Riccardo Ricky

Thank you for your advice Olga, ive been taking a look at Helpx and ive also been looking into joining a intentional community in some places, busy doing as much research as i possibly can, it is the only way and your 100% right & i must say i love what you mentioned "It is true that so many things are bad and wrong, but equally there are so many things that are good and right." i couldnt agree more with you.

Hope you had a great day & all the best.

Matu Collins wrote:A proper wwoof host would not treat helpers this way!

I am a wwoof-usa farm and I accept only a tiny fraction of the wwoofers that send inquiries. The economics of farm help is hard to balance in everyone's favor.

Don't give up! practical experience is out there, I agree with the above advice to travel farther.

Agreed Matu, i cant see how they expect hard work in return for very little. From what ive read about other peoples experiences in Europe & North America, this isnt on.
Im aware that its hard to balance work in everybody's favour but atleast they can be fair & reward people for what they are doing like everybody is suppose to according to the wwoof host guidelines worldwide.
Seems like traveling is the best option i have. Thank You

Thank you Dale, im definitely considering trying out one of the two or even both if possible !

Thank you for the reply Dave, i appreciate the suggestions & im surprised that you on a similar kind of journey.

As i mentioned being lost with my path, i meant it in a way that im lost in what my next steps are going to be, i really want to live a life where i can be self reliant considering food, water, energy, etc. Over the years i have been on and off with Jobs,been called every name under the sun for not working, researching in between to try and find out what it is i want to do seeing as school didnt teach me anything considering this.

While researching i found out alot about what is truly going on today & i decided that i want to live a life which doesnt contribute to the mess that is currently going on.

Attending the Permaculture introductory course last year was the best thing i felt that i had done because of what it had taught me, my plans after that were to volunteer then get a PDC then acquire some land.

Since the course i struggled to get the picture through to my parents about what i was planning to do, eventually they "kind of" understood that i would eventually need some land to carry on further & my father had said he would help me get some land once i had volunteered.

Unfortunately the volunteering didnt go as expected, i came back home & suggested that i just go straight into a PDC and get some land to start small with.

I had spoken to quite a few people around the country about where the best place would be to start up & unfortunately my father didnt want to know anything about this, he suggested one place which was quite close to home and that was it. I couldnt have a proper conversation about it cause as always he is too busy.

After all that i mentioned volunteering overseas because of how i felt used with hosts around this country and i was immediately told that im talking crap about the hosts around here.

So after being at home for another 5 months after i tried volunteering now all of a sudden i am told that Permaculture is an excuse and i should go get a job.

Even though i would love to try 100 things, i feel i cant, i feel like i had been given one chance & thats it.

On the other hand i could probably manage to convince them to go work overseas but i feel if i do then there's not really any use of me coming back, also largely due to fact of how this country is turning out to be.

Ill definitely take a look at the links you posted, they look really interesting and like you said it might just be what im looking for.

I apologize if the whole story came out too long but i tried summarizing it as much as possible, once again thank you again for your suggestions Dave.

Hey there everybody,

First of all id like to introduce myself, im a 26 year old Male South-African living in the crazy city of Johannesburg, my parents were born here but all my grandparents are from Italian descent, last year i attended a Permaculture introductory course which really opened up my mind to what permaculture is about, since then i have been educating myself through reading,videos & practicing guilds in my urban backyard. In the beginning of the year i set out to go wwoofing around the Western-Cape in South-Africa, i organised to volunteer with the same person that hosted the introductory course, i took trust in the person & never actually did my research comparing how wwoofing is around the world. I arrived at the farm with little impression & felt i was being used. 8 hours a day of tedious work in return for a small wooden room with 1"inch wooden walls with cardboard as insulation, only food provided was a bit of oats & rice. Now i dont expect 5 star accomodation with mountains of food thrown at me but i atleast expected something a little decent in return for the hard work i was expecting to give. I had left the farm & wrote back to the owner that it wasnt up to my expectations & im sorry for any inconveniences i may have caused, i received a nasty message back from him stating that im immature & i dont live in the real world.

As i left the farm with no backup plan i tried mailing as many of the hosts on the wwoof list as possible, i received messages back, some people were too busy at the time, alot of others were offering work quite unrelated to permaculture & others just simply didnt reply after i asked a few questions regarding the accomodation & type of work expected, so i set myself back home which was a 1400km from the Western-Cape.

So here i am back at home, studying but frustrated that i cant get any more practical work experience, feeling that most farms here but not all are just looking for cheap labour. I have been heavily demotivated with the whole situation over here & i have been considering wwoofing abroad in another country. I do have a European passport so i have no problems getting into Europe, although at the moment i am pretty lost with my path.

