Good morning, and welcome to this month’s edition of Reading Landscapes.

Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

Like us to discuss a photo of your landscape? Share it with us here.

This month, we have a question from David, who was intrigued by last month’s edition, where we discussed the concept of double contours from Back from the Brink.

David has been thinking about integrating contours with the Hügelkultur method across parts of his property where soil quality is poor, and topsoil is limited. So he wants to know whether we have integrated the two methods together before.

Thanks for the question, David.

Firstly, for those who don’t know of the Hügelkultur system, let’s start there.

When I read David’s question, I was intrigued, as I knew a little about Hügelkultur but not much about the specifics, and I haven’t combined it with contours directly. So I thought I would spend a little time researching this system more and what it could offer as a potential combination with a contour.

What is Hügelkultur? It’s a German term that translates to “hill culture,” and it is a technique for building garden beds using woody material, garden debris, compost, and soil. Herrman Andrä first published the term, inspired by Rudolf Steiner, and Sepp Holzer later popularised it.

It is a mound prepared by piling materials in a specific order directly on the ground or in a shallow trench. It starts with timber at its centre, then layers of grass, leaves, straw, soil, compost, and mulch. Put simply, it is wood and brush covered with soil, then planted.

This creates a mounded, compost-like system that provides a strong environment for what is planted in the mound as it slowly breaks down and creates more organic matter. The main idea is for the mound to store more water in the decaying organic matter to feed the plants growing in it, limiting the need for irrigation.

Okay, now that we looked into what Hügelkultur is, let’s move to the second half of the question: can it be integrated with contours?

In short, yes, I see no reason why a Hügelkultur bed couldn’t be constructed on the bottom side of a contour as a growing bed, whether for trees or for vegetable production. In that model, the contour manages the hydrology and the bed manages the growing environment for the plants.

A system like this pairs quite well with our fifth pillar of NSF, return to the top to recycle the lot, as you could start collecting fertility sources from the lower parts of your landscape or external sources to make these beds, which are then created across the higher parts of a landscape to kick-start your fertility feedback loops.

You could also not go quite as fancy as Hügelkultur beds and instead just place anything from woody debris (logs, branches, wood chips, etc.) to straw and old bales to poultry manure or compost on the bottom side of your contour bank to slowly break down and feed the landscape or what you plant in that space. The options are endless; any source of fertility will fit there, and its quality (or available fertility at that point in time) depends on what you are trying to achieve and how long you are willing to wait.

"There's nothing more magical than having water on the farm." For David and Ruth Read at Woodcote, a 1,163-acre property at Perry Bridge in Gippsland, that magic didn't come easily. They watched the place blow away more times than they'd care to remember, after too many stock had damaged the landscape, and that pain became the reason to change.

Since then, they've put in three to four kilometres of contours and leaky weirs, all built to slow the flow. Water that comes onto Woodcote now gets used a couple of times before it leaves, growing more grass from the same rainfall. When it does leave, it carries as few nutrients as possible, so the water running into the rivers and the Gippsland Lakes is as clean as they can make it.

For David and Ruth, Natural Sequence Farming has been like looking at things through new eyes. As Ruth puts it, there's no one path that fits all; it's a winding path, and knowing your landscape and where you fit in it makes all the difference.

👉 Watch David & Ruth's full story: https://youtu.be/pXCujB3uMEA

👉 Read the complete case study: https://www.tarwynparktraining.com.au/p/the-reads-at-woodcote

Have a plant you’d like to discuss? Share it with us here.

Common Names: Habana Grass, Kangaroo Grass, Habana Oat Grass, Camel Grass

Scientific Name: Themeda quadrivalvis

Where in the Succession: Low Fertility Exploiter

Thanks to Wanita for sending in this month’s plant suggestion. Wanita has an abundance of what she thinks is Grader Grass and, with its dense growth, wants to know how best to manage it and move the succession to its next phase.

Grader Grass is a moderately sized annual grass that grows up to 1.8m tall. It can often be confused with the native Kangaroo Grass; however, Grader Grass grows taller, and its flower spikelets are relatively small and hairy compared to the native.

Grader Grass is native to the Indian subcontinent and South Asia. It is now found across many parts of the world in subtropical and tropical climates, including Australia, where it first arrived in 1935 and can be found across tropical parts of Queensland, the Northern Territory, and Western Australia.

What is it telling me about my landscape?

Grader Grass is a low-fertility exploiter, often finding itself at home where opportunities present themselves to it, most often led by some form of disturbance to kickstart its journey.

Interestingly, Grader Grass is an annual grass, and compared with the other weedy grass species we’ve discussed in the newsletter (like Giant Parramatta Grass and Whisky Grass), which are both perennials, it’s a bit different. Because of this, with the right management decisions, it should be easier to shift our succession and bring in the next stage.

