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Fernglade Farm
Fernglade Farm
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Commenced:
01/01/2005
Submitted:
08/04/2011
Last updated:
16/02/2016
Location:
Cherokee, Victoria, AU
Climate zone:
Cool Temperate





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Fernglade Farm

Fernglade Farm

Cherokee, AU


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Project: Fernglade Farm

Posted by Chris McLeod almost 10 years ago

Well, you need access paths and stairs to get into an area, otherwise it never gets looked at. Plus just to make Northern hemisphere readers jealous, there are some photos of the ripening fruit at the farm.

It’s been proven true here time and time again, that if you can’t get to a particular area on the farm, that area simply gets overlooked. Access to an area becomes all important and access can mean either a path or a set of stairs into an area.

It was only less than a year ago that I built a concrete staircase and paths leading down into the bee food (and Chris food too!) mixed flower, herb and vegetable garden. This is what it looks like today:

Bee garden - mixed flowers, herbs and vegetables

Before the stairs and paths were built, that bee garden looked pretty much like this area:

New staircase below the cantina

It is a reasonably unloved area of the farm and that area below the cantina shed supported more grass than any useful plants. As you can see in the photo though, over the past few days I’ve now built 4 concrete stairs (out of a total of 11 stairs). Hopefully in another 12 months’ time that area will look as good as the mixed flower, herb and vegetable garden does today!


If anyone is wondering how to go about building concrete stairs, the process is very easy. At the bottom of the photo you’ll note the timber formwork that is used as a guide. Formwork is the fancy name for the timber that gives both the width and height of the stairs. I place the formwork at the starting point for the staircase, ensure that it is level both side to side and then front to back and then simply fill the void with cement and rocks. The surface of the cement can be lightly moistened and worked with a trowel so that it produces a completely flat surface. A couple of hours later, the stair is solid and you can then start work on the next stair. During summer, I can build at least three to four stairs per day, but at this cooler point in the year, I’m limited to two stairs per day as the concrete just doesn’t set fast enough for more than that.


It hasn’t all been about stairs this week though. For the past couple of months, I’ve been digging a flat site – by hand – out of the side of the mountain. This week, however marked the beginning of the first shed to be built on that flat excavated site.

For the remainder of the blog post goto: http://ferngladefarm.blogspot.com.au/

Comments (2)

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Rosie Wilson
Rosie Wilson : It's also a nice touch to include some photos to give readers a visual sense of what you're describing. connections game
Posted 4 months ago

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Sarah  Jos
Sarah Jos : This project is truly inspiring! It’s incredible to see how permaculture can be applied on such a practical level to create sustainable food systems and restore ecosystems.
Posted 30 days ago

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