Permaculture farming is all about harnessing natural energies (biomass, solar, water, gravity, etc) and setting them up in a way that function naturally like clock work with minimal to no human intervention. It’s all about getting more from less. That’s truly a regenerative approach to natural farming.
After having the ducks for almost 5 months now, I began to notice a pattern. There’s constant excessive outflow of nutrient-rich water from the duck coop. How rich? You can notice on the right pic, a patch of algae on the ground resulting from nutrient concentration. This wastewater is a mixture of poop, pee, drinking water and discarded water used to wash the drinking basins. There’s about a 40 feet run from coop to the pond on a gentle gradient: 40 feet of room to play with!
Here’s how I intercept this wastewater from source (duck coop) to destination (pond):
1. A hedge of newly planted torch ginger buffers up against the coop to soak up the wastewater.
2. The water then travels further down a narrow strip of ditch lined with vetiver grasses.
3. The water path is first intercepted by a banana plant, and another 6 feet away down the slope. Both these banana plants guard the perimeter of a triangular planting bed.
4. This planting bed has a live fence made up of cassava (to guard against roaming ducks). Together with the ketum ayam, the cassava leaves will be trimmed periodically to allow sunlight through to the middle where the main edibles are planted: chilies, pineapples, Brazilian spinach, etc. Trimmings will be used as animal feed or returned to soil to breakdown.
5. Down the slope, the wastewater is further intercepted by gingers and papayas towards the pond.
A bamboo clump will be planted in an enclosed ditch next to the coop to further absorb this wastewater. The bamboo should thrive in such a conducive environment, providing me with a rich yield of fallen leaves to be used as my bedding material for ducks. Note the entire closed loop cycle of energy generation and usage of waste materials from every single element such that nothing goes to waste.
These uptake of excess water is crucial especially in the presence of a matured durian tree next to the coop. Durian trees are sensitive creatures and highly averse to water. I have no idea how this would affect the tree but let’s see how it goes.
Now imagine this: every time the ducks relieve themselves or the drinking basins are washed, the above 5 (if not more) cascade of events are triggered. Imagine the beneficial outcomes from just one manual human input (washing basins) and virtually “free” animal input (pee, poop and drinking actions). That’s permaculture in a nutshell!
Understanding this simple concept is key to replicating it successfully on a larger scale.