Any advice will be really appreciated. Thank you !

alex Keenan wrote:From some research and testing over a decade ago, if you added 20% expanded materials like perlite, expanded shale, etc. to the subsoil and topsoil you should not have issues with soil compaction.
Your soils has macro pores, meso pores, and micro pores. Clay has lots of surface area but only micro pore space. Sand has lots of macro pores but does not hold water. It is the meso pores that will hold free water the plants can use. I like organic material with all the life in it to build porespace. However, you tend to find that in nature organic material decreases as depth increases form leaf litter layer down to subsoil. If you want good deep roots in clay consider double digging and amending with porous non-organic material in the subsoil and with organic and non-organic material in the top soil.
This will badly disrupt the soil but it is also a one time event. With this start you should be able to cover crop and/or mulch from that point forward.

Appreciate the advice Alex, that definitely taught me something new, so then i take it the meso pores are materials such as perlite & expanded shale, pumice etc ?

I did come accross a few stones scattered in the subsoil while breaking up the soil to mix the compost, im not sure however if they will work they probably dont have the same pore space ?

It makes alot of sense what you saying though, i never thought about including aeration into my soil, it could definitely do with some, i will look into some alternatives to see what is available in my area, if you have any suggestions on alternatives i would appreciate that too, thank you !

Leila Rich wrote:

Ricky Riccardo wrote: a few gooseberry plants that are trying to survive their whitefly attack.

I was about to post something about how enormous and thorny European gooseberries are,
then realised you might well have Cape gooseberries?
If they are Cape gooseberries, unless you're crazy about them I'd consider only keeping the best-looking plant.
They're wildly productive, grow really big and are really 'gangly', flopping all over the garden.
A great thing about them is they're happy in the shade.

I've had zero experience with whitefly,
but I always assume those kind of attacks are because the plant's stressed or something in the environment's out of balance.

Hey there Leila, yes they are Cape Gooseberries indeed non thorny, ive got one plant that seems to be looking good after the rain we had last week, i also have one more that seems to be dying and another that doesnt seem too bad so i think ill be taking out the weaker plant while keeping the two and planting some tomatoes basil & carrots amongst them : ) Thank you for your advice though !

Tim Malacarne wrote:Welcome! I agree with the advice above to try some sweet potatoes. They are good for you and easy to grow. They'd like loose soil, so as to easily form the fruit. I have had good luck using them to shade other, less heat tolerant plants, such as rhubarb. You can train sweet potato vines to grow most anyplace you provide a support. Good luck! Best, TM

Thank you Tim, ill see if i can get some seed this side but otherwise ill update you with what i decide : )

Interesting Allen, i have heard about biochar but didnt know it could help break up clay soil with all the other advantages, i will definitely take a look at sources in my area, thank you for that !

Ce Rice wrote:As I understand your efforts, you are in the learning phase. Just keep doing what you are doing, practicing on foods that are produced/available in your area. Those are the best ones to start with.

Don't be afraid to fail. Try any and all you have space for. Try and try again. It is such a fun experience gardening for the first time.

One possible suggestion: sweet potatoes
Would take some effort, but plant them on the perimeter of the garden to help prevent things blowing into the pool. The vines will grow, so just keep moving them, training them back towards the edge. Layer and overlap them as needed. Also, look for their root nodes along the vines and cover those nodes with a handful or three of soil. More sweet potatoes can grow from those nodes. Sweet potatoes are not potatoes. Or not white potatoes. Not cousins. So they grow a little different.

Or, with that mention of Herbs, instead of sweet potato on the perimeter/edge, you could grow Creeping Thyme. It is a great herb, and it fills that role of securing the edge, so weeds don't grow in the edge and stuff doesn't blow off/out of the garden space. And just step on/cut off the thyme as it grows over your stone too much. It doesn't every hurt to be walked on, plus, lets off a beautiful light smell when you do walk on it.

Ill keep on doing what im doing thank you Ce Rice : )

I would like to try sweet potatoes as it would break the soil up nicely aswell although creeping thyme sounds good to me aswell, definitely does, so it would do better than trying to plant any of my parsley,basil,coriander,rocket or nasturtiums ? I am also going to be putting bricks facing up on the left side towards the rectangular chilli pot to prevent any water going directly into the pool so that will will help stuff blowing into the pool aswell and also not letting water flow directly into i.

I was also thinking of possibly shaping the soil in a way to increase water catchment but i dont want to fuss around too much just yet.

Thanks again man : ) !