Good morning, and welcome to the 22nd edition of our monthly newsletter, Reading Landscapes.

Every section will be split with this divider

Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

• What is reading the landscape

• What to do about Cat’s Claw Creeper

• It’s been 20 years

• A special announcement - time to learn online

• Meet our NSF Champions!

• What we’ve been learning

🔎 Looking at the Landscape

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

Reading the Landscape — Where It All Begins

PA has a way of describing a degraded landscape that sticks with you long after you first hear it.

He says it's like looking at the fossil of a dinosaur. You might have the head, the left arm, and the right foot - scattered pieces of something that once worked as a whole. Your job isn't to build something new. It's to recognise the pieces still in front of you, understand how they once connected, and start working to put the puzzle back together.

That's what reading the landscape is. And it's where Natural Sequence Farming begins.

So What Does It Actually Mean?

Reading the landscape is the process of looking at a piece of land and understanding how it once functioned and what it needs to function that way again.

It's about learning to see three things at once: the physical features that shape the land, the patterns of water moving through it, and the plants that are responding to both.

A ridge isn't just a ridge. It's the start of a small watershed - the boundary that tells you where water begins its journey. A step in the slope isn't just a change in gradient. It's a place where water once slowed, spread, and soaked in. A cluster of rushes in an unexpected spot isn't a weed problem. It's the landscape telling you there's moisture coming to the surface or the soil is waterlogged.

None of this is hidden. It's all there, written into every paddock, every gully, every hillside. You just need to learn the language.

How Do You Actually Do It?

It starts before you leave the house.

Getting an aerial topographic map of your property and spending time with it. Tracing the contours, identifying where ridges meet valleys, and following the lines that show you where water wants to go gives you the foundation. You can see the big picture from above in a way you can't easily see from the ground, especially when you're only at the start of your journey.

But you can't stop there. You can make a rough plan from the map, but you can't rely on it alone. You need to get on the ground and see exactly what's going on with your own eyes.

That means walking it. Observing it. And asking questions as you go.

What plants are here, and how much diversity is there? A paddock that looks green and healthy might actually be hiding a simplified plant community that's barely holding the soil together. Where are the steps - those places where the slope eases slightly before falling away again? That's where water once slowed. Is it still slowing there? What are the old water flow patterns, and are they still working? Where is water leaving the landscape, and why?

Together, the map and the paddock start to tell the story. And the more landscapes you walk, the faster you learn to read them.

What Comes Next?

Once you can read a landscape, you can start to work with it.

You'll know where the water is being lost and where it could be held. You'll see where the system is degrading and where it's still functioning and needs protecting. And you'll be able to understand what needs to be implemented across that landscape for each of the 5 pillars of NSF.

Reading the landscape doesn't give you all the answers. But it asks the right questions. And in Natural Sequence Farming, that's everything.

Reading the landscape is the first key section inside our brand new online course, Learning Landscapes - the only place in the world to learn Natural Sequence Farming directly from its originators. The full course announcement is below. 👇

💧 Rehydrate Australia: 100,000 Views

In less than two months, Rehydrate Australia has been watched over 100,000 times on YouTube.

We are genuinely grateful. When we released this film, our goal was simple: get this message to as many people as possible. And you've made that happen.

What moves us most isn't the numbers, it's what sits behind them. The messages from farmers inspired to start. The viewers seeing their own landscapes differently. The community screenings happening in halls across the country. This is the movement growing.

If this film has resonated with you, please share it. Send it to a farmer, a friend, a neighbour, anyone who cares about the future of this landscape. Rehydrate Australia is completely free on YouTube — there are no barriers between this message and the next person who needs to hear it.

Every share takes it further across the landscape.

🎬 Watch and share: https://youtu.be/6DBvweqylv4

Thank you for being part of this.

Let's Rehydrate Australia.

NSF Champion: McIvor Farm – When Customers Become Part of the Story

Your dollar is a vote. That's what Jason and Belinda Hagan want everyone to understand.

At McIvor Farm in Tooborac, Victoria, they're raising Berkshire pigs, beef, and sheep using Natural Sequence Farming principles that transform how water and soil work in a landscape. The farm was already built on keyline principles, but when Jason completed the Tarwyn Park Training course with Stuart Andrews in 2019, he saw how to deepen that work. Leaky weirs in the creek. Contours across the hilltop. A farming system designed to build water-holding capacity in the soil, not deplete it.

Even in a dry season, the results are clear. The farm is in a better position because the landscape is rain-ready, designed to receive water when it falls, to hold it, to use it.

But their real message is about you. Every time you buy from a local farm doing this work, you're voting for soil health, water retention, and resilience. Because when customers understand the chain, healthy food starts with healthy animals, healthy animals start with healthy plants, healthy plants start with healthy soil, everything changes.

👉 Watch Jason and Belinda's full story: https://youtu.be/GOap_WoYyPY

👉 Read the complete case study: https://www.tarwynparktraining.com.au/p/the-hagan-s-at-mcivor-farm-foods

🕰️ 20 Years On

Twenty years ago this past Saturday, the first Australian Story aired, and Peter Andrews' vision began to reach beyond Tarwyn Park.

It was never an easy journey. There were years of frustration, dismissed ideas, and doors that stayed closed. But Peter didn't stop, and neither have we. Because we knew something then that we know even more deeply now: this knowledge matters. It changes how people see the land. It changes what they're capable of doing with it.

In the two decades since, we've watched this grow from one man's stubbornness into a movement.

📖 Peter's two books were published
📺 Three more Australian Stories were released
🎓 Tarwyn Park Training was founded, and hundreds of farmers trained
🏔️ An advanced Building Landscapes course was launched
🎬 Rehydrate Australia documentary released
💻 Learning Landscapes online course launched

But numbers don't capture what actually matters.

What matters is that farmers are now choosing differently. That land is being restored. The next generation is learning to read the landscape. That communities are gathering in halls and cinemas to watch this story unfold, and then staying late into the evening to ask: how do we do this on our landscape?

We are nowhere near the finish line. This work is generational, and that's precisely the point. As PA would say, it's all coming together. With three generations of the Andrews family involved, the pieces are moving. And we can't wait to see what it brings.

Thank you for being part of this journey. Your support, your questions, and your willingness to try something different have made everything possible.

🌳 Learning from Plants

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

Cat’s Claw Creeper

Common Names: Cat's Claw Creeper, Cat's Claw Vine, Cat's Claw Trumpet, Yellow Trumpet Vine, Funnel Creeper, Claw Vine

Scientific Name: Dolichandra unguis-cati

Where in the Succession: Balancer

What is a Plant Succession?

Thanks to Greg for sending in this month's species, Cat's Claw Creeper.

Cat's Claw Creeper is a perennial woody vine that forms dense growing mats over the surface, outcompeting other ground cover species before heading for the skies, growing up and over trees and shrubs. It can climb up to 30m high on trees or other structures.

Native to tropical America, it can now be found in many regions worldwide. It prefers warm, humid subtropical to tropical climates, tolerating only light frosts in the winter months. In Australia, it is most prevalent along the east coast, particularly Northern NSW into South East QLD.

What is it telling me about my landscape?

We believe that Cat's Claw Creeper shares many attributes of a balancer species, with a propensity to grow in landscapes with excess fertility.

Where will I find Cat’s Claw Creeper growing, and why is it growing there?

Cat's Claw Creeper is a fast-growing vine species that prefers a high-fertility growing environment.

It is an opportunistic species, often taking advantage of sites that provide ideal growing conditions following recent disturbance or an increase in available soil nutrients to get it started. Other indicators for where it is found growing can include:

• A broken or absent canopy from past clearing or tree losses, allowing more light to reach the lower storeys

• Reduced ground cover allows the opportunity for it to germinate

How can we manage Cat’s Claw Creeper?

💚 Minimise our soil disturbance. We want to limit opportunities for Cat's Claw Creeper to establish by minimising disturbance to potential habitat areas, such as forest and riparian environments. By focusing on maintaining good ground cover, we limit its ability to take hold.

↘️ Manage the movement of fertility. Being a potential balancer species means it prefers fertility at higher levels, even into excess. Taking this into account, it’s imperative that we manage our landscape to minimise its losses. How can we go about doing that?

• Look to ensure we have maximum green surface area at all times to process the moving fertility

• Ensure we have functioning wetlands in place to manage and filter the losses we do have

• Have contours installed to spread the excess fertility that is moving down a landscape across it, instead of centralising in our lower riparian areas, where Cat's Claw Creeper is often an issue

• Start implementing pillar 5 of NSF and returning our fertility back to the top of the system, and building a natural feedback loop into our landscape

🪲 Implement biological control methods. Biological control methods have proven to be the most well-rounded approach to managing the Cat's Claw Creeper. Australia currently has three approved insects for biological control of the plant, which are the natural controls in tropical America. Research is also being undertaken for fungal control¹ .

❤️‍🩹 Improve the health of our natural forest & 🌿 Increase the diversity in our forests.

Cat's Claw Creeper is most aggressive and most dominant in disturbed areas, fragmented remnants, and degraded riparian corridors, even though it is also capable of invading more intact forests. The pattern of where it takes over most readily suggests it is often exploiting systems that have already lost canopy continuity, native vine diversity, and competitive ground cover. In that sense, it frequently reads and responds to weakness in the forest system, much like mistletoe on a stressed tree. If the vine is exploiting existing openings, one of the most effective long-term controls may be to remove the opening itself by restoring the structural health of our forests.

Promoting native vine diversity to outcompete the Cat's Claw Creeper is key to that restoration. How can we better manage disturbed areas and assist native vines to fill that niche instead?

💧 Implement water management systems in watercourses & 🌱 Change the vegetation along our watercourses.

One more thought that I put forward is based around our management creating the environment for Cat's Claw Creeper to grow, particularly in our riparian areas. Our riparian areas were once managed by grasses, in particular, reeds, which early settler accounts remark on the vastness of these systems. These landscapes were incredibly well-vegetated and well-hydrated, with a high water table, creating an environment that didn't naturally suit most of our native tree species, hence the dense grass cover. But our management has, over time, changed these environments. Due to erosion, we now have incised flow paths and a much lower water table. In combination with our grazing management, many of the reeds were lost, and the environment was changed. This created conditions better suited to trees, so they began to grow in that environment. I wonder whether the Cat's Claw Creeper, by aggressively removing those trees, is potentially opening space for reeds and grasses to re-establish - if the hydrology were restored.

To fast-track this process, we can step in and repair the hydrology of our landscape. We can manage water in our flow lines with structures and across the greater landscape with contours to raise the local water table and create an environment for our reeds and grasses to grow once again.

I know there are many questions raised in this month's edition. But we don't always have all the answers, and for me, a plant like Cat's Claw Creeper leaves me pondering: why has it come to dominate, and how can we step in to manage it? It's worth saying clearly that none of this is about defending the plant; it's about understanding it. Because the better we understand why something has taken hold, the better equipped we are to manage it for the long term. And in all our thinking, we try not to treat symptoms, but to look for the cause, which often means asking plenty of questions.

How to make the most of your Cat’s Claw Creeper

🪨 As a Soil Indicator: Soils with reasonable levels of fertility, that are not too wet and have experienced recent disturbance or the mobilisation of nutrients.

🐮 Livestock: Livestock will graze on Cat's Claw Creeper, significantly reducing vegetative cover. But they are unable to access what is growing higher up in the trees, as well as the tubers of the plant in the soil, so this will require additional management.

💊 Medicinal: Cat's Claw Creeper has a history of use in traditional medicine for its anti-inflammatory, antimalarial, and antivenereal properties, whilst also being used to treat gastrointestinal pain² . It has also been used in herbal medicine to treat dermatitis² .

🍽️ Consumption: No documented uses as a food source.

🌱 Introducing Learning Landscapes — Our New Online Course

Something we've been working toward for a long time is finally here.

For over a decade, we've been teaching Natural Sequence Farming in person. Now we've built a way for anyone, anywhere, to access the same knowledge - without leaving home.

Learning Landscapes is a fully online, self-paced course that takes you through the complete NSF framework. From reading your landscape, to the 5 Pillars, to a hands-on plan you can start applying on your own land. It works at any scale, from the backyard to the farm. No prior experience needed.

This isn't a passive watch-and-forget experience. It's built around getting you outside, making observations, and putting knowledge into practice - with a live community alongside you the whole way.

If you're ready to start seeing your landscape differently, we'd love to have you along.

📚 What We’ve Been Learning

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

Farm Learning: Tim has been busy releasing some excellent videos that are well worth your time. So here are three of them to add to your watch later list on YouTube. Learn about recovering from fire with TPT graduate Callum, why paddocks stop holding water and how to fix degraded soils with Stuart and Phil Mulvey.

How China blew up its own future: This video is a fascinating watch, not only for all the data and research that go into population tracking, but also for how a country like China can go from one population extreme to another in such a short period of time.

How to live an intellectually rich life: This is an excellent read sharing how easy it is for us to get stuck in our ways, recycling the same things over and over. I think it's especially relevant in our space, where it can be tempting to fall for the 'silver bullet' or believe that doing one system 'right' will solve everything. It's a great reminder that context, curiosity, and ongoing experimentation matter far more than any fixed recipe or methodology - and that a truly regenerative mindset starts more with how we think, not just how we farm.

The Anxious Generation: As someone who came of age right as smartphones and social media arrived, and now mostly avoids them, I found this book both confronting and clarifying. Haidt makes a compelling case that we’ve accidentally run a massive, uncontrolled experiment on kids by swapping a play-based childhood for a phone-based one, and that the results are now showing up as anxiety, loneliness, and fragility. It’s not anti-tech so much as pro-childhood, with some clear, practical ideas for families and communities who want to do things differently.

