Happy International Permaculture Day

Today is International Permaculture Day, and the Greenhouse team are celebrating with a new blog post. If you’ve ever wondered what exactly Permaculture is, or if you’d like to learn about Permaculture practices and volunteering opportunities here in Malta, read on!

What is Permaculture?

Permaculture is sometimes thought of as a method of farming, but it is in fact a holistic philosophy. Bill Molison, the founder of the Permaculture movement defines it as:
“The study of the design of those sustainable or enduring systems that support human society, both agricultural & intellectual, traditional & scientific, architectural, financial & legal. It is the study of integrated systems, for the purpose of better design & application of such systems.”

Permaculture was developed in Australia in the 1970s by Bill Molison and David Holmgreen. Mollison spent years studying the natural ecosystems of his vast native land and came to realise that organisms naturally form mutually beneficial communities when left to their own devices. Why, then, do we find it normal to grow food crops in monocultural decontextualized crop rows, resorting to ever more environmentally destructive ways to sustain this artificial situation?

Where conventional agriculture seeks to pit man against nature, to chauvinistically tame the natural environment and make it serve us to its own detriment, permaculture works with nature, “looking at systems in all their functions rather than asking only one yield of them.” (Mollison)

At its heart Permaculture describes a symbiotic relationship in which all elements in a system interact productively to supply each other’s needs. Permaculture principles can be implemented on any scale and in any context from Spanish ‘ecoaldeas’ to the rocky hills of Bahrija, or even at home with your family. 

Permaculture in Malta

You may be pleasantly surprised to learn that Permaculture has been embraced by several inspiring and forward-thinking Maltese individuals. Greenhouse Projects Manager Sarah and myself were fortunate enough to spend time on two very different dedicated Permaculture facilities here in Malta – Bahrija Oasis and Dar Frate Jacoba in Marsaskala. 

Bahrija Oasis

Peppi Gauci’s Bahrija Oasis is perhaps the best-known local instance of Permaculture farming. Peppi works tirelessly not only to cultivate his rocky land but also to educate the public about the benefits of Permaculture and sustainable living, working with enthusiastic volunteers from the community and even running formal courses in Permaculture practices. 

We spent two enjoyable days helping to build wicking beds, a Permaculture mainstay. In this system, crops are planted in repurposed containers layered with small rocks, cardboard, compost, soil and mulch. Water is poured through a pipe to gather around the stones at the bottom layer. The roots of the plants draw on the water, which does not evaporate as in conventional crop watering because it is kept underground. This is ideal in a place like Malta, where water is so scarce and precious. 

lovely smiling faces 

working hard
(credit to Greta Muscat Azzoppardi for providing pictures of the girls)

the view from Bahrija Oasis

the finished Wicking Beds

Dar Frate Jacoba

Dar Frate Jacoba is a very different Permaculture project on the local scene. Run by Franciscan Friars, this small farm is principally concerned with helping vulnerable people on the fringes of Maltese society. Young people who are suffering from family and other social problems are referred by Apogg and benefit enormously from the therapeutic effects of working the farm and living in a balanced and compassionate environment.

fields at Dar Frate Jacoba

Fr Mark Ciantar showed us around his facility and thoughtfully answered all questions, showing great passion and knowledge. Admiring the impressive crops raised without use of pesticides, I asked how the community deals with pests. Fr Mark pointed out that what conventional agriculture may consider pests are actually a part of the natural ecosystem. When we destroy so-called pests, we destroy with them the systems plants need to survive. For me this really drove home the paradigm shift we need to make as a society in order to embrace less environmentally and personally destructive methods of food production. Conventional farmers lace our vegetables with poison and destroy ecosystems – who is the real pest in this scenario? 


After many years of hard work, the Dar Frate Jacoba farm is self-sufficient – the inhabitants no longer have to buy food from outside. However, the real success story is the invaluable opportunity for personal growth and character development that this facility offers to troubled youth.

livestock at Dar Frate Jacoba

Get involved

Bahrija Oasis are currently looking for volunteers to dedicate one weekend each month between May and October, starting 18-19 May. Volunteers will have the opportunity to learn about Permaculture and get hands-on experience developing systems such as aquaponics and wicking beds, not to mention spending time in the beautiful Maltese countryside enjoying the company of interesting and inspiring people. If this interests you, get in touch by contacting permaculture.malta@gmail.com
You can also visit the Permaculture Malta website to learn more about other initiatives and courses:

