Day 5 – Soils and Life
- Recap (elements and functions)
- Introduction to soil
- Life in soil - organisms, micro-guilds, pests
- Design – objectives and directives – design for risks and events - elements of a design project
- Soil building in nature - patterns of soil building – succession
- Agriculture, horticulture and soil – soil as a growing medium - the importance of "edge" in soil
Lunch
- Observation and Pattern – observation walk/exercise
- Soil structure - what makes a good soil? - carbon stores and losses - composition of soils, classification and testing
- Soil variation across climate zones, impact of cultivation - cultivation strategies
- Polycultures in zones 1 and 2 – home gardens, market gardens and small livestock
Day 6 – Soils and Cultivation Nutrients in soil - nutrition for plants, animals and humans, availability and uptake
- Design methods –limiting factors in design Systems and energy – open and closed systems – the efficiency of natural processes - “exergy” and “lethargy”
- The nitrogen cycle in soils - importance of nitrogen fixers
- Polycultures, plant guilds, interaction matrices
Lunch
- Life in soils – pulsing, ethylene, ferrous/ferric switch
- Soil building in zones 1 and 2 (composts, fertilisers and mulches)
- Polycultures in Zone 3 – livestock and climate – rangelands, permanent pastures, mob stocking and Holistic Management - Alley cropping – strategies and techniques for cereal growing
- Soil as a construction material (terraces, roads, dams, houses) - the basics of earthworks - working with machines