Project Hail Mary: Book + movie. This is a very enjoyable story. A smart, funny, and surprisingly moving sci‑fi that’s as much about problem‑solving and friendship as it is about space. The new film adaptation is also excellent, but as I'd always say: start with the book, then enjoy the movie as a bonus lap.

Landscape Profile

NSF Champion #7: Jason & Belinda Hagan - Building Water Holding Capacity on McIvor Farm

Our seventh Natural Sequence Farming Champion story takes us to central Victoria, to a place where two farmers looked at dry country and saw something others missed: potential.

McIvor Farm in Tooborac doesn't look like a typical NSF transformation story. It's not a massive property on remote tablelands. It's not a coastal regeneration project. It's a working farm where Jason and Belinda Hagan raise Berkshire pigs, beef, and sheep, and where, in 2019, one decision changed everything.

The Course That Changed Everything

Jason Hagan arrived at Stuart Andrews' Tarwyn Park Training course in 2019 with an open mind and a landscape in need of help. What he learned wasn't complicated. It was elegant. It was about understanding how water moves through a landscape, how soil holds capacity, and how the right decisions compound over time.

All the way home from that course, Jason was thinking one question: how can I implement these techniques on my own farm?

By the time the dry season came, he had the answer.

Building Water Holding Capacity

McIvor Farm was already built on keyline principles, a strong foundation for landscape management. But that foundation became something more powerful when Jason overlaid NSF thinking onto what they'd established.

The farm now has leaky weirs installed in the creek. There are contours carved across the hilltop that work in concert with their existing keyline design. And there's a farming system, pigs, beef, sheep, that works with these landscape features, not against them.

Adrian Drew, an NSF practitioner and Tarwyn Park Training trainer, was brought in to overlay the current farm plan, developed on keyline principles, with NSF principles. The work is built on Australian landscape science, understanding how landscape function actually works, not how we've been taught to manage it.

When that first rain falls, instead of running off, the water sits on the surface with manure and plant debris. On the first flush, that fertility diffuses into the subsoil, where it's available for plants to grow. That's not an accident. That's design layered upon design.

Rain Ready

Stuart Andrews visits McIvor Farm and sees something clear: this place is extremely rain-ready.

It might look dry at the moment. But the soils are in a condition to receive rainfall. Rather than be lost when it falls, the water will be soaked into the ground. Anything that moves, if it's a larger event, is managed by the contour system so that water doesn't wash completely off the farm.

And here's what makes this story unique: the animals themselves are part of the solution. Berkshire pigs and chickens aren't just production tools. They're primary colonisers, doing what primary colonising plants need to do. They're part of a system that builds, rather than degrades.

The Customer Conversation

But Jason and Belinda's message goes beyond their own paddocks.

"I think people really need to understand that customers are part of our journey," they say. "We need the loyalty of people supporting these systems to actually make it viable for us to make a living."

This is the part of the story that matters most. It's not just about what happens on the farm. It's about what happens in the minds of the people who eat the food grown there.

Your dollar is a vote for what Australian agriculture looks like. When you support a local farm doing this work, you're not just buying pork or beef. You're voting for soil health, water retention, landscape resilience, and a future where farming works with nature instead of against it.

"Support your local farms," Jason and Belinda say. "Find them that are doing amazing concepts through Natural Sequence Farming because those farmers that have got those concepts will make a better environment for everyone in the future."

The Chain That Matters

Healthy food starts with healthy animals. Healthy animals start with healthy plants. Healthy plants start with healthy soil.

It's a simple chain. But it's the chain everything depends on.

Jason and Belinda understand it. They've built it into their landscape. And now they're asking the rest of us to understand it too, one purchase at a time.

In a dry season in central Victoria, McIvor Farm is proving that when you build water holding capacity and work with the landscape, you're not just farming better. You're building a different future.

👉 Watch Jason and Belinda's full story here: https://youtu.be/GOap_WoYyPY

Peter Andrews OAM spent his life showing people that there's a better way to work with the landscape. This story continues that mission, proof that the work is happening right now on farms right across Australia.

Let's Rehydrate Australia - together.

We'd love to hear your thoughts after you watch Jason and Belinda's story. Comment below and let us know what resonates with you.

P.S. If you buy food from local farms, or if you know someone who does, share this story. Every customer who understands that their dollar is a vote makes a real difference.

🔗 Subscribe to the channel: https://youtube.com/@tarwynparktraining

🌏 Learn more: https://www.rehydrateaustralia.com

⛰️ Take the next steps to restore your landscape with our on-ground Learn Natural Sequence Farming course, or add your name to the waitlist for our upcoming online course at https://www.tarwynparktraining.com.au/courses

This is the seventh story in our Rehydrate Australia series, sharing the journeys of farmers and land managers implementing Natural Sequence Farming across Australia.

Landscape Profile

NSF Champion #6: Matt Moran – From Restaurateur to Regenerative Farmer at Moran Family Farm

Our sixth Natural Sequence Farming Champion story takes us to Moran Family Farm on the Central Tablelands of NSW, where chef and restaurateur Matt Moran is proving that the gap between city and country can be bridged through food, and that natural sequence farming has a role to play in every part of that story — from the paddock to the plate.

The Pub and the Land

Five years ago, Matt purchased the Rockley pub. It wasn't just a business decision. To Matt, the pub is the centre of the town, and losing it meant losing something essential.

"I saw a pub that was probably dying, and to me, the pub is the centre of the town. You lose a pub, I think you lose the town. It was a labour of love, and it's just growing into something a lot bigger."

But purchasing the pub led to something unexpected. The land surrounding it called to him.

A Philosophy Takes Root

When Matt discovered Natural Sequence Farming, his perspective shifted entirely. He adopted a simple but powerful philosophy: leave this farm in a much better condition than when I arrived.

Using techniques developed through decades of landscape observation, Matt began implementing contours across the property to slow and redirect water. He planted trees strategically on the downside of those contours. And he carefully managed livestock to follow the contours through the paddocks, restoring soil fertility as they moved across the landscape.

The results have been remarkable.

"I'm absolutely gobsmacked with what we've done," Matt reflects. "We've got so much water still on the farm, and you can see it in the pastures already. It's made a massive difference. We actually have more stock on this farm than we've ever had in 24 years."

Beyond Profit

But the transformation goes deeper than productivity and profit. Matt's work on the farm isn't just about his bottom line — it's about restoring what was lost.

"We're not only just doing it for ourselves. We're doing it for all the habitat that probably used to be here. And to me, that means a lot."

Visitors to the farm are struck by the visible change: the dams, the contours, the redirected water, the greener pastures. But Matt knows this is only the beginning.

"We're at the base stage. This is something we're going to work on every year — planting trees, creating more contours. There's nothing better than it. It's just so beautiful to see. And to hear frogs all the time. I love it."

A System Approach

Matt's work at Moran Family Farm extends across the entire property. From the high country down to the lower paddocks, he's created a cascade of structures designed to slow water flow and hold it in the landscape.

"So many things that we're doing on the farm improve the farm — improve water flow, keep water on the farm. We're just seeing massive, massive benefits."

This top-to-bottom approach is critical. You can't just work at the bottom of a catchment and expect results. You need to slow water from the top down, creating benefits as water moves through the landscape.

Bridging the Gap

As a chef and restaurateur, Matt has the platform to influence how people understand food. And he's using it deliberately.

"I think people in the city want to know where their food comes from, and they're exploring more about who's doing it and what they're doing. And as much as I possibly can, we are demonstrating that in our restaurants by heroing that sort of product."

This is where Matt's story becomes powerful. He's not just a farmer who happens to run restaurants. He's a restaurateur who understands the disconnect between city consumers and where food really comes from — and he's actively working to bridge that gap.

By featuring regeneratively-grown products in his restaurants and demonstrating natural sequence farming on his farm, he's showing customers exactly what healthy food production looks like.

The Nutrient Cycle

For Matt, this work extends well beyond water management. It's about the entire nutrient cycle — from soil to plant to animal to food.

"Natural sequence farming can play a massive role in clean food and good food. It's happy cows, happy sheep, happy farmer, and happy person in the end that's going to eat it. To me, that's pretty pleasing."

This is systems thinking at its best. Every part of the system affects every other part. When you rehydrate the landscape, you're not just adding water — you're feeding soil biology, supporting plant growth, improving animal health, and ultimately producing more nutrient-dense food.

From Pub to Farm

Matt Moran's work at Moran Family Farm demonstrates a critical point: transformation doesn't require you to abandon your original passion — it requires you to deepen it.

By implementing Natural Sequence Farming principles, Matt has turned a property into a thriving ecosystem. And by heroing regenerative products in his restaurants, he's turned every meal into a conversation about where food comes from and why it matters.

The results speak for themselves: more water, more stock, healthier land, and a clear pathway for consumers to understand and support regenerative agriculture.

👉 Watch Matt's full story here: https://youtu.be/xz3zXh1Ojtw

Peter Andrews OAM spent his life showing people that there's a better way to work with the landscape. This story continues that mission — proof that the work is happening, right now, across Australia, in unexpected places and from unexpected people.

Let's Rehydrate Australia — together.

We'd love to hear your thoughts after you watch Matt's story. Comment below and let us know what resonates with you.

P.S. If you know a chef, restaurateur, or food producer interested in sourcing from regenerative farms — or a farmer looking to demonstrate their practices to consumers — please share Matt's story with them. The opportunity to bridge city and country starts with one conversation.

🔗 Subscribe to the channel: https://youtube.com/@tarwynparktraining

🌏 Learn more: https://rehydrateaustralia.com

This is the sixth story in our Rehydrate Australia series, sharing the journeys of farmers and land managers implementing Natural Sequence Farming across Australia.

Landscape Profile

Kelly & Grant Titman – Food, Community, and Landscape Restoration on the Urban Fringe

The Titmans at Samford Valley

Our fifth Natural Sequence Farming Champion story takes us somewhere a little different.

Not to a large property on the tablelands. Not to a vast property in outback Queensland. But to 43 acres in the Samford Valley — surrounded by houses, sitting on the fringe of one of Australia's most populated cities, and quietly doing some of the most meaningful regenerative work in South East Queensland.

Kelly and Grant Titman moved to Samford Valley with a clear intention: grow their own food and regenerate the landscape. What they've built since is something far bigger than either of them anticipated.

Protecting What's Left

The Samford Valley is changing. Houses are creeping in. Land is being subdivided. And the pockets of open agricultural land that remain are becoming increasingly rare.

Grant and Kelly saw that clearly when they arrived.

"What we didn't want was to see this pocket - one of the last few pockets of land in the valley - broken up and subdivided", Grant explains.

So they made a decision. This property would be multigenerational. It would outlive them. It would educate them. And it would hopefully educate the community around them.

That's not just a land management decision. That's a values decision. And it shapes everything they do.

Reading the Landscape

They arrived with enthusiasm, good intentions, and the kind of fresh eyes that can sometimes see what experienced farmers miss.

One of the most powerful shifts for Grant has been learning to read the landscape before acting on it.

"The one thing about coming not from a farming background is seeing every plant's doing a job," he says. "Whereas previously you come from an urban background where you mow your grass, and you have it all perfect… but just now experiencing landscapes and seeing things - teaching gives me an opportunity to go, okay, let's just calm the farm for a second. Look at what's happening before I just pull things out and cut things down."

This is a shift that takes time. It requires patience, observation, and a willingness to let go of the urge to control. But it's foundational to Natural Sequence Farming, and it's one of the most important things a new land manager can learn.

Contours, Cattle, and the Water Cycle

The practical work at Samford Valley is built around contours.

Contours carved across the landscape have created the structure for everything else. Electric fencing runs on either side of those contours. Trees have been planted on the downside. And the cattle — rather than being confined to static paddocks — follow the contours through the landscape.

"They basically follow the contours through the landscape. So they move a bit like snakes through the landscape," Kelly explains.

This approach has opened up parts of the property that would otherwise have been difficult to fence and manage. It's allowed the fertility to change. It's restored the water cycle. And it's created the conditions for trees, food plants, and fruit to establish across the landscape over time.

The goal, as Kelly puts it, is to "have an abundance of food and fruit for us in the landscape and let nature kind of tell us what she needs."

That's not a passive approach. It's an active, observant, and deeply intentional one.

The Urban Fringe Opportunity

Here's what makes the Titman's story genuinely unique in this series.

Samford Valley is not remote. It's not isolated. It's on the doorstep of Brisbane — and that proximity to a major urban population is something Grant and Kelly have come to see not as a limitation, but as an extraordinary opportunity.

"I think given where we are, it took us a little bit of time to recognise that this is a very urban landscape and so we do have an opportunity to sit on the fringe and be accessible for the city folk to come and understand where their food does come from”, Kelly reflects.

And the need is real.

Kelly grew up on a farm. She understood from a young age where food came from. But listening to children at the schools their own kids attend, she's encountered something that stopped him in his tracks — kids who genuinely believe meat comes from a supermarket, not from an animal.

"That great disconnect means that we have an agritourism opportunity or an educational platform that we can have children easily get access to," she says.

This isn't just about running farm tours. It's about something more fundamental — helping a generation of young Australians begin to understand the chain that connects soil to plant to animal to food. And understanding that if you want healthy food, you need healthy animals. If you want healthy animals, you need healthy plants. And if you want healthy plants, you need healthy soil.

"If they can begin to understand little parts of that at a young age, then I'd be really hopeful that there'll be more people that want to understand how to grow food in backyards and tubs — and hopefully take as much of the community along for the ride as we can."

A Multigenerational Vision

What Grant and Kelly are building at Samford Valley isn't just a regenerative farm. It's a multigenerational asset — for their family, for their community, and for the landscape itself.