If you would like to volunteer at Dar Frate Jacoba, contact youthalivefoundation@gmail.com or call 20995249. 
The Dar Frate Jacoba project is mostly supported by the tireless work of volunteers and public donations are crucial to its continued existence. If you’d like to offer material support, donations can be made to the following account numbers:
Banif: 50067181, BOV: 40021015953, HSBC: 049013642001, APS: 20000820511

By Felicity Goodwin, Greenhouse Malta

How to... Grow Your Own Radishes

Next on our list of seedlings are the radishes :).. Don't forget to visit our stand tomorrow and up to friday between 9am and 4pm for your seed bag, and to check out the rest of the stand - we are on stand 1 (down from the quadrangle exit to the car park, to the right) - we are looking forward to meet you! : )

If you want an easy, stress-free vegetable to grow in your pot, then the radish is the veggie for you :)!

Here we will explain how to take care of these spicy and beautiful vegetables which can be ready for harvest in no time (usually in just a month’s time!). Another bonus for the radish is that it can be grown in containers very well!

So what are you waiting for? ;)

Radish needs a fertile, loose and well drained soil. Since radish is a quick crop, it is necessary that we use a good potting medium (so make sure you add compost!) to begin with.

For the small, red, roundish radish (like the ones you have in the Seed Bags) you can use a tray that is around 10 – 15 cm deep. Sow the seeds about 1 cm deep and place in full sun to part shade. Keep soil moist. Radishes germinate at lightning speed - sometimes in just a couple of days.

week-old radish seedlings

21 day old radish plants

Once the plants start growing, thin them out to provide 5 cm spacing between each plant. Add well decomposed compost (you can use vermin-compost, which we will speak of in another blog ;) ) after a week.

One month-old radish plants with vegetables poking out :D 

These radishes can be harvested when they are a month old, when a good sized top is poking out of the soil. Grip them at the base of the stem and slowly pull them out of the soil. To keep radishes fresh, remove the tops right after you pick them, then refrigerate.

If you want bigger ones, leave them for another 10 days but not more than that. If you delay harvesting, the radish will get starchy (with a hollow core) and will not be good. Radish leaves are also edible so you can also take few leaves for your consumption as they grow, but leave some for the plant as well. However be careful since the leaves of the red and roundish radishes will usually have tiny spines

Pests:

Flea beetles are quite common with radish. Since it flies and hops around, spraying insect repellents such as neem will not help. You can cover the crop with a mosquito net or insect proof net.

Flowers and Seeds:

When radish is left to grow, it will grow a flower stalk and start flowering to produce seeds.

Beautiful Radish Flowers

The seed pod is also edible! Let the seed pod dry and there you have seeds for the next season.

What seed-pods look like :) 

Written By Simone Cutajar

Adapted from geekgardener.in

Rambling in Bahrija + Permaculture site visit!

 https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=254080264628297 

Youth Ramblers Malta will be opening the forthcoming walk season by organising a ramble to Bahrija and its environs, in collaboration with Greenhouse Malta. Besides the beautiful scenery, which will include the majestic view at Fomm ir-Rih, we shall also have the opportunity to visit the Permaculture site at Bahrija, called 'Bahrija Oasis' (http://bahrijaoasis.blogspot.com/).

Day of the Walk: Saturday 15th October 2011

Meeting time and place: 1400hrs in front of the Bahrija Church

The following is some information about 'Bahrija Oasis' and Permaculture:

The Bahrija Oasis is the first Permaculture farm set up in Malta, started by Peppi Gauci, who is a professional Permaculturalist. Permaculture is a holistic design philosophy which involves creating community eco-systems in which plants, animals, human beings, and all forms of ecological diversity interact to produce a prolific, ecologically-sound, and regenerative system that can support itself indefinitely. The project has now now matured, leading to the setting up of the Permaculture Research Foundation which aims to promote this life philosophy with the Maltese public. 

Life in a Nitrate Vulnerable Zone

The Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs (MRRA) recently published the Consultation Document on the second Nitrates Action Programme for Malta. The MRRA asked for NGOs and other stakeholders to review this document and to pass on any recommendations to the ministry - Greenhouse has discussed the changes in the Action Programme and passed them on to the Ministry. Before delving into the details of the Action Programme and the recommendations brought forward by the Greenhouse team, letʼs look into what nitrate pollution is and why people in Malta should care about a Nitrates Action Programme, in the first place.

