Transcript
Karen Seinor: Hello again, it's Karen here from Southland Wild and today we are continuing this series on permaculture and talking about designing with the land.
Karen Seinor: So you know that's a big deal in permaculture. It's not like, you know. buying a house in a subdivision where it just gets plonked on. You really look at the land and tap into it.
Karen Seinor: ah very practically. as well as, of course, energetically. so One of the things... That. we do is we...
Karen Seinor: We look at rainfall. Fire. the wind. um when's the wettest, when's the coldest month, that sort of thing.
Karen Seinor: and Here in Albury... What's interesting, I've just made a note here to the side so excuse me while I just check on that. um Aubrey. It's roughly 700 millimetres of rain a year and July is the wettest and coldest month.
Karen Seinor: We get westerly weather. So... in my place. There's no windows on the western side so because it's also where the heat of the sun comes beating in in the summer too.
Karen Seinor: December is the windiest month. and we have more than 40 degree days then. So... We need to consider... The wind, like one of the things. um that I'm doing here.
Karen Seinor: or that I have done, is I've planted some... Trees. along the boundary, the Western boundary. as well as the northern actually.
Karen Seinor: um There's trees everywhere here really. um but those trees on the western side are to create shade.
Karen Seinor: to drop the temperature as a result of their presence. And of course, I've. I've got deciduous trees so in the winter they are not stopping the wind or the rain.
Karen Seinor: but in the summer they are certainly doing their job now It was a bit of a catch -22 situation there. If I'd put... say for example, citrus trees that don't drop their leaves in the winter.
Karen Seinor: I could have gained the protection, some protection from wind as well. but you know was one of those things that was a a call. No.
Karen Seinor: We need to think about this stuff when in terms of what we're growing for food. so The growing season is a bit tricky here. because We get the right. weather we get the right temperature to grow food when there's a least amount of water and also when food is cheap.
Karen Seinor: So you can imagine that that's a bit of a pain in the butt, isn't it? But... The approach that I have taken is that I grow the things that I love.
Karen Seinor: that are a bit expensive in those warm months. So things like watermelon, for example. and um I also grow things like pumpkin, which are...
Karen Seinor: not expensive to buy but they they will last a long time i can put a whole bunch of them on the front veranda which is on the southern side and i can use those for up to a year when i grow the correct um type.
Karen Seinor: so It's more about that stuff. growing the fancy pants things, the things that you want. that Yeah.
Karen Seinor: So... What else? um You don't want to work too hard on it. And what could potentially be done if you had a hothouse is that you could grow things in the winter.
Karen Seinor: when there's plenty of water and you can adjust the heat. I don't have um a hothouse. That's that's not um in my budget at this particular time, but it is something that you could consider. if you were in an environment like mine.
Karen Seinor: What else, what else? Now. In terms of... um designing for the land, one of the things that I did is I flipped this house.
Karen Seinor: um front to back. So... If you do take a look at that video presentation on the website um You'll see the original design. I don't actually have an image of it here to just show you.
Karen Seinor: and But it's it's called The Weekender. and you can have a look at um Sheds and Homes website if you want to but mine shows it perfectly. Um,
Karen Seinor: Yeah, so the front of the house. If I put the, if I've been in alignment with their design, the two bigger windows, a sliding door, that's the front door for them because it is a weekender.
Karen Seinor: And. That's on the southern side of the house. that's on the southern side of the block and that would face the street now very little light comes in.
Karen Seinor: So, of course. At the rear of my block. is the north. So of course I wanted to flip it to get all that beautiful winter sun. into the living space into the kitchen and the lounge room and that's what makes this small place so incredibly livable. I've got a veranda on both sides as well, which extends out and gives me an extra room on each side.
Karen Seinor: In the summer, for example, I can spend time out on the... On the back veranda in the mornings and in the afternoon when it gets really hot.
Karen Seinor: I can go out into the front veranda so it's an two extra rooms basically because it's cool the breeze flows down there in the afternoon No. on the southern side of the house.
Karen Seinor: and No. The other thing is that I always knew that I was going to do readings and things like that. um In the longer term,
Karen Seinor: And that's you know basically what I do now. and um So... Having, flipping the house from a... a practical work related our perspective. also.
Karen Seinor: was absolutely brilliant. all the only adjustment that i had to make to this design is to put a sliding a pocket door at the end of the hallway to block the living space. So you come in what is my front door, but in their design is the back door.
Karen Seinor: On the right hand side is the small en suite style bathroom. and on the left hand side is what they call the master bedroom and that is my office. So...