They're protecting one of the last open pockets in the valley from subdivision. They're restoring the water cycle and rebuilding soil fertility using Natural Sequence Farming principles. They're growing food and creating the conditions for an abundance of fruit and plants to establish over time. And they're opening their gates to a community that desperately needs to reconnect with where food actually comes from.

In a valley on the fringe of a city, they're proving that regenerative agriculture isn't just for remote properties and broad-acre farms.

It's for here. It's for now. And it's for everyone.

👉 Watch Kelly and Grant's full story here: https://youtu.be/SpHSuPtVym8

Peter Andrews OAM spent his life showing people that there's a better way to work with the landscape. This story continues that mission — proof that the work is happening, right now, even on the urban fringe of Brisbane.

Let's Rehydrate Australia — together.

We'd love to hear your thoughts after you watch Kelly and Grant's story. Comment below and let us know what resonates with you.

P.S. If you know someone on the urban fringe, someone with a small acreage who's wondering whether Natural Sequence Farming applies to them, please share this story. 43 acres surrounded by houses in the Samford Valley is proof that it does.

🔗 Subscribe to the channel: https://youtube.com/@tarwynparktraining

🌏 Learn more: rehydrateaustralia.com

⛰️ Take the next steps to restore your landscape with our on-ground Learn Natural Sequence Farming course, or add your name to the waitlist for our upcoming online course.

This is the fifth story in our Rehydrate Australia series, sharing the journeys of farmers and land managers implementing Natural Sequence Farming across Australia.

Good morning, and welcome to the 21st edition of our monthly newsletter, Reading Landscapes.

Every section will be split with this divider

Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

• What is landscape rehydration

• What to do about Chilean Needle Grass

• Meet our next NSF Champions!

• What we’ve been learning

Table of Contents

• 🔎 Looking at the Landscape

  • Stop Losing Water, Start Keeping It: A Guide to La …

• 💧 Rehydrate Australia

• 🌳 Learning from Plants

• 📚 What We’ve Been Learning

🔎 Looking at the Landscape

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

Stop Losing Water, Start Keeping It: A Guide to Landscape Rehydration

Many of our landscapes have degraded to the point that they are no longer capable of managing water like they once did. Coupled with our changing weather patterns, we're faced with a growing list of consequences:

• Every year we lose 12 million hectares of productive land to desertification

• Soil erosion claims 75 billion tonnes of soil annually — worth around $400 billion USD

• In the US, one-third of fertiliser applied to corn just replaces what erosion and runoff has already taken away — not even increasing yields

The numbers are sobering. But here's what connects them all: water.

Not the lack of it — the loss of it.

Making Our Rainfall Work Again

Research shows healthy ecosystems can absorb and retain most of the rain that falls on them. Meanwhile, degraded land? It's shedding water like a tin roof.

A global analysis of 89 field studies found that soils under perennial cover capture 60-70% of each storm, while intensively tilled soils capture barely 40%. Ranch studies across five US states show the same pattern: identical rainfall, yet well-managed paddocks absorb up to 55% more water than their neighbours.

Think about that. Same rain. Completely different outcomes.

Our rainfall hasn't vanished — our landscapes have simply lost the ability to hold it where plants need it. Every consequence we listed above? They all trace back to water moving too fast through our landscapes, taking our soil, nutrients, and future with it.

So how do we slow it down?

In this week's article, we break down:

🌊 How nature managed water for millions of years (and what we broke)

🛠️ The "soft engineering" toolkit for landscape rehydration

🐄 Why grazing management matters as much as earthworks

🌱 How to read your landscape's water patterns

💧 Practical steps to start rehydrating your land

👉 Read the full article: Landscape Rehydration - Making Your Rainfall Work Again

Because when you get water right, everything else starts to come good.

💧 Rehydrate Australia

NSF Champion: Susan Hendry – From Drainage to Rehydration at Arrawatta Station

Our fourth Natural Sequence Farming Champion story takes us to Arrawatta Station on the New England Tablelands, where Susan Hendry is proving that sometimes the best infrastructure already exists – it just needs to be reimagined.

The Paradigm Shift

Five years ago, Susan bought a property with large drainage banks designed to move water off the landscape as quickly as possible. Rather than accepting this as the way things had to be, Susan asked a different question: What if we could retrofit the drainage system to work with the landscape rather than against it?

"At Arrawatta Station, we're changing the paradigm from the water drainage system to a landscape rehydration system," Susan explains. "I've retrofitted the drainage system into chains of ponds so that they can retain the water and let it slowly filter into the landscape."

The Opportunity

Natural Sequence Farming consultant Will Cannington sees massive potential for this approach: "When you look at the slopes region, 25% of the cleared country would be contour drained. So there's an opportunity there to create chains of ponds and slow that system down."

The work? Remarkably simple, 15 to 25 minutes with a front-end loader and chisel plough.

The Results

Land managers Kate and Ryan are seeing clear outcomes: "The area where the work has been done is the first to green up and the last to dry out. It's basically given us a second bite at the cherry, and that's money in the bank for us."

For Susan, it’s about the whole system - from soil organisms to plants to cattle to the nutrient-dense food we eat.

👉 Watch Susan's full story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ASM_-Xofe8

👉 Read the complete case study: https://www.tarwynparktraining.com.au/p/the-hendry-s-at-arrawatta-station

This is the fourth story in our Rehydrate Australia series, sharing the journeys of farmers and land managers implementing Natural Sequence Farming across Australia.

Peter Andrews OAM spent his life trying to show people that there's a better way to work with the landscape. This documentary continues that mission — and it's proof that the work is happening, right now, all across Australia.

Let's Rehydrate Australia — together.

We'd love to hear your thoughts after you watch Susan’s story. Hit reply and let us know what resonates with you.

P.S. If you know someone who needs to see this — a farmer, a land manager, a council member, a friend who cares about the future of our landscapes — please share it with them. The more people who understand Natural Sequence Farming, the more landscapes we can help restore.

🔗 Subscribe to the channel: Tarwyn Park Training

🌏 Learn more: rehydrateaustralia.com

🌳 Learning from Plants

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

Chilean Needle Grass

Common Names: American needle-grass, Uruguayan tussockgrass, Uruguayan needlegrass

Scientific Name: Nassella neesiana

Where in the Succession: Low Fertility Exploiter

What is a Plant Succession?

I’ve had a couple of people ask me to do a deep dive on Chilean Needle Grass, so thank you for the suggestion - let’s get into it.

Chilean Needle Grass is a perennial tufted grass growing to 1-1.5 m tall. It is native to South America, specifically the southern half of the continent. It prefers temperate and semi-arid climates with at least 500 mm of annual rainfall, but it can also be found in subtropical climates.

It looks like Spear grass, and it belongs to the Tussock family, including Serrated Tussock.

What is it telling me about my landscape?

Chilean Needle Grass is a low-fertility exploiter species.

Where will I find Chilean Needle Grass growing, and why is it growing there?

Chilean Needle Grass is another of our perennial grass species that is very opportunistic, seeking landscapes with limited competition and diversity, using disturbance as its trigger to start growing and journey towards dominance where possible.

We will often find it growing with dominance in landscapes with the following conditions:

• A disturbance event that creates bare ground, whether by overgrazing, drought, fire or cultivation, removing competition and opening up an opportunity

• A pasture mix that is moving backwards in its succession

• Limited to little or no organic matter

• Degraded soils, lacking fertility

• Bare, compacted soils and/or poor soil structure

How can we manage Chilean Needle Grass?

🐄 Alter our grazing. The best results in managing Chilean Needle Grass with a regenerative mindset have been achieved by changing livestock grazing patterns in areas with high density. In these situations, people have moved to high or ultra-high density grazing (a large number of animals in a small area), with regular movements followed by adequate recovery periods. This has opened up the opportunity for other species to return whilst starting to cycle the fertility in that area to help stimulate change.

Another potential option using livestock is incorporating other species into the site, especially chickens, which can provide a much higher-impact graze than cattle or sheep. They can also provide additional fertility to the site in the form of manure, particularly when fed an external grain feed source.

🚜 Use mechanical intervention. Because of its low palatability, in some situations, it can be difficult to achieve the exact results you’re after with livestock alone. In situations like this, we can use machinery to assist us with the task. After grazing a site with livestock, you can come in and slash or mulch the remaining vegetation, creating a clean slate for the next season of plants and, hopefully, some successional change.

⬆️ Increase our soil organic matter. Chilean Needle Grass often grows in soils low in organic matter and humus, which fits with its being a low-fertility exploiter. To assist in moving it to the next stage, we can increase our organic matter by promoting more material to the surface of our landscape (as discussed in the previous two options) or by bringing in external sources of organic matter to add to the system.

💦 Improve your landscape’s hydrology. In landscapes where Chilean Needle Grass is growing, it is often lower in soil moisture and hydrologically dysfunctional. We can focus on increasing soil moisture and retaining more water in the landscape. This can be done by increasing ground cover and organic matter to hold rainwater longer, and by constructing level contours to slow, spread, and retain water in your landscape rather than letting it be lost.

🍄‍🟫 Increase our soil fungal levels. Like other weed grasses (Giant Rat's Tail and Giant Parramatta Grass), there is the thought that Chilean Needle Grass has a preference for bacterially dominated soils. To help better balance our soils and push towards a more even balance between fungi and bacteria, we could feed the fungi with foods like complex sugars and proteins, fish hydrolysate, biochar, humic acid, and carbon sources like wood, paper, or cardboard.

How to make the most of your Chilean Needle Grass

🪨 As a Soil Indicator: Low available phosphorus, little soil humus, bacterially dominant soils, low soil fertility, slightly acidic soils

🐮 Livestock: At certain growth stages, Chilean Needle Grass can provide decent nutritional value for livestock. In a field experiment in the Northern Tablelands of NSW, the crude protein and digestible dry matter of Chilean Needle Grass were measured at 13-17% and 58-66%, respectively, in a grazing system that followed rotational grazing methods⁶ .

In Argentina's Pampas Plains, Chilean Needle Grass is considered one of the most important winter-growing natives for its ability to withstand heavy grazing and drought whilst still providing a high-quality perennial feed source⁶ .

💊 Medicinal: There are no documented medicinal uses of Chilean Needle Grass

🍽️ Consumption: There is no documented evidence of the plant being used for food.

📚 What We’ve Been Learning

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

Food For The Future: A great article looking to the positives in the world of food, farming and the environment to see what is happening around the globe on the quest to create more resilient, healthy systems.

This Beaver Dam is So Huge, You Can See It from Space: Check out the largest beaver dam on Earth and get an idea of the powerful work these little creatures are doing and the benefits they have on their local environment, much like our own leaky weirs.

Trees Are So Weird: Trees really are fascinating. This video goes into the evolutionary journey and how they function as a living thing that is actually mostly dead - but still capable of pushing themselves towards being the largest living things on Earth.

Natural Sequence Farming Managing Water and Fertility Loss: Check out the YouTube premiere of our very own Stuart McWilliam and see the work that he has been up to at “Clearwater” in Glenmorgan - just one of the many properties he’s been busy implementing NSF at. We’re so lucky to have people like Stuart and the rest of our team of implementors out on the road helping get this knowledge put into action across our landscapes, because many hands make light work, and that is how we can create change in our landscapes and the way they’re managed.

Landscape Profile

NSF Champion #4: Susan Hendry – From Drainage to Rehydration at Arrawatta Station

Our fourth Natural Sequence Farming Champion story takes us to Arrawatta Station on the New England Tablelands, where Susan Hendry is proving that sometimes the best infrastructure already exists — it just needs to be reimagined.

The Inheritance

Five years ago, Susan purchased Arrawatta Station. This property had been heavily fogged and was dominated by large drainage banks designed to move water off the landscape as fast as possible.

The infrastructure was there. The earthworks were in place. But the system was working against the landscape.

As Susan explains in her story: "We started with a property that was a drainage system through large drainage banks."

Rather than accepting this as the way things had to be, Susan asked a different question: What if we could retrofit the drainage system to work with the landscape rather than against it?

The Paradigm Shift

"At Arrawatta Station, we're changing the paradigm from the water drainage system to a landscape rehydration system," Susan says.

The solution was elegantly simple: retrofit the drainage banks into chains of ponds.

"I've retrofitted the drainage system into chains of ponds so that they can retain the water and let it slowly filter into the landscape."

A drain being converted to a chain of ponds

This wasn't a complete rebuild. It was a strategic reimagining of existing infrastructure — turning a system designed to remove water into a system designed to hold it, slow it, and allow it to rehydrate the soil.

The Opportunity

Natural Sequence Farming consultant Will Cannington, who worked with Susan on implementing the systems at Arrawatta, sees massive potential for this approach across the slopes region.

"When you look at an aerial map or satellite photos of the slopes region, 25% of the cleared country would be contour drained, which is moving water off the landscape as fast as we possibly can," Will explains. "So there's an opportunity there to create chains of ponds and slow that system down."

That's not a small opportunity. That's 25% of the cleared slopes country — tens of thousands of hectares across NSW and Queensland — where existing drainage infrastructure could be retrofitted to rehydrate landscapes instead of draining them.

And the work itself? It's remarkably straightforward.

"It takes about 15 minutes for the days that we've got available here on the farm. It might take you 20 minutes, 25 minutes with the front-end loader and chisel plough. It's very, very simple work to do," Will says.

Simple work. Profound impact.

Creating the Conditions for Recovery

When Susan purchased Arrawatta, the property was in poor condition. "It was in pretty poor state when we bought it," Susan reflects.

But rather than trying to force immediate productivity, Susan focused on creating an environment where the soil could repair itself.

"Over the time we've been here, we've been working on an environment where the soil can repair itself. The plants that it's growing can change and evolve until they're into a fodder-style plant."

For the first few years, Arrawatta grew what Susan calls "accumulator plants" — species that most people in the industry call weeds.