The main concerns regarding Nitrate Pollution involve the contamination of water by large concentrations of nitrates. There are three main reservoirs which are typically polluted by nitrates. The first two are the marine environment and inland freshwater habitats, where an excess of nitrate leads to algal blooms and c resulting in a potentially catastrophic changes in the biodiversity of the habitats. [1] Now this might be alarming enough but the effects of nitrate pollution on groundwater supplies are far more frightening for the man in the street who may not care so much for fragile marine ecosystems. High concentrations of nitrates in drinking water can lead to methemoglobinemi and gastric and intestinal cancer [2]; considering Malta gets around half of itʼs drinking water from groundwater sources [3], it is quite important that we protect these sources from nitrate pollution.

The recommended maximum of nitrates in groundwater, set by the EUʼs Nitrates Directive is at 50mg/L [3,4], however out of Maltaʼs 15 Groundwater bodies (GWBs) 11 are above the limit (8 of them are over double the limit). It is worth mentioning that out of the four bodies not over the limit, one is only 0.6mg/L short of the limit, while the concentration for another body (the Marfa GWB) has not been calculated yet and is expected to be above the limit. So really, only two ground water bodies can be considered to be not polluted by nitrates.[3] This is all outlined in detail within the second section of the Action Programme.

In 2008, the MRRA commissioned a study to determine the source of nitrates in Maltaʼs Groundwater bodies, which was carried out by the British Geological Survey (BGS). This interesting study, involving isotopic signatures of oxygen and nitrogen found that most of the nitrates found in GWBs originate from cultivated areas and also from manure dumps. [5] It has long been supposed that agricultural practices were the cause for nitrate pollution of local water bodies, in fact the whole scope of the first Nitrates Action Programme started in 2004 was based on agricultural management practices and the setting up of the Code of Good Agricultural Practice (CoGAP) (another major aim of the action programme was to set up rugged monitoring schemes to ensure scientific data is available).

As the main document suggests Malta has a massive problem with nitrate pollution, especially in our Groundwater bodies, which has no doubt been caused by poor agricultural practices (using too much fertiliser, illegal dumping or poor storage of manure, etc). Here are the solutions (in summary) as put forward by the MRRA, built on the original Nitrates Action Programme (2004) with some practical amendments:

• Application of fertiliser (both organic and inorganic) is prohibited between 15th October and 15th March.
• Application of fertiliser is prohibited on land which is close to watercourses or where the soil condition or slope suggests that there is a significant risk of the fertiliser being swept away by runoff.
• Application of slurry is prohibited
• Application of fertilisers is prohibited within a 5m radius of fresh watercourses of any kind and 50m from a borehole in use for public water supply.
• Application of fertilisers shall be based on fertilisation planning taking into consideration the balance between the foreseeable nitrogen requirements of the crops and the nitrogen supply to the crops from the soil, water and from fertilisation.
• Inorganic and organic fertilisers shall be applied close to sowing and splitting of fertiliser application is recommended whenever possible.
• The amount of “total nitrogen” applied from livestock manure, including excreta by animals themselves, shall not exceed 170 kg N/ha per year.
• The capacity of storage facilities for livestock manure of a holding shall be sufficient and adequate to provide for the storage of all the livestock manure which is likely to require storage between the 15th October to 15th of March.
• Manure shall be stored in a leak-proof, covered storage clamp which is connected to a cesspit. The Cesspits must be leak-proof, covered and must be sufficient to collect all urine and washings for at least 15 days (both cesspits and manure clamps must be certified by a warranted architect).
• Crop rotation shall be practised where necessary.
• Farm holdings with an area >1 ha and under intensive irrigated cultivation shall have a Nutrient Management Plan.
• Users of organic and/or inorganic fertilisers shall be registered with the competent authority responsible for nitrates.
• Users of organic or inorganic fertilisers shall be required to attend a compulsory course on the use of fertilisers.
• All sales and purchases of organic and inorganic fertilisers shall be notified to the competent authority responsible for Nitrates.
• All importers, distributors and resellers of fertilisers shall be registered with the competent authority.