Karen Seinor: People can access the bathroom if need be. And my my personal space is protected. So it's... It's a great design thing. It's a great work thing in terms of...
Karen Seinor: working with permaculture principles and getting maximum benefit from your build and keeping costs down and all that sort of thing. It works charmingly.
Karen Seinor: Thank you. And even in terms of. whoops. and the cold. It works well as well. So. yeah They're just things to think about. The other thing... is There's a five metre drop from the top of um the block here on Delaney Street.
Karen Seinor: down to the bottom end. And that is a very steep block, actually. So one of the things I had to do is to put in retaining walls, and there's a number of them. So there's...
Karen Seinor: um two levels of retaining walls at the front. And there are... two levels at the back. And this... and And what that does is it separates the areas and it slows the water down. So when water comes down, and and you think about it, I'm on a hill, so water comes rushing down the road even. It goes off blocks, off the driveways, down into the street and all that, but it travels through the earth.
Karen Seinor: And what I'm doing is I'm slowing that down so that I'm keeping the moisture in the soil for longer. before it leaves my property. So that is a really good use of water management, land management actually.
Karen Seinor: Um, What else? Um... I mean, the the retaining walls were a big expense. But. they've also made this much more livable in terms of me being here for the long term. i You know, I'm a woman of a certain age.
Karen Seinor: and I want to live here for as long as I can. So... What the guys did who built it, they... Initially, I would have preferred to have the house up on posts because I was thinking that I could use underneath the house as a garage.
Karen Seinor: and then I wouldn't have to pay for one. I could just close it in, you know. and but They didn't want to do that and... for various reasons they were worried about the cost and so on i had a tight budget But in the long run...
Karen Seinor: It was a good decision for that to happen because... i've got a flat area now i um Had a... A near miss in my kitchen. I nearly tripped.
Karen Seinor: I caught myself but one of the bones in my one of my feet actually snapped. when that happened, that was a couple of years ago. And I was non -weight -bearing for about seven weeks.
Karen Seinor: Now. Living on a Slopey Block If I'd had to go up and down stairs to get in and out the house, at that time there's no way I could have done it. In fact, that was a wonderful teaching opportunity for me. I learnt a lot and I made some adjustments to the plan as a result of that.
Karen Seinor: Um, And I'll just speak to that for a moment. so I'd put... At the back, when I put in those um two levels of retaining wall,
Karen Seinor: My intention was that that lower level. I'd actually intended to put the veg raise garden beds there. you know it wasn't going to be too overwhelming and so on And we did do that.
Karen Seinor: and then when I had that issue with my foot I actually couldn't get down there. so that made me rethink it completely so what I've done is I've turned that into a bee garden basically a meadow which just comes back each summer. all the flowers that are in there now except for two random tomato plants that i popped in the other day of the other week um they've all just naturalized they've just come up from seed from last year
Karen Seinor: and Some things work, some things don't. so at... um
Karen Seinor: my so My son came and helped me. Well, he did most of the work really. I sort of... brought cold drinks and helped a bit. He did much more of the heavy work. we We actually...
Karen Seinor: emptied out those raised garden beds and we repositioned them up on the flat area next to the house. So basically zone one. So. I've got this really...
Karen Seinor: uh almost foolproof situation here now so everything i really need the The chickens, the vegetable gardens, the water. um the driveway. It's all on one level.
Karen Seinor: Front door, back door. So. In terms of long -term... ability to stay here on the property. Even if I become...
Karen Seinor: an infirm old chicken. I will be able to stay here and just operate within this. this house and the the close. zone one sort of area.
Karen Seinor: Um, you know, the veggie garden and all that's close. the I can just walk on. the along them. step out of the back door onto the back veranda straight onto the path from that there's no stepping down and i can just lean over and open up the The Chicken House. and get to the shed as well.
Karen Seinor: So. that works really well So that adjustment, that that problem. actually did me a favour. um Yes, it's quite good.
Karen Seinor: Now... The five rules, I'm just going to share with you the five rules that I've used in the development of this sum system.
Karen Seinor: Okay, so every system's got to have some rules because you've got to have a structure so that you can make decisions. And I chose five rules. so This is what they are.
Karen Seinor: The first rule. is about having chemical free products used on the property. wherever possible. Now there are times when that's not going to be possible and I'm okay with that if that situation arises. but wherever possible so i use products like i use um ah house cleaners and things like that that are made from aromatherapy -based products. I use something called Thieves.