"We didn't spray them. We used our cattle to trample them, eat them where possible, and where not possible, we slash them. So we created a nutrient cycle."

This is Natural Sequence Farming in practice — working with what the landscape is growing, understanding its function, and using livestock as a tool to process and cycle nutrients back into the soil.

A System Approach

Susan's work at Arrawatta wasn't limited to retrofitting drainage banks. She took a whole-of-system approach.

"One of the other key things we did with our cropping land here — it had all been set up in a big drainage system. So over that period of time, we've put in some significant Natural Sequence Farming work from little contour chains of ponds through to a lot of rock work in areas where we were passing across various water flows on the property."

The goal? Slow the flow from the top down to the bottom.

"None of them were eaten out. And we've put in lots of structures high up in the country so that we slow the flow right from the top all the way down to the bottom."

This top-to-bottom approach is critical. You can't just work at the bottom of a catchment and expect results. You need to slow water from the top down, creating a cascade of benefits as water moves through the landscape.

The Results

Susan didn't implement this work alone. Kate and Ryan, the land managers at Arrawatta, have been working alongside her to regenerate the landscape — and they're seeing clear results.

"I suppose what we've noticed is the area where the work has been done is the first to green up, and it's the last to dry out," Kate explains.

That's not a small thing. In a variable climate, having areas that green up first and dry out last is the difference between feed availability and feed shortage.

"So you are potentially growing more dry matter because you do have access to water in the landscape for longer," Kate continues. "It's basically given us a second bite at the cherry, and that's money in the bank for us."

This is what resilience looks like on the ground. Not just surviving droughts, but maintaining productivity through them.

The Nutrient Cycle

For Susan, this work extends well beyond water management. It's about the entire nutrient cycle — from soil to plant to animal to food.

"I know it's a bit of a cliche, but you are what you eat, and this is very much the same for the cattle," Susan says. "So the Natural Sequence Farming allowed us to retain water in the landscape to feed the organisms in the soil, which then feeds the plants, which then feeds the cattle — and that translates all the way through to the nutrients they all put into the food that you're then going to eat."

Native Angus Beef

This is systems thinking at its best. Every part of the system affects every other part. When you rehydrate the landscape, you're not just adding water — you're feeding soil biology, supporting plant growth, improving animal health, and ultimately producing more nutrient-dense food.

Native-Bred Aberdeen Angus

Susan runs what she calls "native bred Aberdeen Angus" — cattle raised by the Scots and line-bred for 200 years.

"We brought with us what are called native bred Aberdeen Angus that were raised by the Scots, line-bred for 200 years," Susan explains. "Perfect home for Scottish cattle" on the New England Tablelands.

The connection between landscape, cattle breed, and production is clear to Susan. The right cattle in the right landscape, managed with the right principles, create the right outcomes.

From Drainage to Rehydration

Susan Hendry's work at Arrawatta Station demonstrates a critical point: transformation doesn't always require starting from scratch.

Sometimes the infrastructure is already there. It just needs to be reimagined.

By retrofitting drainage banks into chains of ponds, Susan has turned a system that was degrading her landscape into a system that's rehydrating it.

And the opportunity to replicate this work? It's enormous.

As Will Cannington points out, 25% of the slopes region is contour drained. That's a landscape-scale opportunity for rehydration — one property, one retrofit, one chain of ponds at a time.

The work is simple. The results speak for themselves. And the future Susan is building at Arrawatta? It's one where soil, water, plants, cattle, and people all thrive together.

👉 Watch Susan's full story here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ASM_-Xofe8

Peter Andrews OAM spent his life showing people that there's a better way to work with the landscape. This story continues that mission — proof that the work is happening, right now, across Australia.

Let's Rehydrate Australia — together.

We'd love to hear your thoughts after you watch Susan's story. Comment below and let us know what resonates with you.

P.S. If you know someone who's managing drained country — someone who's looking at old drainage banks and wondering if there's a better way — please share Susan's story with them. The infrastructure might already be there. It just needs to be reimagined.

🔗 Subscribe to the channel: https://youtube.com/@tarwynparktraining

🌏 Learn more: rehydrateaustralia.com

This is the fourth story in our Rehydrate Australia series, sharing the journeys of farmers and land managers implementing Natural Sequence Farming across Australia.

That's all for this case study. Thanks for stopping by.

Many of our landscapes have degraded to the point that they can no longer manage water as they used to. Coupled with changing weather patterns, we’re faced with a growing list of consequences:

• Every year, we lose 12 million hectares of productive land to desertification¹

• Soil erosion claims 75 billion tonnes of soil annually - worth around $400 billion USD²

• In the US, a third of fertiliser applied to corn just replaces what erosion and runoff have already taken away - not even increasing yields³

The numbers are sobering. But here's what connects them all: water.

Not the lack of it — the loss of it.

Making Our Rainfall Work Again

Research shows healthy ecosystems can absorb and retain most of the rain that falls on them. Meanwhile, degraded land? It's shedding water like a tin roof. We call the rain that actually soaks in and stays available to plants "effective rainfall" — and we're losing it fast.

A global analysis of 89 field studies found that soils under perennial cover capture 60-70% of each storm, while intensively tilled soils capture barely 40%⁴. Ranch studies across five US states show the same pattern: identical rainfall, yet well-managed paddocks absorb up to 55% more water than their neighbours⁵

Think about that. Same rain, completely different outcomes.

Our rainfall hasn’t vanished – our landscapes have simply lost the ability to retain it where plants need it. Every consequence we’ve listed above? They all trace back to water moving too quickly through our landscapes, taking our soil, nutrients, and our future with it.

So, how do we slow it down? How do we make our rainfall effective again?

How Nature Got It Right

Before we talk solutions, we need to understand what we’re trying to restore. Because for millions of years, landscapes had already been managing water brilliantly.

Plants were the primary water managers. Multi-layered canopies intercepted rain at every height. Diverse root systems held moisture at every depth. Continuous growth and decay built up organic matter that acted as a living sponge. Complete cover, not a single species, made the difference.

Every green, growing plant powered the small water cycle. Managing heat from the sun daily, and stabilising local climates through evapotranspiration and condensation daily.

Forests operated the biotic pump. Large forests drew ocean moisture thousands of kilometres inland. Massive transpiration created low-pressure systems that drew humid air from the coast. Without them, continental interiors would be deserts.

Natural engineers shaped the landscape. Beavers built dams that created wetlands, slowed water movement and spread flow across floodplains. In Australia and other parts of the world, without our little beaver builders, plants were building wetlands. These weren't problems to remove - they were hydrological infrastructure creating habitat, filtering water, and recharging groundwater.

Coastal systems protected and filtered. Mangroves and salt marshes trapped sediment, filtered nutrients, and buffered storm surges.

Everything was interconnected. Water wasn't just moving downhill — it was cycling, from soil to plants to atmosphere and back. From uplands to lowlands through natural filtration systems.

The patterns were there. The water was managed. Droughts happened, but the landscape could buffer them. Floods happened, but wetlands absorbed them. The system had resilience built in.

Then we started "improving" things...

We drained wetlands to create farmland. We straightened creeks to "manage" flooding. We cleared vegetation to expand grazing. We tilled the soil to grow crops. We installed drainage systems to remove "excess" water faster.

Every intervention made sense at the time, but collectively, they broke the system.

Landscape Rehydration: Restoring Nature's Patterns

This is where landscape rehydration comes in, but it’s not what most people think.

Landscape rehydration is about restoring those natural water patterns we’ve just described. It’s about working with how water wants to move through your landscape, following the ancient patterns nature has established - not imposing our own.

But here's what makes it challenging...

When people hear "landscape rehydration," they think: build dams, dig channels, capture everything.

If it were that simple, every farmer with irrigation would have fixed their landscape by now.

The key is understanding that different parts of your landscape have different roles. Your landscape shows patterns indicating where water naturally infiltrates and where it emerges. Understanding these patterns is fundamental to successful landscape rehydration.

Steps are where water naturally pauses. Look at any healthy landscape, and you'll see it moves water down through a series of natural steps — flat areas where water slows, spreads and soaks before dropping to the next level. These steps are where nature once built wetlands, where reeds, sedges and other grasses grew, where water had time to infiltrate. They're also where we focus our interventions.

Recharge areas are typically found at the spots where water soaks into the ground more readily. These areas will have different sedimentary bases and often different plant types. Look for willows, reeds, or seasonally wet areas.

Discharge areas are found below the steps where stored water is pushed back to the surface under natural pressure. You’ll find different plants here – grasses, she-oaks, and many native species that thrive with consistent moisture from below.

Reading these patterns tells you where water wants to slow down (build here) and where it naturally emerges.

Getting Started: Your Landscape Rehydration Toolkit

Now that you understand how water wants to move through your landscape, let's talk about working with those patterns. But first, let's be clear about something.

There's no silver bullet.

Successful landscape rehydration isn't about picking one intervention and expecting miracles. It's about creating a whole-system approach where each element supports the others. Think of it like a symphony — every instrument has its part to play.

The Soft Engineering Approach 🛠️

When Peter Andrews observed nature managing water, he noticed it wasn't using concrete and steel. Nature uses what's available: earth, rocks, logs, and vegetation. We call this "soft engineering" — structures designed to kickstart natural processes, then fade into the background as plants take over management.

Every structure shares the same goals:

• 🌊 Slow water velocity to allow time for infiltration

• 💧 Lift the water table and recharge the surrounding soils

• 🌱 Create conditions for vegetation to establish and take over

• ♻️ Capture sediment and fertility that would otherwise be lost

• 🏞️ Restart the hydrological processes that heal landscapes

Here's your core toolkit:

Contours — Linear Wetlands Across the Landscape

Level channels built on steps in the landscape spread water across slopes. They’re often the single most influential intervention you can make, connecting wet areas with dry and allowing water to sit perched above the landscape below, slowly infiltrating.

Contour connecting a low, wet area with a high, dry area

Leaky Weirs — Speed Bumps for Water

Small, permeable structures are placed across flow lines where water is now disconnected from the floodplain. Built from rocks, logs, or even hay bales, they slow water down, create ponding, and allow the natural chain-of-ponds pattern to re-establish.

Leaky Weir in Flood

Gully Ponds — Healing Erosion Scars

Where gullies have formed, these earthen structures create permanent water storage while managing energy and reconnecting water with the surrounding landscape. They turn erosion problems into productive wetlands.

Gully Pond

Hill Ponds — Wetlands Where You Least Expect Them

Built into contour spillways, these recreate perched wetlands high in the landscape. During wet periods, they hold water, supporting wetland plants that filter nutrients and slowly release fertility to areas below.

Hill Pond

But Structures Are Just the Beginning

As Stuart Andrews says: “Engineering should only be the trigger to assist the plants.” If it’s anything other than that, you’ve failed.

This is where three crucial management practices come in:

Time-Controlled Grazing

Remember that research showing AMP grazing can improve effective rainfall by 53%? That comes from managing animals according to your landscape's needs, not the calendar. Time your grazing to match plant recovery periods. Move animals based on what the landscape is telling you — the growth stage of plants, the soil moisture, the season. Short, intense grazing followed by long recovery periods that allow plants to fully recover and deepen their root systems.

Ground Cover Maintenance — Bare Soil Is Enemy Number One

Every square metre of bare soil represents a lost opportunity for infiltration. It’s where erosion begins, where water runs off instead of soaking in, and where heat is reflected instead of being absorbed. Whether through grazing management, mulching, or strategic planting, keep your soil covered.

Pushing Plant Succession Forward

Nature wants to move from bare soil to forest, but it often gets stuck along the way. Your job is to push that succession forward - managing for the plants you want rather than fighting the ones you don't. Know where your landscape wants to go and help it get there faster.

Putting It All Together

The magic happens when these elements work as a system:

• Earthworks slow and spread water

• Good grazing management maintains ground cover and root depth

• Good vegetation cover improves infiltration

Together, they create a positive feedback loop

Your contour might catch the water, but it's the perennial grasses with their deep roots that create lasting infiltration. Your leaky weir might slow the flow, but it’s the reeds, sedges and rushes that stabilise the system. Your grazing management might seem separate from your earthworks, but it's what ensures there's vegetation to protect and enhance what you've built.

None of these works in isolation. They're all part of restoring those natural patterns we discussed earlier.

The Bigger Picture

Here’s what gets us excited about landscape rehydration: when you get the water right, everything else starts to come good.

Soil biology wakes up. Plant diversity increases. Erosion ceases. Pastures become more productive. Drought resilience improves. Your landscape starts working with you instead of against you.

And when your neighbour sees it working? When your local catchment group start sharing knowledge? That’s when whole-of-landscape scale change really starts to happen.

This isn't about perfection. It's about progress. It's about reading your landscape, understanding how water wants to move, and working with those patterns instead of fighting them.

So here's our question for you: What's one area of your landscape that's telling you it needs more water?

Start there. Observe it. Ask questions. And remember – you're not doing this alone. The landscapes we're working to restore took generations to degrade. They'll take time to heal. But every intervention that slows water down, spreads it out, and gives it time to soak in is a step in the right direction.

Want to dive deeper into Natural Sequence Farming and learn how to read your landscape? Join us in our upcoming Learning Landscapes course, where we break down all 5 Pillars and give you the practical tools to start rehydrating your landscape – whether you've got a backyard or a thousand acres.

Landscape Profile

NSF Champion #3: Richard & Eleanor Brimblecombe – Don't Wait, Start Now at Clearwater

Our third Natural Sequence Farming Champion story takes us to Clearwater, 6km south of Glenmorgan on Queensland's Western Downs, where Richard and Eleanor Brimblecombe are proving that the best time to start is now — because the second-best time was yesterday.

