SOIL SENSE

Louis Fourie runs soil-building courses at his semi-off-grid smallholding in the Eastern Cape. He believes that healthy soil is the key to avoiding food scarcity

CLIMATE CHANGE, food security and the need to find better and more sustainable ways to nurture and heal ourselves, and our Blue Planet are top of mind as Cop26 grapples with meeting emission targets.

Louis Fourie, who runs a permaculture soil-building course at his home in Magwa Falls, in the Eastern Cape, believes if we start by nourishing the soil, we could have abundance and avoid a food emergency. Terry van der Walt got his hands dirty for this report.

A trip to Magwa Falls, inland of Port Grosvenor and Port St Johns, does not make for an easy journey, but as Fourie says, once you are there, “it’s difficult to leave”.

I went down to attend a soilbuilding course at Fourie’s semi-off-grid homestead, a short walk from the head of the mighty Magwa Falls, which cascade into a gorge.

Staying at, and learning about, a living permaculture smallholding, where everything has a use, and nothing goes to waste, right down to the contents of Louis’s “bio loo with a view”, provided me with a sense of how delicate the balance is when you dig 20cm down into the topsoil which sustains life on our planet.

Monoculture farming, fertilisers and chemicals, overgrazing and mining have a huge impact on the health of our soil. It should be loamy, moist and teeming with micro-organisms, fungi and earthworms – a veritable superhighway that moves minerals and moisture to where they’re needed.

“Build your soil and the plants will do the rest on their own,” says Fourie, a statement you’ll hear him make often, as he guides us through his permaculture garden, where everything is a delicate balance of nature, where everything gets used, and almost everything goes back into the soil.

Fourie, who has lived on his land for 15 years, has turned his place into a living, working model of homestead gardening.

He explains that micro-organisms, tiny specks you can’t see with the naked eye, are the building blocks of our soil and, with effort, we can help speed up the process of its renewal.

These beneficial indigenous organisms can be sprayed on crops and fruit trees once a week to boost the plants and the soil.

The micro-organisms that go to the roots, get starch in return from the plant.

Another advantage is that they are so small, they hide inside in the crevices on leaves, feeding on bad micro-organisms which can affect the health of the plants.

“Nature is a very powerful tool. It will fix itself. So, even if you just mulch and keep the damp and moisture there, nature will come in and fix the soil, bring in the micro-organisms that will make compost; the earthworms will come and start to break it down into worm wee.

“Nature is doing this automatically, over time, all the time.

“If we can speed it up with different types of home-made fungal brew, it will be more than helpful and nutritious for the soil.

“You must grow the soil. You can’t grow the plants; the plants grow themselves,” he says.

Fourie has a few dozen chickens, whose lives are blissfully spent in “chicken tractors”. Wire passages alongside fenced fields “herd” them to designated fields where they can scratch, super-charging the soil with micro-organisms and helping to get it ready for planting.

Having trees – the bearers of water – in fields is important. They provide shade, and hiding places for chickens when raptors soar above, and provide the right conditions for shrubs, vines, herbs and crops to grow.

Fourie, who been experimenting with compost-making, says it is a trial-anderror process.

He says it is not the end of the world if your compost heap goes anaerobic (when it doesn’t get enough oxygen). All you need to do is open it up to dry out and let the chickens feast in there.

A walk through his greenhouse tunnel bears testimony to the process. Onions, brinjals, strawberries, cabbages, and much more, flourish, nestled in layers of straw.

Constantly visited by chickens, worms and micro-organisms, they thrive.

Fourie’s soil-building course includes playing his Go Grow educational gardening board game. Very quickly we learned the importance of mulch, compost and worm farms and why these elements needed to be in our deck of game cards before we could acquire seed cards.

It can get pretty competitive, and just when you think you’re the farmer of the year because you sold your harvest, up comes a card that tells you another crop has been destroyed by goggas.

Fourie is hoping to get Go Grow into schools so children can learn about growing food in a sustainable way.

The game, suitable for young and old, shows in a simple way what you need to do, and look out for, when you embark on your journey to Go Grow. To book your place at the next Magwa Falls Soil-building course contact Louis Fourie at 083 258 4188 or go to www. louisatmagwafalls.co.za.

Louis Fourie gives his plants their weekly spray of micro-organisms which nourish the soil and the vegetables.

FAR LEFT: The seating area at Louis Fourie’s homestead. CENTRE: Thriving broccoli in Fourie’s garden. LEFT: Chickens living their best lives, scratching for food and showing chicks how it’s done.