Korito Permaculture and Organics

Location: Korito Road, RD1, New Plymouth, New Zealand
Start Date: February 2005

Project Concept

Having moved to New Zealand from North Wales 5 years ago, Derina Turner and Dave Carnahan wanted to create a self sufficient lifestyle and to share their building, practical, gardening and teaching skills with other people. Having lived close to the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth, they wanted to emulate some of these ideas by having a range of examples of alternative living on the property that people could observe, join in with, and learn about – showing by practical example.

They wanted to make the property as self-supporting as possible and after Derina completed her permaculture design certificates decided that permaculture was the way to progress. The concept was to have a property that incorporated good organic practices, along with producing organic fruit and vegetables, a teaching space as well as a place that can be visited for a day, weekend, or week to experience low impact living with fresh food, minimum waste and reduced energy consumption.

Detailed Project Description:

The almost bare block of 10 acres is being developed along permaculture lines to create a learning environment for people wanting to know more about self sufficiency. There are opportunities for people to observe and help with growing their own food, seed saving, recycling, renewable energy, energy efficient building, using local materials, or help and advise with making the move towards setting up their own property.

Derina teaches organic horticulture as well as practical gardening workshops from the property, gives tours of the property to interested groups, uses the property to show working examples of permaculture, and helps out on the modular permaculture design course locally. She also runs workshops for local community groups and co-ordinates gardening workshops for any other groups that come along. Dave currently works off-property, building, retrofitting and renovating properties, but project manages and builds the main structures on the property. He is currently building the new macrocarpa pine timber house.

Initially a renewable energy system was set up with a water turbine charging a battery system to supply power to build the bach. The first composting toilet system was built for the bach, which has since been modified and improved upon. There are now examples of handmade and ‘off-the-rack’ greywater and composting toilet solutions on the property so that people can observe a range of systems.

A lake and ditches were dug to harvest the runoff water on the property, and this water is pumped with the excess power from the renewable energy system up to a large water tank and gravity feeds the gardens.

Rainwater is collected for drinking water, and there are a number of smaller rainwater collection tanks throughout the property for sinks and watering systems.

A ‘pod’ was built by the lake to accommodate wwoofers who helped develop the gardens and orchard, as well as the garden infrastructure. Food is produced for the family, wwoofers, workshop participants, the local farmers' market and other organic outlets.

The renewable energy system has been enlarged with the addition of solar panels, with the intention of adding a wind turbine in the future. Hot water is supplied via a solar hot water heater and backup gas calafont. The house is just in the process of being built from locally felled and milled macrocarpa timber to a passive solar design. (After researching straw bale and earth building designs we chose a locally grown timber due to the high rainfall in this area (4m) and the need for a passive solar design without large eaves). The building will have between 50%-100% more insulation than a standard house design, as well as underfloor heating, solar hot water, wetback, and earth plaster walls). The living space has been designed to provide a 64m² living environment, and has the addition of a large hexagonal teaching room on one end with additional rooms above, which will increase the number of workshops that can be run on the property. As many of the materials as practicable are either second-hand or purchased as leftovers from other people’s projects to keep the cost down and waste minimal. All of the buildings and infrastructure on the property have been individually costed to give people an idea of the outlay involved in undertaking the work of setting up a project such as this.

Wwoofer accommodation and plastic house

The plantings on the property are ongoing, 1,500 trees have been planted so far – native, timber, coppice and fruit and nut. Natives are currently being raised via seeds and cuttings in a small nursery to cut down on costs. Biodynamics plays a large role on the property, preparation 500 is used twice a year and it is hoped that this will increase to 4 times a year. Compost preparations are used and all compost produced is biodynamic. There are two large worm farms for recycling waste.

Animals at present are minimal. There are ducks on the lake and chooks in the chook dome which is moved around the mandala gardens for weeding and improving fertility. Cows will be introduced when the fencing is completed – this will greatly reduce off-farm inputs for compost making.

Currently working towards organic certification for the property - ‘under conversion’ at present but will become fully certified organic in October 2009. Derina is the certification manager for Organic Farm New Zealand for Taranaki and Whanganui.

Project Duration & Schedule:

Short-term aims and objectives – in next year:

• Undertake further native shelterbelt and riparian planting to enhance shelter and protect and heal erosion on the property and to create more diversity and encourage more wildlife.
• Build passive solar macrocarpa pine timber house.
• Start new house gardens – they will be urban permaculture ‘rooms’ which will extend out from the house to show examples of what can be planted on a small scale extending out to a full quarter acre.
• Further plantings of soft fruit – strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrants.
• Gain full OFNZ certification.
• Register with ‘organic explorer’ website to use the bach and pod as eco stays so that people can come and experience a self-sufficient lifestyle.
• Start to run regular practical workshops on all aspects of self-sufficiency.

Medium term aims and objectives – next 2 years:

• Continue to raise and plant native trees on the property. To start selling organically raised natives at the farmers market and from the property.
• More orchard planting and nut trees eventually to create a 'food forest', when the shelterbelt plantings have created better protection for growing.
• Install a womerator toilet composting system.
• Build a ‘cool store’ from earthbags with an earth roof.
• Install a wind turbine.
• Put up new fencing to create paddocks for livestock, and introduce cows and sheep for personal consumption, and for their manure to improve soil fertility.
• Join the ‘alternative’ Taranaki Garden festival circuit which is growing yearly and showcases organic, renewable energy and permaculture properties in Taranaki to locals and visitors.
• Teach permaculture and biodynamics and organics on the property to interested individuals, initially as one day courses, then explanding to weekends and then week and two week courses, and providing accommodation on site for these courses.
• Host interns on Certificate in Applied Organics and Biodynamics programme as well as permaculture interns.

Project Needs:

Wwoofers are always welcome, particularly those with an interest in organics, permaculture and biodynamics. Only 1 or 2 wwoofers taken at any one time. As Derina is a teacher, there are lots of learning experiences available. Wwoofers can stay anywhere from 1 week to 3 months dependent upon the time of year and what work is available.