The Two-Year Gap

Richard and Elle run an F1 Wagyu operation on their 1,300-hectare property. After Richard completed a Tarwyn Park Training course at Gayndah, he felt reaffirmed in what they needed to do. Natural Sequence Farming aligned perfectly with their stewardship goals.

But then came the gap.

Two years passed between completing the course and actually implementing Natural Sequence Farming contours across Clearwater.

As Richard reflects in their story: "If I had one regret, it would be that I wish I would have done it sooner."

This is a regret many landholders will recognise — the knowing-doing gap. You understand what needs to happen. You can see it in the landscape. But somehow, time passes before action follows understanding.

The Implementation

Richard and Elle have now installed 15 kilometres of Natural Sequence Farming contours across their property. And as Richard says, they're "really excited about what we're seeing as a consequence of installing those."

The results include:

• Water is being moved laterally across the landscape

• Water held up in the landscape for longer

• Water is released progressively over time

• Surplus flows are redistributed away from gullies

• Water is directed onto hillsides where they want to release it

• Contour banks grassing up beautifully

• New grasses germinating in great diversity

• Healthy cattle are doing well on the improved landscape

These are exactly the outcomes Natural Sequence Farming is designed to deliver.

The Time Factor

But here's the crucial insight Richard shares: "We understand that it will take quite some time for all of the benefits to accrue here. But we are seeing small benefits very quickly."

This understanding is key. The small benefits appear quickly — within the first year, sometimes within months. But the deep, transformative benefits to soil structure, water-holding capacity, and ecological function take time to develop.

Which is precisely why Richard's advice is so important.

The Advice: Drive Yourself to Act

Richard's message to anyone considering Natural Sequence Farming is clear and emphatic:

"My suggestion to anyone doing a natural sequence farming course with Tarwyn Park Training would be to drive yourself to put what you learn into practice as quickly as you can afterwards."

Don't wait for perfect conditions. Don't wait for the ideal moment. Don't let analysis paralysis set in.

As Richard says, "Bite the bullet and get yourself booked on a course and go and do it, and then get yourself ready to implement."

Managing for Biodiversity

What Richard and Elle are seeing now at Clearwater goes beyond water management. As Richard notes, "We're thrilled with the way the contour banks are grassing up. We're seeing a lot of plant activity, new grasses germinating. It's a great mix, and the cattle are healthy. They're doing really well, and we're trying to manage for that biodiversity on an ongoing basis."

This is Natural Sequence Farming working as it should — not just moving water, but creating the conditions for life to flourish.

The Legacy Vision

For Richard and Elle, this work is about more than production outcomes. It's about stewardship.

"Really, for us, it's all about leaving Clearwater in a far better state than it was when we came. We want to leave a legacy that's very positive for the community and the environment and the industry as well."

After 4.5 years at the property, Natural Sequence Farming has become "a really important part of what we're trying to achieve here."

Elle's Journey

An important part of their story is how Elle came to understand and embrace the work. As Richard explains: "Elle and I spent a lot of time talking about those goals and how the natural sequence farming actually is a really important part of what we're trying to achieve here. So, once she understood how it all worked together, she was very enthusiastic to come on the journey as well."

This speaks to the importance of shared vision in any long-term landscape transformation work. Both partners need to understand not just what you're doing, but why it matters and how it connects to your broader goals.

Don't Wait. Start Now.

The lesson from Richard and Elle's story is simple but profound: the time you spend waiting is time you could have been building soil, storing water, and creating resilience.

The small benefits appear quickly. But the long-term transformation takes time.

So start now.

As Richard says: "If I had one regret, it would be that I wish I would have done it sooner."

Learn from their regret. Don't let two years pass between learning and doing. Put what you learn into practice as quickly as you can.

The landscape you want to create starts with the decision you make today.

👉 Watch Richard and Elle's full story here: https://youtu.be/FdtBQy4UdI0

Peter Andrews OAM spent his life showing people that there's a better way to work with the landscape. This story continues that mission — proof that the work is happening, right now, across Australia.

Let's Rehydrate Australia — together.

We'd love to hear your thoughts after you watch Richard and Elle's story. Comment below and let us know what resonates with you.

P.S. If you know someone who's been thinking about Natural Sequence Farming but hasn't started yet — a farmer, a land manager, someone who keeps meaning to get to that course — please share Richard and Elle's story with them. Sometimes we all need a reminder: don't wait. Start now.

🔗 Subscribe to the channel: https://youtube.com/@tarwynparktraining

🌏 Learn more: rehydrateaustralia.com

This is the third story in our Rehydrate Australia series, sharing the journeys of farmers and land managers implementing Natural Sequence Farming across Australia.

Good morning, and welcome to the 20th edition of our monthly newsletter, Reading Landscapes.

Every section will be split with this divider

Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

• Just add water

• Good, old Billygoat Weed

• Meet our next NSF Champions!

• What we’ve been learning

🔎 Looking at the Landscape

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

Just add water... And no, I'm not talking about the Disney kids' show.

I'm talking about the one simple step that can create a massive change in your landscape. Where did all life on Earth emerge from? If you're thinking of a water body, you'd be right, and the landscape you have around you is no different now. A landscape without adequate water will never function as well as one with adequate water.

This is why the first thing you should think about when managing your landscape is how to manage the water I receive: slow it down, store it in the ground, and keep it for longer. Once it's in the ground, it can be readily supplied to your plants and protected from evaporation.

Getting it into the ground can be the hard part, especially in some landscapes where the ground is hard and has limited organic matter to slow and hold that water for a period, allowing it to infiltrate.

That's where simple, small-scale earthworks like level contours and hill ponds can empower you to make tangible improvements. They capture water moving across the surface, slow it down, and allow it to infiltrate, specifically into the higher parts of your soil profile where it is most available to plants.

Hill ponds provide a really great example of what this simple process can achieve.

Firstly, what's a hill pond? A hill pond is a small depression dug into the ground, much like it sounds and constructed on ridges or spurs. They act like small, perched wetlands, sitting high above the surrounding landscape.

They most often form part of a contour being constructed across the landscape and act as slightly enlarged spillways capable of holding a little more water during extended wet periods. But they can also be built as a one-off implementation, as shown in the images below.

In this example, a small hill pond is built on a high, dry ridge situated many metres above the floodplain below. As you can see in the first photo, it is dry and with minimal plant growth and virtually no diversity. Unfortunately, in this landscape, this ridge loses most of its water before it has a chance to infiltrate.

But as you can see in the second photo, the implementation of this hill pond has transformed that entire landscape. The area below and above it now supports a diversity of life. During the extended wet period, this small pond became a seasonal wetland on the top of a hill, metres above the floodplain! We now have a body of water charging the landscape around it, infiltrating into the soil, and wetland rushes starting to grow on the outside of the pond and in the water. You can't see, but there are tadpoles on the top of a hill, not something you'd usually see.

I really think this is an excellent example of why sometimes we only need to just add water and see over time what a landscape can become when it is finally given an opportunity by implementing some small scale earthworks like we did in this example, and of course like all that we do with the intention that this will now be taken over and managed by plants because they now have access to the missing ingredient - water.

💧 Rehydrate Australia

NSF Champions: Ra & Tina Briggs – Every Acre Counts at Cona Creek

Our second Natural Sequence Farming Champion story takes us to Cona Creek, west of Springsure in Queensland, where Ra and Tina Briggs are proving that every acre can count when you work with the landscape, not against it.

The Scale Question

Cona Creek is 46,000 acres. That's a big property by any measure. But as Ra explains in their story: "It's not about the scale. It's about the project you're working on that day. It's breaking the problem down into small bits, solving that problem, and then moving on to the next one."

This mindset shift — from being overwhelmed by the size of the challenge to focusing on the project at hand — is something many landholders will recognise.

The Journey to NSF

For years, Ra researched ways to improve their land. That search eventually led him to Natural Sequence Farming. After attending a Tarwyn Park Training course, Ra and Tina returned to Cona Creek and, as Tina describes it, "we were looking at the landscape with very different eyes from when we left."

But seeing the landscape differently and knowing where to start are two different things.

"We were still unsure of where to start," Ra admits. "And that's when your analysis paralysis sets in. But that's not an excuse for not starting."

The Approach: Whole of System, Top to Bottom

Ra and Tina took a whole-of-system approach to their landscape work, beginning at the top of their watersheds and working down.

"It's really important that you have a plan," Tina explains. "So our plan was we started at the top, but everything that you do has a flow-on effect, and we are seeing that flow-on effect."

Ra has installed check banks throughout the property to slow water flow. The results? Deposition building in key areas, biodiversity growth — birds, trees, plants flourishing — and noticeably cooler, greener landscapes developing across the property.

Giving Back — and Gaining More

One of the most striking things Tina says in their story is this: "I say the words 'give something back,' but we're gaining much more than we're giving."

This captures something essential about Natural Sequence Farming: it's not about sacrifice. It's about creating systems that work better for everyone — the land, the livestock, the people, and the future.

For Ra and Tina, Natural Sequence Farming has become their major drought reduction strategy. As Ra reflects: "I feel like I've discovered my life's work improving this place, and the results that we're seeing are amazing."

The Universal Patterns

One of the key insights Tina shares is this: "The patterns are all the same. It doesn't matter how big or small the place is; you're looking for the same patterns everywhere in Australia. Whether you're in high rainfall or low rainfall, it's the same patterns, just a different landscape."

This is what makes Natural Sequence Farming scalable and applicable across the entire continent. The principles don't change based on property size or rainfall — you're reading the same patterns and working with the same natural processes.

Every Acre Counts

Ra's philosophy is clear: "By doing this, that's our way to make sure that every acre does count."

Whether you're managing 46,000 acres or 46 acres, the principle holds: break the problem down, make a plan, start at the top, and take it one project at a time.

As Ra says, "It's very easy to get lost in the detail. So having a clear objective — make a decision and start."

👉 Watch Ra and Tina's full story here: Rehydrate Australia with Ra and Tina Briggs, Cona Creek, Springsure

Peter Andrews OAM spent his life trying to show people that there's a better way to work with the landscape. This documentary continues that mission — and it's proof that the work is happening, right now, all across Australia.

Let's Rehydrate Australia — together.

We'd love to hear your thoughts after you watch Ra and Tina's story. Hit reply and let us know what resonates with you.

P.S. If you know someone who needs to see this — a farmer, a land manager, a council member, a friend who cares about the future of our landscapes — please share it with them. The more people who understand Natural Sequence Farming, the more landscapes we can help restore.

🔗 Subscribe to the channel: Tarwyn Park Training

🌏 Learn more: rehydrateaustralia.com

🌳 Learning from Plants

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

Billygoat Weed

Common Names: Bluetop, Blue Billygoat Weed, Goat Weed, Ageratum, Flossflower, Todd’s Curse

Scientific Name: Ageratum conyzoides, Ageratum houstonianum

Where in the Succession: Mid Succession Accumulator

What is a Plant Succession?

Thanks to Madeleine for sharing this month's species, Billygoat Weed.

Billygoat Weed is a small species of aromatic annual weed. It is native to tropical America but is now found across much of the world. It is adaptable but prefers tropical, subtropical, and temperate environments with warm summers.

What is it telling me about my landscape?

Billygoat Weed is a mid- to late-succession accumulator.

Where will I find Billygoat Weed growing, and why is it growing there?

Billygoat weed will happily grow in a wide range of environments, but it is most prevalent in disturbed ground or landscapes with adequate soil fertility and moisture. It will quickly colonise a site, especially overgrazed or cultivated areas - but given time, it will improve these sites far beyond where they were.

The general trends I see in a landscape displaying where Billygoat weed is dominating include the following;

• Limited to no ground cover before the establishment of the Billygoat weed, whether as a result of overgrazing or cultivation.

• It prefers soils with higher fertility and adequate moisture, but is quite adaptable and can still be found growing in lower-quality soils.

• Further to the above, the higher fertility levels may also be the result of over-fertilising and actually be low in both available carbon and nitrogen.

• Limited organic matter

• Commonly grows in cleared areas that are trying to return to forest, but are still in their early successional phase of that process.

How can we manage Billygoat Weed?

⬆️ Increase soil organic matter. Given the Billygoat weeds' preference for growing in areas with higher fertility and excess nitrogen, we need to balance our carbon:nitrogen ratio and build up carbon levels. We can do this by increasing the amount of organic matter in the system by following a chop-and-drop pattern, cutting down the billygoat weed and returning it to the surface, or by bringing in external sources of fertility, such as compost, or by applying liquid carbon in the form of humates or humic acid to the area.

🐂 Change our grazing management. Billygoat weed likes to invade landscapes with limited competition and overgrazed areas. We can improve our management of these areas by implementing time-controlled grazing systems and ensuring we provide adequate recovery time after grazing before bringing livestock back in.

We can also work on training our livestock to eat less desirable plants like Billygoat weed through increasing our density of animals in a paddock, so they understand they need to get in and eat or miss out - remembering in this situation that we need to be mindful of toxins if they have only Billygoat weed for extended periods of time.

🍄 Increase your soil fungal levels. Billygoat weed grows in soils with a bacterial dominance that naturally aligns with low organic matter and higher nitrogen levels. This ties in with point one: increasing our soil organic matter. We can also feed our fungi in these areas of the landscape and entice them in. Some fungal food options include: wood chips (preferably partially composted, especially hardwood varieties), biochar, fish hydrolysate, and humic acids.

Additionally, we could add cover crops or plant species to the area that naturally have strong relationships with soil fungi.

🧑‍🌾 Change our land management. In situations where grazing hasn't been the stimulus, but land management has been through cultivation and manual disturbance. We need to look for other ways to manage that piece of land in the long term, or, if that is not achievable, how can we manage our landscape so that Billygoat weed doesn't need to appear to do it for us? We can always keep a green surface area growing, maintain our organic matter levels, and continue feeding the soil even without plants to do it for us.

