During a sunny July morning in Traralgon, biodynamic farmer Ian Onley admires an abundance of leafy silverbeet in the garden at Stockdale Road Primary School where he holds monthly workshops.
On gardening, he says “this is really about bringing people back to their roots”.
But the expertise he offers really lies in soil.
He will be presenting at an upcoming Baw Baw Sustainability Network event about the role of humus in the soil in growing “highly nutritious” vegetables.
Humus is organic matter which has been broken down by the soil ecology such as worms, microbes and fungi.
Mr Onley said in most gardening books, people read about what fertiliser to put on their plants.
“But then the last half of the book is all about control of the pests and diseases that you get and that’s because you’ve put this [water-soluble] fertiliser on,” he said.
“Humus is proper plant food and gives plants the strength they need to ward off insect attacks and all that sort of thing but water-soluble fertilisers actually deplete the plant’s energy. They sort of force them to grow when they don’t really want to.”
He said growing organically was very cheap, despite the costs of some tools such as a good garden fork and a sprinkler, and placing humus in the soil with manure should allow gardeners four crops in rotation.
Now was the time to start preparing for a spring crop as the weather will begin to warm,
according to Mr Onley, and the event in Yarragon was designed to help people understand how to set up a garden bed ready for planting edible crops.
Other topics include saving space and increasing yields with espalier fruit trees and saving water with wicking beds, which will be presented by agricultural students from Lowanna College.
Gardening for Abundance will be on Thursday, July 26 at 7.30pm at REstore, 79 Princes Highway, Yarragon.
Tickets are $9 for members and $12 for guests and this includes supper and hot drinks.
For more information, visit bbsn.org.au.