Karen Seinor: and that's from an essential oil company called Young Living and you know you can get dishwasher tabs and all sorts of things. um from them.
Karen Seinor: shower cleaner, glass cleaner, all of that jazz. and um ah by the way dishwashers are cost effective that is a quite a good way to go in terms of the use of water it's less than actually um washing your dishes in the sink believe it or not we did quite a bit of study looking at all of that.
Karen Seinor: The other thing, the second rule is proper care of the animals. So that is my dogs, the chickens. I've got Tumsukis and also the bees. I've got beehives here, honeybees. So taking care of those properly. And of course, I'm a bit of an animal, so taking care of me too.
Karen Seinor: Now, the third rule. and this is a good one, is all things must have more than one purpose and preferably three purposes. So for example, the chickens.
Karen Seinor: The chickens create... poo for the compost. they They enrich the soil. They get rid of insects, ah um painful insects. and they give us eggs now the other thing is that they are absolutely delightful to have around this little boop sound um My grandchildren have enjoyed them enormously. And we even... raised little chicks at one time.
Karen Seinor: That was super fun. So. Okay. where possible, at least three. but definitely more than one. And the fourth rule is to consider the five -star rating in all things.
Karen Seinor: All right. um and this is about input. and output. Now, rule number five is that we get an output from the inputs.
Karen Seinor: like veggies for example. Honey from the bees, eggs from the chickens, time spent in the hammock. That is a very important thing. I'm not... that good at getting that particular output.
Karen Seinor: So the idea is that the garden eventually becomes self -sustaining. It's not that much work. It still is quite a bit of work at the moment. But that's because I'm still in that development stage.
Karen Seinor: But the intention is that time in the hammock. is important. because having a permaculture system. It's not about making it look perfect.
Karen Seinor: but And we all like a pretty garden, but it's not about that. It's about it being really functional and healthy. So that's the the fifth rule.
Karen Seinor: I've tried to keep it sensible. Yeah. That was the plan. Oh dear. That was the plan. And of course, we like to have numbers for everything. So the 12 elements.
Karen Seinor: So I've got 12. That's quite a few. So... The elements involved in my system. water management. chickens. Peace. bees fruit trees. vegetables.
Karen Seinor: mushrooms I haven't got that off the ground yet. a water garden. played with that. Not sure. The meadow that is fully functional. Alternative power. Now, that is something that I have not done yet, but I have looked at it. And at the time that I did.
Karen Seinor: it wasn't cost effective for me to do so. So... i i didn't I didn't pick up on that. And I'm hopeful that as technology advances, that we'll get something that's more efficient.
Karen Seinor: perhaps not lithium batteries i've just heard fabulous stories about how terrible they are to put out if they catch on fire. that they are in fact a really big fire risk. So that was interesting. information for me i didn't know that um Yeah.
Karen Seinor: So. I'm still on the grid. But that is something that is there as an element, something to be looked at. in due course.
Karen Seinor: Oh, yes, the fire pit. I do actually have one of those. And the idea was that this could be used for rituals, um parties, gatherings, of family family gatherings and things.
Karen Seinor: um Sitting outside. at the winter solstice and some of the other points on the wheel of the year. Also, goddess nooks.
Karen Seinor: No. I'm going to speak at at a different time about the... deeply spiritual aspect from my perspective of permaculture but let me just say for now that goddess nooks is one of the elements my sense is that you know we really want to be deeply connected to the planet that's what makes this whole thing a theme.
Karen Seinor: And. you know, I think about the earth as... A goddess. in its own right, a living being that we are a part of. So little places in the garden. And I have actually collected along the way little symbols. I've actually got a beautiful... big statue of a goddess. She's actually got um two she's holding um
Karen Seinor: Makes me think of that book, The Woman with the Alabaster Jar. She's holding two jugs. And I think originally it was a water fountain. um She has been dragged around from house to house, but this is her resting place now.
Karen Seinor: And she did lose her head at one time, but we... very very diligently stuck it back on and various times of the year she has a scarf around her neck to look gorgeous. and And I've got her at the bottom of the garden.
Karen Seinor: And at one time I used to refer to this place as the goddess's garden. And it really speaks to me that, you know, the goddess is present here. that I mean, what happens in gardens? Lots of sex. It's always happening.
Karen Seinor: Not just the bees, but the plants, the trees, you know. It's always going on. um Yeah, so the goddess... is at the bottom of the garden i can see her from the kitchen window And.