How to make the most of your Billygoat Weed

🪨 As a Soil Indicator: High nitrogen, but low availability, high phosphorus, high potassium, potentially acidic, low humus (organic matter)¹

🐮 Livestock: Livestock will graze Billygoat weed as part of a mixed pasture. It can provide high energy levels and protein content for livestock, with crude protein up to 24% in the plant as a whole² . It has also shown potential as an insect repellent for livestock due to the volatile compounds it contains, which are unpleasant to insects³ .

Management must always come first with this plant, though, as there have been toxicity concerns with it and animals due to its alkaloids, which can cause liver damage.

💊 Medicinal: Billygoat weed has a wide variety of uses in traditional medicine and is currently being researched for potential uses for today.

Traditionally, it would be used for⁴ :

• Wound healing, with the crushed leaves applied directly to the wound as a poultice

• As an anti-inflammatory for treating skin irritations, arthritis and headaches

• As an antimicrobial for treating skin infections, dysentery and diarrhea

Today it is used⁴ ;

• In Brazil, as an anti-inflammatory

• In Ghana, as a registered antimalarial herb

• And, it has been actively researched as an Antifungal and anti-inflammatory.

🍽️ Consumption: Billygoat weed is not edible for humans

📚 What We’ve Been Learning

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

How grazing cattle breathed new life into army veteran Tim’s farm - and himself - Beef Central: An excellent article about our very own graduate, Tim Lee, sharing his incredible journey of change, working through some very personal and pivotal shifts to where he is now. It's an excellent story, and we're very proud to have Tim as part of our community and to see the outstanding work he's been doing.

How social media fuels useless products: I watched Matt D'Avella's breakdown of society's dopamine-fueled shopping. An in-depth look at all those product videos we regularly see on our social channels, promising to be just what you need, only to forget about them within days of purchase. We really need to step away from this culture of disposable consumerism and constant distractions and instead focus on a less-is-more mindset.

China has planted so many trees it's changed the entire country's water distribution: An interesting piece shared by Tony in our graduate community. The article notes that China's massive tree‑planting and grassland restoration projects have reshaped the country's entire water cycle, boosting rainfall in some regions while reducing it in others. It left me questioning why this was happening, and once again, the importance of always thinking in a whole landscape paradigm and not just individual pieces.

Rock weirs doing their thing.: In this short video, from our very own TPT presenter Shane Joyce. He walks through a series of simple rock and concrete structures he's built in an incised channel to slow, spread and "de-energise" stormwater. It's a great visual example of Natural Sequence Farming in action - turning an eroding drain back into a chain of ponds that pushes water out into the surrounding landscape. Well worth a watch.

Landscape Profile

NSF Champion #2: Ra & Tina Briggs – Every Acre Counts at Cona Creek

Our second Natural Sequence Farming Champion story takes us to Cona Creek, west of Springsure in Queensland, where Ra and Tina Briggs are proving that every acre can count when you work with the landscape, not against it.

The Scale Question

Cona Creek is 46,000 acres. That's a big property by any measure. But as Ra explains in their story: "It's not about the scale. It's about the project you're working on that day. It's breaking the problem down into small bits, solving that problem, and then moving on to the next one."

This mindset shift — from being overwhelmed by the size of the challenge to focusing on the project at hand — is something many landholders will recognise.

Whether you're managing 46,000 acres or 46 acres, the principle holds: break the problem down, make a plan, and take it one project at a time.

The Journey to NSF

For years, Ra researched ways to improve their land. That search eventually led him to Natural Sequence Farming. After attending a Tarwyn Park Training course, Ra and Tina returned to Cona Creek and, as Tina describes it, "we were looking at the landscape with very different eyes from when we left."

But seeing the landscape differently and knowing where to start are two different things.

"We were still unsure of where to start," Ra admits. "And that's when your analysis paralysis sets in. But that's not an excuse for not starting."

This is the gap many landholders experience — the space between understanding and action. For Ra and Tina, the answer wasn't waiting for perfect conditions. It was making a decision and starting.

The Approach: Whole of System, Top to Bottom

Ra and Tina took a whole-of-system approach to their landscape work, beginning at the top of their watersheds and working down.

"It's really important that you have a plan," Tina explains. "So our plan was we started at the top, but everything that you do has a flow-on effect, and we are seeing that flow-on effect."

Ra has installed check banks throughout the property to slow water flow. The results?

• Deposition building in key areas

• Biodiversity growth — birds, trees, plants flourishing

• Noticeably cooler, greener landscapes are developing across the property

These outcomes didn't happen by accident. They happened because Ra and Tina planned from the top down, understanding that everything in a landscape is connected.

Giving Back — and Gaining More

One of the most striking things Tina says in their story is this: "I say the words 'give something back,' but we're gaining much more than we're giving."

This captures something essential about Natural Sequence Farming: it's not about sacrifice. It's not about giving up productivity for environmental outcomes. It's about creating systems that work better for everyone — the land, the livestock, the people, and the future.

For Ra and Tina, Natural Sequence Farming has become their major drought reduction strategy. As Ra reflects: "I feel like I've discovered my life's work improving this place, and the results that we're seeing are amazing."

The Universal Patterns

One of the key insights Tina shares is this: "The patterns are all the same. It doesn't matter how big or small the place is, you're looking for the same patterns everywhere in Australia. Whether you're high rainfall or low rainfall, it's the same patterns, just a different landscape."

This is what makes Natural Sequence Farming scalable and applicable across the entire continent. The principles don't change based on property size or rainfall — you're reading the same patterns and working with the same natural processes.

Whether you're in high-rainfall coastal country or low-rainfall inland zones, the landscape is telling you the same story. You just need to learn how to read it.

Every Acre Counts

Ra's philosophy is clear: "By doing this, that's our way to make sure that every acre does count."

It's easy to feel overwhelmed when looking at a large property. It's easy to look at a challenging landscape and not know where to begin. But as Ra says, "It's very easy to get lost in the detail. So having a clear objective — make a decision and start."

Break the problem down. Make a plan. Start at the top. Take it one project at a time.

That's how every acre counts.

👉 Watch Ra and Tina's full story here: https://youtu.be/qsRREjGUC-0

Peter Andrews OAM spent his life trying to show people that there's a better way to work with the landscape. This documentary continues that mission — and it's proof that the work is happening, right now, all across Australia.

Let's Rehydrate Australia — together.

We'd love to hear your thoughts after you watch Ra and Tina's story. Comment below and let us know what resonates with you.

P.S. If you know someone who needs to see this — a farmer, a land manager, a council member, a friend who cares about the future of our landscapes — please share it with them. The more people who understand Natural Sequence Farming, the more landscapes we can help restore.

🔗 Subscribe to the channel: https://youtube.com/@tarwynparktraining

🌏 Learn more: rehydrateaustralia.com

Good morning, and welcome to the 19th edition of our monthly newsletter, Reading Landscapes.

Every section will be split with this divider

Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

• Time to start Building Landscapes

• Blackberry, sweet and thorny

• What we’ve been learning

🔎 Looking at the Landscape

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

Last week, we hosted our very first advanced Natural Sequence Farming course - Building Landscapes. This course has been in development for a long time. As landscape managers, we are constantly learning, understanding new landscapes, and designing what works best for each context, which is why this course has been in development for a long time - until now. But we were extremely pleased with our first course and the fantastic group of graduates we welcomed back, who arrived at “Marloo” from NSW, QLD, VIC, SA and WA to spend the four days with us.

Our first Building Landscapes cohort

This course was all practical, with four days spent in the paddock reading landscapes and implementing. We were busy building gully ponds, connecting contours to dams and ponds, constructing leaky weirs with rocks, logs, and earth, and building a large stock crossing with a Pelicans Beak™ pipe.

Our Pelican’s Beak™ Stock Crossing

A log gully structure

It was an in-depth dive into reading a landscape, planning what can be done, and then beginning the implementation process. I thought it might be worth sharing a bit this month about some of the key considerations we keep in mind when designing and building our landscape implementations.

🔝 Start at the top

We always want to start as high up in the landscape as possible. We do this for a few reasons.

1. At the top of the system, we are trying to manage the smallest volume of water on our property, which makes it easier for what we implement to manage the water it receives. It is also the best spot for us to learn from when we are early in our journey.

2. Starting at the top yields the most significant benefit for our landscape. By managing water early, we can reduce its erosive forces and hold it for longer at higher points.

3. At the top of the system, we want to find a way to connect the largest area of our landscape, rather than doing little bits and pieces all over the place. By connecting the largest piece at the beginning, it allows us to make the most significant impact over the largest area, having a combination of economies of scale for your bank account, but also by connecting as much of the landscape together as possible, allowing for more water to be managed and more fertility to be spread, resulting in greater results.

🪜 Find the steps

We always look to build on what we call the steps in a landscape. These are hard to explain in written words, but to put it simply, steps are areas of a landscape where the gradient flattens slightly before falling again. They are the easiest to see on slopes.

They are what was created over a long period of time, as a result of water being slowed and dropping the sediment it carried, which builds up a level area. What started the process varied - whether it was plants or a natural block, but it changed how water was managed and created the areas we now call steps.

It is at these steps that the water was slowed; it could begin infiltrating into the soil, and this allowed the landscape to undertake the process of hydrological recharge. It’s for these reasons that we seek to recreate this process using the same steps. By starting to manage the water on a step again we can recreate the recharge process that was always occurring.

🌊 Manage the water

And finally the other thing that we always consider, and often the most important, is how are we going to manage the water - we are always about managing water, as we cannot control it, no matter what we think, we do not know what nature is going to give us and therefore when designing all of our works we are always thinking about how is it going to handle an unlimited capacity of water.

To work around this, we think about the water entering our landscape works as well as the water exiting them, and we ensure we design them so they remove and manage as much of that water’s energy as possible, limiting the erosive nature of unmanaged water.

🌱 Design for plants

We always aim to design our works so that, in the long term, plants will take over their management. We do this because we will not always be there to ensure everything goes to plan, and our natural systems were never designed to have us continually manage them - plants served that role. We set about ensuring that all our designs follow that as well, either by creating an environment for plants to come in on their own or by planting alongside the works we implement.

By working around these four concepts, we can ensure we are working alongside nature and recreating a system that was once operating and now designed in a way that we are not required, given time, nature and plants will once again take over the process and continue the management long into the future - creating a natural system that will long outlive all of us.

Rehydrate Australia

We’re excited to officially announce a project that we have been working on for a while. What started as a mission to share the amazing work our community of graduates has been implementing in their own landscapes after attending one of our courses has now grown into a full-blown documentary - and with that, we’re excited to introduce you to Rehydrate Australia.

Something special is happening on farms across Australia.

Farmers are rising up to take on increasingly severe cycles of droughts, fires and floods.​

Come on a road trip to find out how Australian farmers are leading the world in landscape rehydration.​

Over the past year, we’ve travelled across the country to visit the farms of our graduates and document the incredible work they're doing with Natural Sequence Farming.

We've seen restored water cycles, rehydrated landscapes, and farmers who are genuinely rebuilding resilience into their land. And we wanted to share their stories with the world.

This documentary isn't just ours - it belongs to our graduates.

The farmers and land managers who have put in the hard yards to implement Natural Sequence Farming on their properties, who opened their gates and welcomed us in, who shared their wins, their challenges, and their hopes for the future. This is their story, and we're honoured to help tell it.

We also couldn't have done this without the incredible support of Friendly Farms, who believed in this project from the start and helped bring it to life.

The trailer is live today.

We're releasing it to you first, our Reading Landscapes community.

The full documentary will be released soon, but over the coming months, we'll be sharing individual stories from the farms we visited - real examples of what our graduates have been achieving across the country.

Watch the trailer below and subscribe to our YouTube channel to stay up to date with every release.

Introducing our NSF Champions

And with that, we’re excited to introduce and share our first NSF champion - Charlie Arnott. Come and visit “Hanaminno” and see the work that the Arnott family have been putting in to restoring their landscape and starting to Rehydrate Australia!

Peter Andrews OAM spent his life trying to show people that there's a better way to work with the landscape. This documentary continues that mission — and it's proof that the work is happening, right now, all across Australia.

Let's Rehydrate Australia — together.

We'd love to hear your thoughts after you watch the trailer and our first NSF Champion story. Hit reply and let us know what resonates with you.

P.S. If you know someone who needs to see this — a farmer, a land manager, a council member, a friend who cares about the future of our landscapes — please share it with them. The more people who understand Natural Sequence Farming, the more landscapes we can help restore.

🔗 Subscribe to the channel: Tarwyn Park Training

🌏 Learn more: rehydrateaustralia.com

🌳 Learning from Plants

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

Blackberry

Common Names: Blackberry, Bramble, European Blackberry, Shrubby Blackberry, Wild Blackberry, Bramble fruit

Scientific Name: Rubus fruticosus

Where in the Succession: Early to Mid Succession Accumulator

What is a Plant Succession?

What is it telling me about my landscape?

Blackberry is an Early to Mid Succession Accumulator.

Where will I find Blackberry growing, and why is it growing there?

Blackberry is the epitome of a pioneer species, especially in landscapes like Australia, where it is classed as an invasive species. It is in these degraded areas that it will quickly take up residence and colonise disturbed sites, whether that is landscapes that have been cleared, overgrazed, burnt or abandoned or mismanaged agricultural land. And in most cases, the landscapes where it finds itself taking up residence would have once been timbered or forested at some point in history.