Greenhouse gave five recommendations for the ministry to consider:

1. The banning of ammonium nitrate fertilisers; ammonium nitrate is very soluble and is often washed away before the crops can absorb it leading to a high degree of nitrate pollution.
2. Encouraging the use of Slow-release fertilisers, such as methylene urea, which are less susceptible to being washed away and into the water table.
3. Encouraging and providing incentives for proper crop management with crop rotation utilising leguminous plants to provide natural sources of nitrates.
4. The removal of the point banning fertiliser application during the rainy season; although this ban would be beneficial it is most probably quite impractical especially since farmers could apply an excess of fertiliser prior to the ban, causing just as much damage. We are inclined to believe that such a ban would result in an unnecessary burden on the farmer.
5. Awareness on the damage of excess-irrigation and monitoring the water consumption for irrigation could help reduce nitrate pollution by slowing down the rate at which fertiliser dissolves. Metering and other enforcement measures could be used along with educational campaigns.

It was found, by the BGS, that the time that water spends in the aquifer in Malta is very long (15-40 years in Malta and 25-60 years in Gozo) which, when coupled with the long time it takes for nitrates to reach the water table, means that even if even all nitrate-producing activities could be stopped tomorrow, it would take decades to flush out nitrate to an acceptable level.[Stuart, Marianne (BGS). Going Underground. Planet Earth (Summer 2009) - National Environment Research Group (UK)]

In other words, we will be living in a Nitrate Vulnerable Zone for many years to come.

MEP Watch - Agriculture and Climate Change

Agriculture is the one of the main sectors which is directly related to the environment and the management and exploitation of natural resources. Hence it is both affected and directly affects the environment. Climate change, being one of the main environmental challenges being faced by the world today, affects this sector substantially. This is due, for example, the adverse effects of climate change on water resources, extreme weather, proliferation of pests etc. All these will and are already having a direct impact on the sector. Agriculture contributes to this too by the release of greenhouse gasses- nitrous oxide and methane- emitted by various biological processes linked to agricultural production.

The European Parliament on Wednesday 5^th May passed a resolution which seeks to find a way by which agriculture can help mitigate the effects of climate change and for this sector to adapt to the challenges which climate change will pose.

This resolution is very interesting in that it has clear calls for a shift towards sustainable agriculture. It states that organic farming is “among the ecologically effective system[s] needing further development”. To this end it calls for the future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to (i) encourage cultivation techniques that provide plant cover(such as leaving crop residues on the ground) and facilitate intercropping and crop rotation to maximize photosynthesis and help enrich the soil with organic matter. All these techniques are common practices in organic agriculture and permaculture farms; (ii) preserve and develop afforestation, reforestation, agroforestry etc. (iii) better management of soil and of minerals and protection of carbon-rich land and wetlands; (iv) farm modernization etc.

These calls, if heeded and introduced in the CAP, will go a long way in aiding agriculture change its methods and become much more environmentally sustainable. These measures will also have a positive impact on biodiversity, soil quality, water retention, combat erosion and pollution and mitigate the effects of farming on climate change.

This resolution also recommends certain strategies to prevent and mitigate the adverse consequences for agriculture. This mainly includes the devising of an action plan which will include the suggestion of using certain plant varieties which are resistant to the new climate conditions, adapting the calendar of farming activities to the new conditions, forestation, building of greenhouses, managing water resources etc.

Since animal livestock is a main contributor to methane- a very potent greenhouse gas- the resolution calls for research on livestock feed and genetic selection of farm animals to be stepped up to reduce these methane emissions.

But perhaps one of the most significant sentences in the resolution is the following: “there is a need to inform consumers, by means of a targeted communication strategy, of the benefits of a healthy, balanced diet made up of high-quality regional and seasonal items produced by a sustainable and efficient agriculture, the carbon footprint of which could be differentiated from those of imported products.” The need for this is great. If consumers are educated, a demand is generated and the farmers will comply and start to supply produce from sustainable farms. That is the way by which a shift is brought about- from the conventional scenario to one which puts environmental sustainability in the centre of attention.

In order to inform the consumers on the origin of the produce being consumed, the EP endorsed the idea of a voluntary EU origin labeling for products originating entirely in the EU.

The resolution was voted adopted and all Maltese MEPs voted in favor.

Each sector has to do its part to combat and adapt to the changing of the climate and agriculture is no exception. Farmers have to change their current way of doing things but they depend entirely on the demand of the consumer for them to be able to take the risk and convert to more sustainable farming practices.

Try to keep this in mind when you buy and consume agricultural products.