Krystelle Walden

Hi Roy
I sent you a pm
Thanks

Just to clarify, they are very short. Just a couple of mm above my fingertips. Not flashy in any way. If you didn’t know, you might just think I have normal painted nails. I can’t grow my own natural nails past my nail bed, not exaggerating.

I get logically, the idea that working hands are honest hands.

Somehow I’ve internalized that neat clean finger nails mean something about your character.

Got a lot of soul searching to do.

Ok, so don’t get mad…. Don’t blast me.

But I have artificial nails. I know! The toxins can be absorbed into my body through my nails and the poor manicurist breathing in the dust all day every day. Ugh. I feel guilty.

But my real nails are paper thin, no matter what vitamins I take, what oils I rub in them, no matter how healthy my diet is.

And I work hard. I’m a horticulturist. My real nails get worn away at work. My fingers and nails are crisscrossed with cracks and callouses and have ingrained dirt that won’t soak out.

I know I’m vain. Is this internalised misogyny?

We are supposed to look “aspirational” at my work which includes unspoken standards for personal grooming and my real nails don’t cut it. (I know, it’s a stupid catch 22. my job is the reason my hands are tradie hands, but there’s also the expectation of cleanliness and grooming at all times.)

I want to break the habit, and save my $$ but I just…. I’m too vain.

Is there someone who has broken away from artificial nails? And can tell me what they did to emotionally/psychologically disconnect from feeling as if you are gross and just not feminine, if you have flaky, chipped, stubby nails?

I don’t think you need to write a “how to do” such and such… unless you really want to and you will use it for other clients and have it available on your website to encourage engagement. That is, it has multiple uses.

If you feel your clients don’t know how to do something like care for chickens, then double double check they even want them. If they do want them, your job isn’t to teach them how to look after them, it’s to make sure they fit in the system and make sense. Eg, design the run/range, make sure susceptible plants are protected, include forage plants and so on.

If they are beginners in something, I personally would have a resource list that directs them to books, YouTube videos, websites etc that are relevant to their climate and skills.

Assuming it’s a bit late but might help others…


Always start the whole process with a client interview. As they talk, jot down key points: emotive words they use, anything they repeat, usually people know what they don’t want, so use that as clues to what they do need/want.

I like the idea of starting with a goal articulation or a vision statement. However I’m very visual so I use a vision “board”, a collage of inspiration pictures.

I like to use Dave Jackes scale of permanence to organise the observation, analysis and audit stage.

I will always have a base map, then diagrams/maps of everything in the scale of permanence.

Then I have a list of recommendations based on the audits, analysis and observations, usually dot point form.

Then the final artistic base plan.

I will usually have a very loose implementation schedule: implement asap, 1 year, 3 years, 5 year etc.

It’s up to you how much back and forth you have with your clients during the process.

I have a feeling that if you feel the project is open ended and there so many things they could implement then you definitely need more input from your clients.

Making a bat box is also part of PEP, so if you document it and post it you can get a badge bit.

https://permies.com/wiki/107926/pep-animal-care/PEP-BB-animal-sand-bat

I’d like to offer a work exchange PDC, inspired by the Permashare model.

I’ve met people who did a PDC with this model and the students are beautiful, exuberant and wonderful contributors to permaculture. As Meg McGowan, their teacher/mentor says, it would be such a shame to the community if they had never had a chance to do a PDC.

Some notes:
It would be an equal exchange, an hour of work for an hour of teaching.

I see it going for approximately 26 weeks (if it’s one day per week.)

I’d like to keep participants at below 6. (Partly so that any future covid restrictions don’t affect us that much, and partly to keep my sanity, my house is a small cottage.)

It would be a full course, delivered by me, with assignments, hands on activities, loads of discussion and some heavy theory. I plan to have tours of exemplary permaculture sites, and I may be able to convince some guests to host an afternoon or two.

I’m currently renting and have a full house, so at this time I can’t offer a residential course.

I’m working full time so can only offer a course on Mondays. (There is the possibility of every second weekend… I have every second weekend off.)

I envisage 3 to 4 hours working in the morning (while it’s cool) and 3 to 4 hours teaching in the afternoon. I’d love to have a shared lunch in between.

I have no food production systems in place, part of the reason why I’d be so so so appreciative of help in my (non-existant) garden. A lot of the work would include implementing and maintaining food gardens, helping set up composting systems, irrigation and so on. I’d love to extend my village’s community garden/verge gardens as well. There would also be harvesting, and food preparation and preservation.

About you:
You wouldn’t need horticulture or gardening knowledge, I’ll be working alongside you,  i would expect  a willingness to work outside with me and a willingness to take the course content seriously.

It would be great if you lived in Brisbane, even better if you were able to catch public transport, bike or walk to my place. (I’m 1km from a train station on the Ipswich line and there’s a bus stop on the corner.)

About me:
I’ve been teaching on PDCs since 2015. I’ve facilitated many workshops on gardening and composting.
I’m a qualified horticulturist. I’ve worked in the nursery and gardening industry since 2009.
I just finished Teaching permaculture for teachers workshop at NSCF with Ro Morrow. (And left so inspired and itching to teach for myself.)
I’ve worked with Northey Street, and Permaqueer.
I’ve done multiple PDCs.
I’m allergic to PowerPoint.

Why I’m doing this:
My garden is a disgrace and I really do need help. Seriously, I’m embarrassed to say I’m a permaculture practitioner, let alone a horticulturist, eek.

I started working full time last year (who knew I was an essential worker?) and now I’m incredibly time poor, I want to teach workshops and courses AND I want my house and garden to be a wonderful productive example of applied permaculture. However, I can’t do both. The problem is the solution right? I’ll just do both at the same time!!

Hi,
You might already have micro bats and not even know it.

I have a friend who has a thing called a “bat box”, (link to show what I’m talking about https://www.batbox.com/product/batbox-duet/
 )

We went on a night walk in the suburbs of Brisbane (Australia) with it and found loads of bats around. We couldn’t hear a thing, and they couldn’t be seen with the naked eye at all!

The largest concentrations of bat activity were around native trees in flower, (grevillea sp), presumably they were eating moths and other insects attracted to the flowers.

So, my best advice is to plant as many flowering trees and shrubs as possible. I can’t advise species because I’m not familiar with your climate, but plant out endemic species and try to have something flowering throughout the whole year.

Wow.

Thanks for this impressive resource.

Hopefully this qualifies for a bb.

I just used random yarn that was swimming in the bottom of my stash. Pretty sure it’s polyester, but this is my first try so I didn’t want to buy anything new. Happy accident that I had some purple.

The yarn was 4ply which would have been too thick. I pulled it apart and used it as 2ply.

I used an egg-ish shaped rock as my darning egg. It worked fine.