First and foremost, Grader Grass loves disturbed ground; hence its name, which comes from the fact that it often spreads in soil and mud from graders working alongside roadsides, where it has ideal growing conditions: bare soil and no competition.

Common characteristics of the areas where Grader Grass is found growing include;

🔥 Reduce the use of fire as a management tool. In landscapes where Grader Grass is found, fire is often used to prepare for the next growing season by removing rank, old feed and preparing for the new growth flush. The issue with this is that Grader Grass loves the open-door policy, welcoming it to the party.

One study in the Northern Territory examined how fire management decisions affected the growth of two problematic species²: Indian Blue Grass and our friend Grader Grass. It studied how the two species responded to fire in a national park over a seven-year period. Interestingly, they responded differently to fire. With annual fire, Grader Grass responded most favourably, while Indian Blue Grass slowly declined to almost zero; then the opposite happened when fire wasn’t used.

What this paints for me is two things firstly that Grader Grass loves fires for the promotion of its growth going into the growing season, meaning we need to use a tool like that very carefully and secondly the other thing it makes me ponder is why does it perform so well, and I can only think that a large part of that is caused by the fact that it is an annual rather than a perennial and therefore to kickstart its next season of growth it needs that stimulus and in this case it is fire which takes out all of its perennial competition like the Indian Blue Grass and then the Grader Grass is the first and fastest to respond to the conditions and stake its claim for the next season of growth. This is an excellent example of why we must be careful with our management decisions and closely observe their results, both in the short term and the long term.

🐮 Managing grazing practices. Grazing practices around Grader Grass are important. Overgrazing creates ideal conditions for it, so implement adequate recovery alongside a time-controlled grazing system.

But as an annual plant, grazing can also be a powerful tool at key points in its growth cycle. At the right growth stage, it has good palatability for livestock and can therefore be managed by grazing at the right time.

🚜 Mechanical management. One study found that slashing or mowing Grader Grass at full flower rather than pre-flowering was an effective management method, but the challenge is getting the timing right, which was difficult to achieve in practice.³

Incorporating mechanical methods with the above and below methods can form part of a very strong management system.

🌿 Incorporate cover crops. Incorporating cover crops of more desirable species into existing swards of Grader Grass can entice livestock to enter those areas and create greater impact. Following on from our grazing point above, we must be careful how we do this, and timing is important so we don’t actually promote the Grader Grass.

But what we can do is plant those more desirable species after grazing the grader grass at the right time, when it is early in its growth cycle and then allowing the planted species to come in and compete, and then, in future grazes, graze with the intention that you are focusing on supporting those species that you want. Then observe over time the impact this has on the Grader Grass population.

🪨 As a Soil Indicator: Low nitrogen, low phosphorus, low humus and organic matter, bacterially dominated soil, low calcium, high magnesium

🐮 Livestock: It is edible for livestock, but palatability is limited to only a short period of time in its growing cycle. However, at that time, peak protein values have been measured at levels similar to improved pasture grasses. Interestingly, in India, it is actually grown as fodder for livestock.³

💊 Medicinal: It has no known medicinal uses.

🍽️ Consumption: It isn’t known to be used as a food source.

Looking for help with your property and want to understand what can be done and why?

Learning Your Landscape combines our Learning Landscapes online course with a property visit from one of our practitioners. You learn the principles of Natural Sequence Farming, then have a member of our team on your property to look at your landscape with you and work through what could be done

A quick list of our favourite things we’ve been watching, reading, listening, and writing.

Duped: Food Exposed: Four Corners' two-part investigation follows our food from supermarket shelves back through global supply chains, using lab testing of everyday products to check what's really inside them. Food labelling is broken, our food systems are broken, and unfortunately most people have no real idea of what's happening. It's eye-opening viewing for anyone who grows or eats food - everyone! Watch Part 1 and Part 2.

How to make every millimetre of rain count: TPT graduates Will and Sasha Treloar were featured by MLA this month, sharing how they've gone from watching 90% of their rain run off to keeping more of every fall on their organic beef country near Charleville. Read their story; it's great to see where the journey has taken them.

Regenerative agriculture: connecting soil carbon storage, biodiversity, and profit: A new study of 210 grain farms across the US and Canada found the most regenerative farms held around 39% more soil carbon, much richer soil life and more insects and birds, while making the same profit as their neighbours. One finding stood out for us: the more life on the farm, the more carbon in the soil.

I don't get democracy: We hear the word democracy constantly, but how many of us could actually explain it? Johnny Harris's video breaks it into five ideas: free elections, protected rights, equal access to power, active participation, and genuinely talking things through together. A very interesting video, well worth the watch.