Karen Seinor: A friend gave me an ark. you know, those um green sort of wire trellisy things that people grow roses up on. and um When I first bought this block I had a compost bin down in that corner.
Karen Seinor: and used to put all the stuff down there. for quite a while. So, and I let that soil just, that compost just sort of sit there. And I ah planted a jasmine.
Karen Seinor: on each side of that trellis and so the goddess is actually sitting framed by this beautiful white jasmine which at night, think High Priest Descartes,
Karen Seinor: just comes out and you can sit on the back veranda and you can smell that jasmine and it is so beautiful So yeah. So yeah, there's um you know I've got a lovely little...
Karen Seinor: Seat. up near a water feature. on Hodge Street side. of the property You see it when you walk down the driveway, it's on the right hand side.
Karen Seinor: And so that's a little space where you can sit and reflect on the world. But these goddess looks are something that I'm... wanting to develop. not just as a conversational piece, but also um symbols of the goddess and at the moment I have them dotted around.
Karen Seinor: sitting on top of a sleeper. near flowers. or on the In the raised garden beds, I've got these white um downpipes, basically. with a hill um holes drilled in them and a cap on the top.
Karen Seinor: um and that is to act as a compost bin basically i can take the lid off and put some compost in there and the worms get in so that's great it's a self -creating thing And I have a symbol of the goddess. I've got all different ones on top of. that blue.
Karen Seinor: um white cap, so she's present. in each of the raised garden beds which is quite lovely. Now...
Karen Seinor: What else? What else can I tell you with this? This is probably long enough for you. What? What I did at the time that I did the project was I set out what the important projects were and I timed them. Now, a lot of these are connected with money. and energy.
Karen Seinor: and time, you know. So some things like the driveway took much longer to do because there was a ah big dollar tag on those. There is no garage or carport at the moment, but you know in due course, it'll come.
Karen Seinor: um I did what was necessary first. to... make things workable like the mushrooms haven't happened and perhaps they won't I don't know ah one of the things I'm aware of now is I don't have to do everything I can do what is easy and what is going to give me the greatest output for the least input. And that is key.
Karen Seinor: That's a really important lesson to get. um and most people who are involved in permaculture and really living it will tell you that it's ah It's a hard lesson.
Karen Seinor: um And of course, you know, you start these projects when you're a certain age. And as time goes on, you know, your family might grow up and leave. There's less need for quantity.
Karen Seinor: And perhaps... you know you're doing a job and maintaining your home space All of those things have an impact. Hmm. um Yeah.
Karen Seinor: I'm not sure what else I need to talk about right now but yeah oh one of the other things um There's ah there's ah the wild area. of the garden is The Steep Bank.
Karen Seinor: that goes up to Delaney Street. And it's over there that I have my beehives, my apiary. And so beyond that. Is that steep? State Bank. Now there's a very large house.
Karen Seinor: um next door to me And in the winter, it shades half of that top section until about 11 o 'clock. each day in the wintertime. So growing trees, fruit trees, for example, on that bank is just a no -go. That will not work. They won't get enough.
Karen Seinor: um sunlight so those sorts of things have to be considered and I have made some boo -boos along the way but um That's okay too. you know I've changed a few things. I've dug things out and moved them. It's not the end of the world.
Karen Seinor: my intention for up there was always to put um well not always once my brain got a bit uh more educated around permaculture. and with the guidance of Rob.
Karen Seinor: Rob Fenton. Yeah. it was suggested that blueberries would do quite well up there because they're dormant in the winter and so the lack of light wouldn't be a problem. So I do have some sitting around in tubs that will eventually get placed up there.
Karen Seinor: I just, I'm playing to see, i'm I'm waiting to see what I'm actually going to really do up there. I think. um this summer i'm probably going to grow pumpkins up there to be honest with you i just need to pull some some weeds out so that to make the space for that to happen.
Karen Seinor: so That's a bit of a information dump and it's just about things to consider in terms of designing with the land. So slope. water. light. Um,
Karen Seinor: Rainfall. All of those sorts of things and more. Fire. that's that's an important one not so much for me in this location but still something to consider.
Karen Seinor: Yeah. still something to consider. Yeah. All right. Well, I look forward to um the next episode stay with me next time i'll tell you what i'm going to be talking about next time with permaculture, I'll be talking about walking the zones. The zones are really interesting. and and even where you are right now.
Karen Seinor: whether this is your forever home or just where you are right now you can look at the zones and how that works and start to pay attention to other people's homes and and it'll help you in terms of your design.
Karen Seinor: longer term. all right Thanks for joining me. See you.
