PERMACULTURE
Developed by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the early 80's, permaculture can be defined as a design tool for sustainable human settlements. This broadly encompasses achieving the best out of your available land through good design, planning and implementation so as to care for the earth, care for the people and redistribute any surplus. As humans, in many ways we are affecting the environment around us negatively. Through permaculture we aim to address these problems through a number of different ways. By not using fertilizers or any artificial and inorganic compounds, we are not polluting our soils and water tables. By planting waterwise and indigenous trees and shrubs we are complimenting the natural environment, replicating natures systems. By growing our own vegetables and fruit, we cultivate fresh organic produce with zero food miles at a fraction of the price and impact of the supermarkets.
The appropriate and organic methods we at VISIONSCAPES use to build soil structure, provides essential environments for effective microorganisms to thrive. We're also aware of the importance of creating multiple micro-climates to aid in not only in the diversification process but also improving aspects and sectors to suit you. This, amongst other methods contributes wholly to complete ecosystem development and the diversity of species in your garden and beyond. The use of appropriate technologies such as water harvesting, grey water systems and effective composting methods means a sustainable approach between dealing with waste and building your soil.
COMPOSTING
It all starts with your soil! It’s the most important part of your whole garden for without good active, alive, nutrient-rich soil, your plants are susceptible to disease. Composting actively helps them along by creating a good healthy soil environment. In order to improve the nutrient quality and organic matter quantity of your soil, it's necessary to periodically treat your beds with good quality organic compost. In natural systems, compost is formed by the continued falling of leaves and organic matter over the years, which, if left, turn from mulch to humus to compost in a sustainable, self perpetuating cycle.
Modern homes and their gardens tend to be cleaned of all this natural organic matter usually as part of a maintenance schedule. This stops this natural cycle and its then necessary, as part of an ongoing and continued process to add compost in conjunction with mulching to improve the soil quality of your garden and therefore the longevity of your plants. We use two distinctive methods of composting at VISIONSCAPES depending on the application. For beds and borders it’s necessary to use compost high in organic matter to create a healthy living space for all those beneficial fungi and bacteria and to bulk up your existing soil stock. Especially here in Cape Town, maintaining healthy, living soil is a war of attrition as the strong South Easterly wind and harsh sun combine to desiccate our soils.
The other method is the use of liquid organic compost teas. This is much more suitable in applications like fertilizing lawns where it’s impractical to use a lot of bulky compost. We have refined compost tea making and find it a hugely effective way of treating your garden. The teas we make are very high in beneficial bacteria and provide an excellent source of nutrient rich liquid feed for your lawns and garden, without the use of chemical fertilizers. The effects of using compost tea will be almost immediate and literally within days you will notice much more vitality in your lawn and plants.
MULCHING
Mulching is the process of covering the bare soil in our gardens with an organic material like bark chip, wood chip, stone or other aggregate. Not only is bare soil unattractive but it is also totally ineffective at keeping the soil healthy and the necessary microorganisms active. Mulching is an extremely effective way of reducing evaporation and nutrient loss associated with strong winds and sunshine. Mulching is also very effective against weed growth and it provides an excellent and aesthetically pleasing look to your garden. At VISIONSCAPES, we always recommend mulching as one of the most important steps to take in maintaining a healthy garden. The positive effects of mulching will be immediately visible and as an added bonus, your water bill will be reduced!
GREY WATER SYSTEMS
Grey water is the used water that comes from domestic applications like washing machines, showers and baths, washing up and dishwashers.
There is a lot of misinformation about grey water however, applied and used correctly, grey water enables us to: use less fresh water, saving money and increasing effective freshwater supply; use less energy and chemicals for water treatment, taking the strain off of municipal services; recharge strained groundwater supplies; grow plants in areas where previously we were unable to; reclaim wasted nutrients otherwise chemically treated and pumped out to sea; have much more of an awareness in the household as to natural cycles especially water as a hugely important resource, also urging us to use more biodegradable products in the house.
Grey water is purified exceptionally well in the upper, most biologically active part of the soil which protects the quality of natural surface and ground waters.