are alien invasive species, such a wattle, pine, bramble, Blackwood, Brazilian Bird Cherry and hawthorn.

“My outlook on wattle has changed a lot. When I first came here I was at war with wattle. We spent about ZAR 100 000 on clearing wattle, most of which has grown back. I learnt that fighting anything is negative. You have to manage wattle, but fighting them is a negative process. If you want to do land rehabilitation you need to work a little bit more slowly and gently. Stripping the land bare doesn’t work.”

Greenpop’s Hogsback Reforest Fest in 2014 and this year’s collaboration with Terra-Khaya on the Hogsback Festival of Trees are the fruits of a long standing friendship between Shane, Misha and Lauren, and their shared passion for trees. Together they have enabled roughly 6000 indigenous trees to be planted on the property in seven years - all part of a steady rehabilitation process of the land. “The number of trees jumps dramatically at each reforestation festival. This weekend, we’re going to go from something like 6500 trees to 8000 in a day.”

This year’s planting site is bordering on an existing indigenous forest. I asked Shane about the work that went into preparing it. “We had to clear a lot of bramble, but as we cleared, we found a lot of young baby indigenous seedlings waiting to shoot up. The land is waiting for something to happen. It’s waiting for this action.”

Kratky Method Hydroponic Gardening

New, improved and finally finished:

The firepit and herb spiral

I started building this area from scratch two years ago, but was never really happy with how it turned out the first time around. Like most things in the garden, it has been a constant work in progress.

In context

This circular patio is the structure around which my hügelkultured swale is built, which also hosts my meadow gardens.

Water drains off the patio and in to the swale, and the wildflower-covered crescent-shaped hill that now surrounds the patio blocks wind, so it’s much easier to keep a fire going here now.

An early-spring view from the top

The rock-lined swale beside the hügelkultur mound

The wildflowers in bloom on the hügelkultur mound

Building

The bricks I used to make the thing are salvaged (I dug them out of the ground in another part of the yard, and got others from construction sites), and they are now laid over very environmentally-unfriendly layers of plastic bags. I figured using the bags as a weed barrier was no worse than putting them in a landfill, and I may as well take some responsibility for our own waste by using it on our property. They plastic layer is surprisingly permeable to water, owing to the gaps between individual bags.

All it takes to achieve an even plane between irregular cracked bricks is covering the area with sand, and sweeping the sand in between the cracks. Usually, I go over it with a mallet and a plank of wood and pound down sections of bricks, in order to even them out in between applications of sand.

Finishing up

The end result is a cosy little retreat that I think I am finally satisfied with. It’s surrounded by cherry trees, weigela, black lace elderberry, and a purple catalpa. The hügelkultur meadow gardens have seven different colours of butterfly bush in them on them as well, so eventually, this place will be a mess of fruit and flowers.

It took laying the bricks twice, planting trees around it, and building a long wind-breaking hill, but I can now enjoy a morning cup of coffee out here without agonising over how to finish it properly.

This isn’t counting things like “digging up rosebushes from a demolition site,” and “pollarding an apple tree,” even though those plants/materials are partially used here.

I found this on that database of gardening tools for disabled people, and because I don’t having the most dextrous or reliable hands in the world (especially when it’s cold), I thought it looked pretty awesome!

The Tenax Pro Seeder

The pro seeder works by creating a vacuum to pick up and hold seeds on its tip for easy planting

It makes sowing tiny seeds easy and helps reduce seed wastage

The hand held pro seeder uses the same technology as commercial seeding machines

It includes three different sized color coded needle tips to sow seeds of all shapes and sizes

Designed by a leading seeder machine manufacturer; eliminates seed wastage and time thinning out