Element writer Sophie Barclay is attending and reporting from the Auckland Permaculture Workshop classes throughout the year.
On a field trip to lecturer and organic food specialist Brendan Hoare's four hectare eco-farm, I fell in love... with soil.
That unassuming brown stuff in your garden is, literally, the source of everything on this planet. Healthy soil contains a varying mix of rock and minerals (including a mix of stones, sand, clay and silts) depending on where you live. It should be covered by a layer of rich organic matter - the decaying remains of life that once was - or its excretions.
The good news is, if, like me, your horticultural skills are outweighed by your ability to misidentify weeds as native plants, there may be billions of volunteers already assisting you on the quest for healthy soils.
The humble earthworm is busy tunnelling through the soil, turning leaf litter and semi-decomposed compost into nutrient rich plant food. Working harder than a DoC staff member approaching yet another review, worms create space for plant roots to penetrate soil and oxygen to infuse through to roots and other soil-dwellers. The earthworms in one hectare of land will churn through nearly 40 tonnes of earth - equivalent to a depth of around 0.5 cm of soil - and enrich it with a healthy dose of worm poop. All for free.
