Compost and Soil Building Workshop

Gardeners use up a lot of natural resources and simply adding NPK fertilizer isn't going to make up for it. One of the most important things you can do to make your garden productive and sustainable is to put attention and effort into soil building - the building of your tilth. Tilth building takes work and effort and some investment now, but will really pay off in the future. You'll have a garden producing in sync with nature, and your plants will produce food that is more nutrient dense.

We will go over composting, animal manures, green manures, cover cropping, soil layers and structures, mulching, subsoiling, tilling, and using mushrooms. We will also talk about herbal amendments, foliar sprays, comfrey, garden teas, compost tea, worm compost and other ways to increase or adjust soil nutrients. You'll leave the workshop with an understanding of these various techniques as well as some hands-on experience on applying these techniques to your garden or farm.

Here's an outline of what we'll be covering in this Soil Building Full Day Workshop:

• The Basics: NPK/trace minerals
• Soil Amendments
• Composting – a great way to build biomass as well as diversity within the soil’s biomass.
• Types of Compost Piles
• Manure Management, Deep Bedding Method of Animal Keeping,
• Using Compost: Top-Dressing, as a Mulch, and as a Tea.
• Herbs in your Compost Pile and Garden
• Sifting and Screening
• Staggering nitrogen-fixers - annuals, shrubs, trees
• GROWING SOIL 
• Some biomass plants (cover crops, green manures)
• Mulching and Green Top Dressings
• No Till methods and Subsoiling
• Feeding Your Aerobic Microbes with Nutritive Garden Teas (manure, comfrey, nettle, alfalfa, kelp)
• Mycorrhizal Fungi - The power of symbiosis

This workshopis part of many other short courses that makes up to the 72 hours) of the PDC (Permaculture Design Certificate).  Students who take this workshop can then add up our other coming complementary courses that will in the end give you a solid foundation in ethics and principles of permaculture.

Day Schedule :

• 9h00 : Check-in
• 9h30-10h15 : The soil food web, and Soil structure and minerals
• 10h15-11h00 : Mycorrhizal Fungi - The power of symbiosis
• 11h00-11h15 : Coffee Break.
• 11h15-12h30 : Composting Methods
• 12h30-1h30 : Lunch Break
• 1h30-2h30 : Herbs in your Compost teas and Garden
• 2h30-2h45 : Cofee Break
• 2h45-4h30 : Mulching, cover crops, and nitrogen fixers

Drinks and finger snacks will be available at the bar as from 4:30 pm at affordable prices.

Camping facilities can be arranged on site for the night before the workshop, and on the Saturday night after the course.

⚠️ Workshops are French spoken but we can arrange English courses for a minimum group of 5 participants on week days. You can send us your requests via our contact page.

● Lunch :

Enjoy Lunch at our Ecovillage Table D'hôtes, and have a farm-to-table experience with Olivier & Anaïs as they will be most happy to introduce you there own experience and philosophies of a resilient lifestyle in connection with the natural ecosystems of their own farm gardens. Lunch includes:

• A Welcoming homemade Juice
• A Buffet lunch (Veg/Non-Veg)
• A Dessert
• And Coffee/Herbal Tea

● Outfit :

Plan a casual outfit to go to the gardens with ease. Boots, hats, and gardening gloves would also be recommended on the farm, as well as sunscreen, and a mosquitoe repellent.

● Accomodation Options :

• For people who wish to stay on-site over the weekend, accommodation is camping style on our camp ground.
• There is one powered container cabin family dormitory glamping style available at La Petite Ferme within our Ecovillage (to be booked for a fee). Contact Olivier on Whatsapp number: ☎ 5963 3495.

● Course location :

Terganic Permaculture Garden Farm forms an integral part of La Meule Permaculture Ecovillage.

Located near Bambou Virieux, this 5 acres magnificent farm has been created from bare ground and managed since 2015 as part of La Meule Ecovillage. It is the first ecovillage farm of its kind in Mauritius designed entirely with the permaculture design methods, where people and nature live in harmony. La Meule Ecovillage is a unique place of 27 acres including energy-independent dwellings, cultivation areas, ponds, enclosures for animals, and much more. The valley of Anse Bambous is a place of permaculture and agroecological experimentation and development of green agro-tourism. Please respect the place and its inhabitants.

● Access to the farm :

Please note that we have about 1 km of agricultural road (chemin cane) before reaching the farm. If you have a very low height car, please arrange accordingly. SUVs, 2x4 and 4x4 would be more appropriate.

● The Training will be animated by: 

Thierry Guimbeau, our farm manager and resident teacher: Born in Mauritius.  Thierry is certified in permaculture by Geoff Lawton (A world reference in the permaculture movement). Thierry completed his training in 2012 with a PDC (Permaculture Design Certificate), followed by a 2-month Internship at the Permaculture Research Institute, Zaytuna Farm, Australia. His Training included the following:

• A Biointensive Gardening Course (by Kay Baxter),
• A Seed Saving Course,(by Kay Baxter)
• A Compost Soil Biology & Natural Fertilizer Course (by Paul Taylor),
• A Permaculture Urban Landscape Design Course (by Geoff Lawton/Nick Huggins),
• A Permaculture Earthworks Course (by Geoff Lawton),
• A Permaculture Project Aid Works Course (by Geoff Lawton),and
• A Permaculture Teacher Training Course (by Geoff Lawton).

In addition to his teaching, Thierry also practices consulting and design services in permaculture.

He is a co-founder of La Meule Ecovillage and and founder/manager at Terganic Permaculture.