The common trend across the landscapes we tend to find Blackberry dominating includes;

• Limited organic matter

• Degraded soils often suffering from erosion

• A landscape where its hydrological function is not intact

• Mismanagement that opened up the opportunity for Blackberries to enter

• Landscapes that were once forested, and depending on management, take on the opportunity to start the ecological succession back to forest, with Blackberry kickstarting the process

Interestingly, as we discussed at the start of the newsletter in our Building Landscapes course, we implemented a number of structures in an actively eroding gully, and at many of the sites we called steps, blackberries were already growing. Now, whether that was just a coincidence, I tend to think not, as it is common to see blackberries actively trying to stabilise those eroding sites and manage water in those areas for nature.

How can we manage Blackberry?

🐐 Use livestock intervention. Goats have proven to be an excellent management option for blackberries with their ability to readily consume their biomass. Blackberry is palatable to goats thanks to its high digestible dry matter, mineral content and their preference for a diet of more coarse materials compared to other ruminants. Cattle will also consume blackberries, but not to the extent of goats and for them it fits better as part of a mixed diet. Now, with the knowledge about goats, there are people running businesses taking goats onto people’s properties to manage blackberries, which can work great for people not wanting to take on another enterprise or for someone like me who refuses to run an animal like a goat (for fencing reasons!).

🚜 Use mechanical intervention. With low palatability, it will be difficult, especially in very dense populations, to use livestock entirely, even goats, so that’s where machinery comes in. You can slash or mulch blackberries to remove their biomass, or for greater intervention, you could use a tool like a stick rake to take them out completely. In each of these situations, it will take continuous management, as they will all reshoot and start growing again. That’s where incorporating this method with the following two will lead to greater results in the long run - otherwise, you will just have to keep coming back in with machines over time.

🐄 Alter our grazing. Blackberries are often entering into a landscape to try and start the process of moving succession back to a forest and in a grazing situation this can be triggered most often by removing or changing grazing to being very light where young blackberries get the chance to take off or by overgrazing followed by a break where there is an open opportunity for the blackberry to take advantage of limited competition and no animal impact.

In both situations, we can continue using animals in the system, but we need to realise that our management created the opportunity for the blackberry to start, and we need to manage in a way that doesn’t promote it. We can do that by implementing a time-controlled grazing system, managing the impact we create in an area and ensuring we have an adequate recovery period before grazing it again.

We can also use the animals in areas where blackberries are dominant to increase impact by increasing stocking density, whilst managing their performance by supplementing them with an external feed source and using them as tools to create impact on our key blackberry management sites.

🌿 Increase plant diversity. As we discussed earlier, blackberries often return to a landscape to initiate an ecological shift back to a forest. In this situation, why not work with nature and make a compromise to support the reintroduction of trees, shrubs, and other forest-type species into specific areas alongside our pasture species, creating a more diverse mix of plants? We could do this in combination with installing contours to manage water, and then plant our forest-type species along the bottom of the contours.

Additionally, we can look to increase our fungal-to-bacterial ratio in the soil, which is often more on the bacterial end in these landscapes. We should aim for at least a 1:1 ratio.

⬆️ Increase our soil organic matter. In most cases, the soils where blackberries are dominating are low in soil organic matter, hence why the blackberry arrives with its incredible ability to grow a large amount of biomass in a short period of time and then starts dropping that material alongside its relationship with the soil to start building up a much higher volume of organic matter. We can work alongside nature in these areas by bringing in external sources of organic matter to help build up the soil, or in many cases, the blackberry has done enough and needs some assistance to remove it and move to the next stage of the succession for that site, as well as our continual management to ensure that area continues to aggrade.

🍄 Fungal bio-control. Blackberry Rust Fungus (Phragmidium violaceum) was first released in Australia in 1991, and since then it has received mixed results some of the best seeing¹ ;

• 56% and 38% reduction in total biomass, respectively, after 10 years of rust infection

• 96% reduction in daughter plant production (vegetative reproduction)

However, this has not occurred everywhere, nor with every variety; there has also been the issue of preventing the fungus from affecting the cultivated varieties. There is ongoing research into additional fungal strains and potential insect management methods.

How to make the most of your Blackberry

🪨 As a Soil Indicator: Very low Calcium, Low Potassium, High phosphate, High Magnesium, High Manganese, High Iron, Very little organic matter. More abundant on fertile soils²

🐮 Livestock: Blackberries can provide a moderate level of nutritional value for livestock. Studies have recorded crude protein levels of between 8-10% with moderate digestibility³ . Additionally, it has been found to contain higher levels of calcium, phosphorus, and potassium³ . As part of a mixed species, it provides year-round green forage and means that it can be managed long-term with livestock, especially goats, as we mentioned above.

💊 Medicinal: Blackberries have a long history of traditional uses⁴ ;

• A poultice made from its leaves for treating ulcers

• A tea made from its roots for relieving labour pains

• Leaves to stop fungal infections and abscesses on the skin

• Leaves used as a gargle or mouthwash

• Plus, it can be used as a remedy for diarrhoea, dysentery, cystitis and haemorrhoids

Plus a whole heap more.

In modern medicine, it is being researched for its antioxidant, anti-carcinogenic, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and antiviral properties⁴ .

🍽️ Consumption: Well, of course, you get the delicious fruits, which can be eaten fresh, or they can be frozen or preserved as syrups, jams or jellies - very versatile. You can use the young leaves in herbal teas, and you can also eat them. And the young shoots can be eaten raw and used in salads. For more foraging tips, check out this article from Diego Bonetto.

📚 What We’ve Been Learning

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

Embracing continuous learning - Nicole Masters Soil Masterclass: A blog post I wrote following attending Nicole Masters three day event in QLD, which was a great few days full of information that I tried to simplify into a few key take home messages.

The New World: An extremely in-depth article from Jeremy Stern about Joshua Kushner, Thrive Capital, and the American dream. I really enjoyed reading about Josh’s journey, backstory and the process behind creating Thrive Capital.

Exposing Why Farmers Can't Legally Replant Their Own Seeds: This was a really interesting video created by the Veritasium team that I think is well worth a watch.

Landscape Profile

Good morning, and welcome to the 18th edition of our monthly newsletter, Reading Landscapes.

Every section will be split with this divider

Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

• The magic of water managing itself

• What to do about Giant Parramatta Grass

• What we’ve been learning

🔎 Looking at the Landscape

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

This month, I thought it was worth exploring how Nature manages water. Nature is very good at managing water, and thanks to physics, water always has a tendency to increase its own entropy, i.e., it wants its own energy to be more spread out and less concentrated.

We talk about water using six key processes to manage its own energy, these are;

• Find its level

• Spread out

• Move through steps

• Sit perched

• Water on Water

• Recharge and Discharge

We will briefly touch on these in this piece, but the way they work is that, regardless of your location, you will always find water attempting to complete the same patterns and processes, regardless of the landscape.

I think this image ⬇️ is a perfect example of how water naturally manages itself.

This image is a perfect example of water being managed by plants and organic matter. Forced to slow down, spread out to remove its own energy and hydrologically recharge the landscape around that site.

You can see each of those six processes happening in this image, as I’ve illustrated in the image below.

Why is each of these processes happening?

Thanks to the laws of physics, water is always seeking to increase its entropy (water "wants" to reach a state where energy is more evenly distributed and molecular arrangements are less ordered) until stability is achieved. This process is why water is always looking to find its level and spread out.

The first two processes, when combined with plants and organic matter, create an ideal environment for the subsequent processes to occur. The water level will rise behind the organic wall of material, creating a perched pond of water sitting below the area. This pattern will repeat over and over down a landscape, creating a stepped appearance, and it will allow for hydrological recharge to occur at the perched ponds of water, followed by discharge in the area below.

And finally, water on water happens by the next step down, creating a pond back to the previous one, so that if and when water goes over the bank of the top step, it is falling into an existing pond of water and removing its own energy, following the rules of physics once more.

I really find this entire process amazing, particularly the fact that the whole system works together to recreate the same repeating process over and over again. And this is exactly what we do when implementing Natural Sequence Farming across a landscape - just that we are doing it on a larger scale, as we want to have a faster and more significant impact than what these small examples are having on the landscape.

We want to step in and lend a hand to Nature to initiate the process, with the intention that in the long run, we will have created an environment for the plants to take over the management role, as they have always done before we intervened.

🌳 Learning from Plants

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

Giant Parramatta Grass

Common Names: Giant Parramatta Grass, Smutgrass, Bloomsbury Grass, Rat-tail grass

Scientific Name: Sporobolus fertilis

Where in the Succession: Low Fertility Exploiter

Thanks to Ruben for sending in this month’s plant species - Giant Parramatta Grass.

What is a Plant Succession?

Giant Parramatta Grass is a summer-active perennial grass species. It is native to the sub-continent of India as well as eastern Asia. It thrives in tropical, subtropical, and warm-temperate landscapes, with a preference for higher rainfall regions, but is quite adaptable to drier environments.

Interestingly, Giant Parramatta Grass is one species within the Sporobolus family; another is Giant Rat’s Tail Grass, which is also causing significant issues. In total, there are 26 species in the family, and overall, they are challenging to distinguish, with many requiring an expert to accurately identify the specific species.

What is it telling me about my landscape?

Giant Parramatta Grass is a low-fertility exploiter.

I believe this is our first exploiter plant species in the newsletter. A quick refresher on exploiters - exploiters are plants that grow as a result of fertility produced by an earlier grown plant, often our accumulators. In the case of a low-fertility exploiter, when dominating a landscape, it is often because the soil lacks essential nutrients and the balanced microbial activity to support higher-order or more favourable grass species. Check out our What is a Plant Succession post for the full details on exploiters.

Where will I find Giant Parramatta Grass growing, and why is it growing there?

Giant Parramatta Grass appears to be an opportunistic plant seeking situations with limited competition to initiate its growth and establish dominance wherever possible. We will often find it growing or starting its journey in landscapes with the following conditions;

• An overgrazing event that opened up an opportunity

• Limited to no organic matter

• Degraded soils, lacking fertility

• Compacted soils and/or poor soil structure

How can we manage Giant Parramatta Grass?

Giant Parramatta Grass, being a perennial plant species, makes it different from most “weeds” that people have to manage. With most weeds being annuals, it opens up the opportunity when the season changes to assist the weed in completing its life cycle and welcoming in the next stage of succession. However, a perennial plant species makes this even more difficult, especially in a grazing scenario, which is likely why we are now seeing more of these grass weeds take on the mantle of key weed species being managed.

🚜 Use mechanical intervention. With low palatability, it can be challenging to achieve great results by trying to graze livestock on it. Instead, we can look to utilise machines to open up opportunities for other species, such as slashing or mulching the material. Cultivation is another option, but one that I would recommend caution around, as it will remove the plant, but it will affect your soil life as well as open up the opportunity for the seed bank of thousands of plants to have an open opportunity to take up residence across the entire area. If you are looking to use cultivation as a tool, it really needs a strong strategy for how you are going to introduce other species and have them outcompete the Giant Parramatta Grass.

🐄 Alter our grazing. If overgrazing and selective grazing created the environment for Giant Parramatta Grass to start, we need to look to avoid keeping those conditions being continually available. Moving towards a more time-controlled grazing system will help in this regard. Additionally, like using mechanical intervention, you could utilise your livestock by increasing stocking density, supplementing with a feed source, and using the animals to impact the Giant Parramatta Grass, thereby opening up the opportunity to introduce the desired species by sowing or spreading seed on the site.

⬆️ Increase our soil organic matter. Giant Parramatta Grass often prefers environments with low organic matter and soil humus, which aligns with its role as a low-fertility exploiter in these lower successional environments. To assist in moving it to the next stage, we can consider increasing our organic matter by promoting more material onto the surface of our landscape or by bringing in external sources of organic matter to supplement the system.

🍄‍🟫 Increase our soil fungal levels. There is the thought that Giant Parramatta Grass has a preference for bacterially dominant soils and that its growth further pushes for a bacterially dominant system. Whereas, it is thought that our grazing land should have more 1:1 bacteria to fungi, if not more leaning towards a fungal dominance. To help promote healthy soil fungal levels, we could consider feeding them. Fungal foods include complex sugars, complex proteins, fish hydrolysate, biochar, humic acid, and carbon sources such as wood, paper, or cardboard.

🌿 Increase plant diversity away from just grasses. Focusing on incorporating other plant families, such as legumes, brassicas, and herbs, can be a great way to help alter the environment that the Giant Parramatta Grass is creating, as well as to promote the bacterial-fungal relationship we discussed above.

🍄 Fungal bio-control. The government has researched a naturally occurring crown rot fungus, Nigrospora oryzae, which has been successful in reducing the crown size of plants over time¹ .

How to make the most of your Giant Parramatta Grass

🪨 As a Soil Indicator: Very low Calcium, High Magnesium, Little humus, Low moisture, bacterially dominant soils, low soil fertility

🐮 Livestock: Low palatability for livestock. Cattle can be trained to graze it down, but generally not willingly. Interestingly, the fertility/quality status of the plant can be observed by how readily livestock will consume it. Much like the succession changing, it will change within plants at different points, making them more or less palatable.

💊 Medicinal: There are no documented medicinal uses for Giant Parramatta Grass; however, some uses in traditional medicine have been reported for other species within the Sporobolus family.

🍽️ Consumption: No documented uses of Giant Parramatta Grass being used for food, but other species of the Sporobolus family have had their seeds used as a food source when needed.

📚 What We’ve Been Learning

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

It’s Not the Cow, It’s the How: I liked this tweet from John Kempf.

How Fast Can You Regenerate a Farm?: Another excellent video from Tim. This time, he’s visiting Martin and Phoebe. You get to see what 30 years of implementation can create, as well as the quick turnaround that Phoebe has achieved over just three years.

Exposing Why Farmers Can't Legally Replant Their Own Seeds: An excellent video from the team at Veritaseum (who create excellent science YouTube videos, if that’s up your alley) exploring Monsanto with an in-depth historical look at the company and its products.

