Tom Kendall

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Tom Kendall is a permaculture farmer with a lifelong broad acre agricultural background. He is co-founder of the PRI Sunshine Coast Inc and PRI Luganville, Vanuatu and runs PDC and Practical Life Skills training courses on his Permaculture Demonstration Site “Maungaraeeda”. He is part of the Permaculture Sustainable Consulting team and does regular personal consultations. He has extensive experience in tropical, sub tropical and dry land climates and has the ability to read large scale as well as smaller scale landscapes. With his farming background, Tom is a very hands on and practical man and is solution focused. He has extensive travel experience, integrates easily with local cultures and people and enjoys studying landscapes, buildings and the effects of climate on structures, flora and fauna.

Cycling the Humanure

August 31, 2016 by Tom Kendall & filed under Design

The Bank is a place to store the humanure for a period of time to allow decomposition of the material to a condition where it is safe to use as a compost. I personally will only use this compost on fruit trees as I am not 100% certain of the removal of pathogens that could harm us if it was used in the garden. Usually this decomposition process needs about one year. I successfully achieved this job over the period of several weeks doing a half hour or so every other day.

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From Yacon to Pumpkin

August 25, 2016 by Tom Kendall & filed under Demonstration Sites, Design, Plants

The Yacon has been harvested and processed into Yacon Syrup. Now the bed needs to be re-established , but to grow what? Yacon is a root crop so ideally growing something that is not a root vegetable is preferred. Well, the choice is pumpkins because it is also time to start a new patch for them. With our climate pumpkins will just keep growing all year around only slowing down […]

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Compost Worm Farm for Chicken Food

August 4, 2016 by Tom Kendall & filed under Design

As we endeavour to progress towards sustainability on our property we need to be self-sufficient with chicken food so we wish to stop buying in grains. One food source that we can use is compost worms. Each morning when we collect the cow manure for the bio-digester there is about 10 -15 kgs more than we need. So as this is a useful resource lets put it to good use […]

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Obtain a Yield

June 17, 2016 by Tom Kendall & filed under General

We are starting to reap the rewards from the focus to improve production. The many composting systems that are in place are building the fertility of the soil and the water harvesting/infiltration design has improved the capacity of the property. We have also adapted some of the gardens to produce a larger harvest of produce at a time.

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Permaculture Designed Primary School in Vanuatu

June 3, 2016 by Tom Kendall & filed under Community, Community Projects, Design, Permaculture Projects

It was a busy week last week. I was asked by Permaculture Sustainable Consulting to go to the tropical Pacific island nation of Vanuatu to do a site consultation of two locations. The projects being implemented are a community center at the capital town of Vila on the island of Efate and a primary school on the island of Tanna to the south. The organization funding these projects is Muslim […]

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Mulch in Abundance

May 25, 2016 by Tom Kendall & filed under Demonstration Sites, Design, Education Centres, General

We use a lot of mulch on our property to take advantage of the many benefits that mulch provides. The mulch we use is grass (that I now cut with the scythe) that grows in areas around the property that doesn’t get grazed and also on the road verge for maintenance so the council doesn’t spray chemicals. One of the terms you hear in permaculture circles is “abundance”. At times […]

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Zone Four Chop and Drop

May 6, 2016 by Tom Kendall & filed under Demonstration Sites, Design, Education Centres, Permaculture Projects, Plant Systems, Plants

Even though its getting to the end of the wet season and is possibly a bit late I have started the chop and drop process on the zone four swale. It has been planted out to timber trees and support species and of course quite a lot of natures additions have germinated as well. I have plenty of other things that I could be doing however I think that the […]

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Potato Planting

April 28, 2016 by Tom Kendall & filed under Food & Food Support Systems, Plants

What better way to get the garden in order than to re-establish beds and get them planted out. On occasion I have found that I have been weeding and mulching beds and not getting to plant them only to have to come back and re-prepare to plant. So we are focusing on just get them ready and plant immediately. Today’s focus was on two narrow beds that had a lot […]

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Time to Plant the Garlic

April 21, 2016 by Tom Kendall & filed under Food & Food Support Systems, General, Plants

Autumn Equinox has come and gone in the southern hemisphere and this is the signal to plant the garlic. We had harvested and stored our garlic from last season so it was time to sort through it all and start planting it out. We like to grow Russian garlic as it is great to use because of its size and it seems to grow well enough in our climate and […]

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Jordan Recap

April 15, 2016 by Tom Kendall & filed under Aid Projects, Demonstration Sites, Design, Education Centres, Events, Resources & News, General, Permaculture Projects, Why Permaculture?

Well I have returned from Jordan not entirely fit and well. I managed to get a touch of the flu during the two weeks but still managed to facilitate the course. It was a great experience to go to Jordan and spend time on a site that is around 350 meters below sea level. Man what a place . The soil is just very degraded highly alkaline dirt that doesn’t […]

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Bio Digester Slurry Processing by the Chooks

April 6, 2016 by Tom Kendall & filed under Animals, Bird Life, General

Every morning I have a routine with our chickens. I come into the yard, sort out their water, put cut grass into their forage area and then I open the night pen to let them out. By that time they have been talking to me and each other whilst I have been preparing their food and done their water, telling me all about their night. When I open their pen […]

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Onsite in Jordan at “The greening of the Desert, The Sequel”

March 29, 2016 by Tom Kendall & filed under Demonstration Sites, Design, Earthworks & Earth Resources, Education Centres, General, Permaculture Projects, Why Permaculture?

I am facilitating a Permaculture Design Certificate course over the next two weeks. We have eleven students that have come from or have lived in more than 20 countries which is amazing and of course having a big multicultural vibe. We have just finished day 2. Yesterday at the end of the day we put together an 18 day hot compost which we will be able to monitor as we […]

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