Courses

A practical workshop on how to hydrate, enhance and heal your soils by understanding the soil food web and how to make biologically active Aerated Compost Tea. This very popular hands-on course is re-defining the role of Compost Tea for many farms across Australia. This workshop focuses on practical techniques of applying compost and compost teas for small, medium and larger-scale farming, grazing and forestry operations.

One tonne of healthy topsoil will typically harbor as much as 25% of its weight in living microorganisms. Living soil life is essential for healthy soils. Adding more microbiology (of the right kind) to your soil strengthens its structure, makes nutrients available to the plants above, builds humus and leads to resilient, productive soils, naturally.

This course includes hands-on compost making, Compost Tea brewing demonstrations and even a chance to take a tour and sit down and chat with some organic winemakers who have been using Compost Tea for the last three years to great effect on their Mudgee vinyard.

What is Aerated Compost Tea, exactly?

Good compost contains thousands of bacterial and fungal species. When a small amount of specially made compost is added to highly aerated water, held at a desired temperature and supplied with the correct nutrients for the microbiology in the compost to feed on, you can make a highly cultured 'brew'. This 'brew', brimming with the microbiology needed for healthy soil, can then be distributed over farms, fields, plantations or gardens - adding crucial microbiology to the soil.

Why is Compost Tea such a useful tool in building my soil?

In nature, different soils contain different microbiological ecosystems. Soil in a forest is very different to soil in a grassland. Compost Tea can be used to influence, affect and add to the biological makeup of your soils' ecosystems. Hence your soils can be primed for whatever you wish to grow, whether that be crops, forestry, regeneration or pastures.

How does it work?

A healthy soil food web occurs when all the organisms the plant requires are present and functioning within the soil system. Microbiology is responsible for making non-plant available nutrients in the soil plant available. It is one of the functions of a healthy food web is to hold nutrients in non-leachable forms so they remain in soil.

Soil pH, soil structure, and nutrient cycling occur at the correct rates and produce the right forms of nutrients for the plant when the correct ratio of fungi to bacteria is present. Good compost contains thousands of bacterial and fungal species.

When a small amount of specially made compost is added to highly aerated water, held at a desired temperature and supplied with the correct nutrients for the microbiology in the compost to feed on, you can make a highly cultured 'brew'. This 'brew', brimming with the microbiology needed for healthy soil, can then be distributed over farms, fields, plantations or gardens - adding crucial microbiology to the soil.

What are some on-farm examples of Compost Tea in use?

Just two of the many examples of how Aerated Compost Tea is being used throughout the world to remediate soils: 

• Keyline plowing with Compost Tea application at Taranaki Farm in Victoria, Australia
• Dr Elaine Ingham is currently working on multiple Compost Tea projects across the Middle East, including with farmers in Saudi Arabia
• Lowe Family Wine Co. at Mudgee have been improving their soils with Compost Tea for the last 3 years, and the results speak for themselves.
  

What does this workshop cover?

This practical, three day workshop covers how to make your own Compost Tea, plus how to make your own compost on a small and medium scale, in a way that makes sure your compost is chock-full of whatever microbes are appropriate for your specific needs - i.e. pasture vs orchard, or pasture cropping system vs nut grove.

About the teacher

Paul Taylor has been an organic farmer and has extensive experience with returning non-productive soils back into profitable systems for more than 30 years. As a former Director of ASAP supplies he has extensive experience in the Soil Foodweb system of vital soil management as developed by Dr. Elaine Ingham. Paul’s practice, grounded in Permaculture principles and comprehensive earthworks for improved water management, has led him to co-consulting with world-renowned Permaculture designer Geoff Lawton on projects in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Paul is an energetic, easy to understand speaker with a wealth of practical, hands on knowledge, promoting the practical understanding of beneficial soil microbes as the basis of a productive management system. He has taught in Australia, New Zealand, USA, the Middle East and India over the past three decades.

Included in your course

Your course fee includes hearty lunches and morning/afternoon teas for each day of the course, in addition to practical course notes from TrustNature. Your course fee also includes a field trip to Lowe Family Wine Co. to see the results of Compost Tea application on this award-winning organic vinyard.

If you are a farmer, land manager, primary producer or in the immediate family of any of these, you can do this course for free through the FarmReady subsidy scheme. Go to our FarmReady page to learn more...

Course fee: $430 (or $387 with 10% Early Bird discount - see below)

Booking into the course

To secure your spot in the Mudgee Spring CCTW course pay the full course fee of $430. Click the green button at right to pay via PayPal or your credit card.

We use PayPal to receive payments and take bookings for our courses. You can book your course via PayPal without creating an account by providing them with your credit card details. Your banking details are secure and will not be provided to Milkwood Permaculture or any other third party. If you are not comfortable using PayPal get in contact with us and we will arrange an alternative payment method. Please ensure you read our refund policy.

Getting to the course

Mudgee is set in a beautiful, high valley on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range, in the central west of NSW. A popular weekender destination, it is an easy 4 hours drive from Sydney. Mudgee is also serviced by an airport and the Countrylink rail system from Sydney, with connections also available from Bathurst and Dubbo.