Soil Health in the Paddock: Nicole Masters' Quick Tests That Work: Tim has been busy releasing excellent regenerative-focused videos of late. Just over the weekend, he dropped an in-depth chat with Nicole Masters on all things soil that was filmed at our farm. Well worth watching to get an introduction to all the things happening beneath our feet.

Reconnect: A FARMER HEALTH & WELLBEING RETREAT: Blair and the fantastic team from Farmer’s Footprint Australia have their Reconnect - Farmer Health and Wellbeing Retreat coming up. Farmers are invited to step off the farm and into three days of restoration, reflection, and practical learning. These in-person gatherings are offered at no cost, and we encourage farmers seeking a pause, a reset, or simply a space to breathe to apply. There are only a limited number of spaces available for farmers interested. I recommend reaching out to the team at Farmer’s Footprint.

Good morning, and welcome to the 17th edition of our monthly newsletter, Reading Landscapes.

Every section will be split with this divider

Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

• Looking at leaky weirs to manage David’s hydrology

• Old memories - looking at Golden Dodder

• What we’ve been learning

🔎 Looking at the Landscape

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

Thanks to David for sending in this month’s landscape that we’ll take a look at.

First things first, I would always recommend reaching out to your local Catchment Management Authority (CMA) and checking with them about the status of that gully and what you are allowed to do at that specific site.

As to your question about using trees as a natural leaky weir, that is definitely an option. I would suggest to look at different species apart from Eucalypts they are fine for growing on the edges of wet areas and higher up in the landscape, but they are not suited to growing directly in wet areas like a gully - for that I would recommend something like a Poplar or a Weeping Willow again checking with your CMA about their stance on particular species.

Unless you’re completely set on trees, for managing water as well as fertility and nutrients in areas like your gully, grass species are even better. If you can get reeds growing in these areas, they will do an even better job and impacting your local hydrology than the trees, but a part of getting that process started will be creating an environment that is wet enough, long enough to support them. To do that, you could look to add hay bales at the step in your gully as a way of slowing down the water and creating little ponds, and therefore an environment for the reeds to grow. And, of course, you could always plant both the trees and the reeds.

From looking at the photos of your landscape, the best place to start is around where that old gum is placed. From the photos around that location, it looks to be the top of your step and the best location to start managing water.

Some of the things I looked at to come to this conclusion are;

• You can see in the area below that the landscape flattens quite a bit when compared to the land before that point

• Additionally, in the area below the tree, there is a dense growth of plants, different from those growing in the landscape around. To me, the area looks like a natural wet area formed around a step in the landscape.

Longer term, you could look to build a contour at that step that connects with a larger area of the landscape. The contour could be taken out of the gully and across the landscape, allowing you to manage the water across a larger area and look to increase the productivity of your ridges.

These are just a few of the insights I can share from looking at this photo of course they could change when seeing the landscape in person as it is always trickier from a photo as well as once I know you context and what you want to achieve but these are just a few of my ideas from looking at the photos.

Thanks once again for sharing this, David, and I hope I’ve given you some ideas of what to do with the area going forward.

🌳 Learning from Plants

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

Golden Dodder

Common Names: Dodder, Field Dodder, Yellow Dodder, Prairie Dodder, Alfalfa Dodder, Angel’s Hair, Beggar Vine, Love Vine, Strangle Vine

Scientific Name: Cuscuta campestris

Where in the Succession: Late Succession Accumulator

Thanks to Matisse for sending in this month’s plant species, Golden Dodder. Interestingly, this plant holds a special place in my memory, but more on that later.

What is a Plant Succession?

Golden Dodder is a summer-active annual parasitic plant. It is an interesting plant as it is thread-like in its growth patterns, lacking true leaves and roots, and has no chlorophyll. It grows as a mat over its host plant, which it penetrates and extracts its water and nutrient needs from - like the vampire of the plant world!

It is native to North America, but can now be found globally with a preference for temperate and subtropical climates. It reproduces via seed, and when germinating is reliant on quickly finding a host, as it is unable to survive independently.

What is it telling me about my landscape?

Golden Dodder is a late succession accumulator species.

Where will I find Golden Dodder growing, and why is it growing there?

Golden Dodder is a fast-growing vine. Interestingly, it is known to have a preference for growing on herbs and not grasses, and in particular the daisy (Asteraceae) and legume (Fabaceae) plant families. In the case that Matisse shared, it is often found growing on Farmers Friend - a member of the daisy family.

The advantage of being a parasitic plant is that it doesn’t need specific conditions, just the right conditions for the plants it likes to prey on to be growing. The most common conditions it is found growing include the following;

• Frequently disturbed landscapes

• Pastures dominated by a specific species most often plants from the daisy or legume family

• Degraded soils from excess cultivation or overgrazing

• Degraded riparian areas

How can we manage Golden Dodder?

⬆️ Increase our organic matter levels. By increasing our organic matter levels and looking to have a good cover of material over the ground, it will help suppress the germination of Dodder and its ability to get away.

💚 Minimise our soil disturbance. By minimising disturbance and combined with increasing our organic matter levels, like we discussed above, we can limit the opportunities for Dodder to begin growing in the first place.

🚜 Use mechanical intervention. Dodder can be mown or slashed to take it out before seeding. The downside is the forage that will also be lost - to compensate for this, in landscapes that aren’t dominated by Dodder, you could selectively only cut the areas where it is actively growing.

🌿 Manage against monocultures - especially those in the daisy or legume family, which appear to be favourites for Dodder. I wonder… if the process that Dodder is undertaking is similar to what we are seeing in pasture dieback. In the instances of pasture dieback, it is often an area with a monoculture of grass, maybe Dodder is doing something similar, but instead of grass, herbs and its particular well-known favourites are lucerne and clover, two species often grown in monocultures or with limited diversity.

🌱 Promote the growth of more diversity. This ties in with the above if Dodder likes monocultures and simplicity, let’s take that away from it and manage in a way that promotes greater diversity and a healthier and more functional ecological system.

🏡 As I said at the start, this plant holds a place in my memory, and that’s because I remember growing up and watching Dad (Stuart) on his “regenerative” journey, and this was one plant that he was always looking to one-up. At our courses, everyone always has that one plant that they dislike, and in many ways, this was Dad’s. I have wondered since starting to write this newsletter whether it would pop up from the community, and well, here it is!

At Tarwyn Park it mostly grew over our Lucerne and Clover sometimes the Bathurst Burr and Nigoora Burr again showing its preference for daisy and legume families. Over the years, we managed it several ways through our grazing, with machines mowing or slashing it, and with organic products like pine oil applied directly on the plant.

In the end, our experience was that when we stopped focusing on it as the issue and just worked with the situation we were in and continued managing for what we wanted instead of what we didn’t, it became less of an issue and slowly faded away as the landscape changed. Now, was that a psychological thought or whether by stepping away, the Dodder was able to complete what it needed to and then move on in the greater succession - you decide.

How to make the most of your Golden Dodder

🪨 As a Soil Indicator: Low calcium, low phosphorus, as well as a potential imbalance in magnesium, sodium, or potassium levels. It could also indicate acidic soils.

🐮 Livestock: There is little evidence of its significance as a forage for livestock. It is noted that in large quantities (over 50% of the feed ration) and consumed over an extended period, it can be toxic for livestock. In my experience, livestock will consume it when growing over plants in a mixed pasture.

💊 Medicinal: The cuscuta family, including Golden Dodder, has a long history of use in traditional medicine, being used as a purgative, diaphoretic, diuretic, and tonic, as well as for poultices on slow-healing wounds. More recent experimentation has looked heavily into the potential antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory properties of the family¹ .

One specific study investigated the ability of Golden Dodder to be used for leukemia patients. It was found that the plant could be used to start a process that caused certain cells to die in a controlled manner. The results deemed future research to be worthwhile² .

Not specifically medicine-related, but another interesting use case is how they are used as a research tool for creating a bridge between different plants for the transmission of diseases from one host to another³ .

🍽️ Consumption: There are no records of Golden Dodder being consumed for human food, and there are cases of the potential toxic effects post ingestion, like in livestock.

📚 What We’ve Been Learning

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

What Peter Andrews Wants Every Farmer To Know!: Tim Thompson recently visited PA for a tour around his farm and a discussion of Natural Sequence Farming. In this exclusive interview, discover practical techniques to restore water, fertility, and balance degraded soil - without chemicals or expensive infrastructure. Learn his "Rule of Threes" water management, how contours fix salinity, and why plants are key to rebuilding Australia's landscape naturally.

Why are we lying to young people about work?: This article challenges the myth that finding your passion makes work effortless. As a young person myself (part of the generation she's addressing), this resonated deeply. She argues that meaningful work will always be challenging, regardless of how much you love it. Even though I'm passionate about my work with Forage Farms and Tarwyn Park Training, there are plenty of days when I think, "This is bloody hard, why am I doing this?" But that's exactly the point. The difficulty isn't a sign I'm in the wrong place; it's the price of building something meaningful and the catalyst for growth. I'd highly recommend giving the full article a read.

Willie Pretorius post on LinkedIn: An interesting post on the difference between organic matter breakdown and carbon sequestration processes in the soil, as well as the importance of thinking about a diversity of plants when completing these roles, especially forbs or also known as “weeds” in some instances.

My 4-Stage System for Learning Anything New: I read this recent blog post by Tiago Forte, where he outlined a four-stage system that he follows for efficiently learning new things. Now, even though he’s an individual focused within the knowledge work space, I think these four stages are crucial to learn something new, no matter what field or interest you are looking into.

Sponge Cities: Reading Alpha Lo’s article On the nature of water and its stewardship I was intrigued by the concept of sponge cities being implemented across China as a natural way of better managing water in our “concrete jungles” during rain events. While this is not a one-stop solution, it is definitely a step in the right direction for how we should be looking to manage water in our cities and urban areas.

Good morning, and welcome to the next edition of our monthly newsletter, Reading Landscapes.

Every section will be split with this divider

Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

• In-depth dive into recharge areas

• Managing Onion Weed, a menace to the garden

• What we’ve been learning

🔎 Looking at the Landscape

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

In edition 13, we discussed recharge areas and what they are and what they mean for our landscape. Following that edition, Heidi responded, asking for more information on the recharge process and what to do with the information. I thought that would be a good follow-up for this edition. So let’s dive in and discuss what recharge areas mean for us as landholders, specifically their relationship with steps as a whole.

What is a recharge area?

A quick refresher on what a “recharge area” is - they are the areas of the landscape where water intake happens more readily, often featuring soil with a different sedimentary base and, as a result, different plants growing when compared to the surrounding landscape.

Where do we find recharge areas?

The main area of a landscape where recharge occurs is on a step.

A step is an area of the landscape where the gradient flattens and then steepens again. These features were originally formed as something caused the water to slow and drop the sediment it was carrying, building up the land behind it and creating that flatter part, which then caused the water to slow down and infiltrate at that point.

An example of seeing steps in a landscape

Steps can be found on both slopes and flats. On flats, they are most often found at the site of wetlands or areas where wetlands once were before human intervention.

The other areas where recharge occurs apart from steps are on our higher flow lines or runnels on a floodplain setting where the soil is highly porous, allowing for a high water intake, as discussed in Edition 13.

How does the recharge process happen, and why is it so important?

Our steps and runnels that we discussed above, the shape of the land and vegetation growing in these areas, allowed for the water moving during rain events and wet periods to be slowed enough for water to begin infiltrating into the soil. And to add to that, the more porous soil found in these locations allowed large volumes of water to infiltrate into the soil where it was protected from evaporation and allowed for plants to directly access it with their roots, creating the ideal growing conditions for even more vegetation to grow.

This started a cyclical process that allowed for water to be managed by the plants continually, infiltrate into the ground, and build the step to become larger and larger over time as plants continued building soil around it. So, really, this process is much more than just a hydrological process; it is also the building of the landscape that we see around us today.

You can think of recharge areas as being like sponges; when they aren’t full, they sit ready and waiting for water to move into that area.

These sponges once ran across the breadth of our landscape, connecting the lower wet regions with the higher dry regions. It was this process that ensured our landscapes were always fully hydrated coming out of a wet period with a functioning and healthy hydrological system that could withstand the periods of dry that would naturally follow in future seasons, but now without these events taking place our landscapes are more fragile and more sensitive to the periods of dry that we face.

Our sponge in the low, wet areas becomes too wet in good seasons and then dries out, whilst the higher, drier areas only ever see the rain that falls there. We face an issue where the sponge is over-wet in some parts and too dry in others, which results in less productivity from those pieces of land and the creation of a dysfunctional landscape.

Where before this excess moisture from the wet areas would spread across the step and keep the ridges hydrated, getting moisture down into the deeper clays, which kept the whole landscape going for longer into the dry, as moisture kept being slowly fed through the landscape for an extended period of time.

It was this process that ensured our landscapes were always fully hydrated coming out of a wet period with a functioning and healthy hydrological system that could withstand periods of dry that would naturally follow through in the future seasons, but now without these events taking place our landscapes are more fragile and more sensitive to the periods of dry that we face. By focusing on getting these crucial processes happening once more, we can really start to increase our resilience while increasing our overall productivity.

How can we start to get our recharge process functioning again?

To get the recharge process functioning again, we need to focus on reconnecting our landscape pieces back together like a puzzle and creating a landscape that is ready and waiting to manage and store the water that we receive as rain.

We need to focus on spreading the excess water out of our low areas and getting it back onto the ridges again, like it once did. This ensures our entire landscape is getting hydrated in a rain event, and we are getting moisture to a higher point where it can be stored in the ground and is slowly trickled down the system long after the rain has passed - it is all about starting a process.

We can look to do this by;

• Building level contours on step that connect our low, wet areas with the high, dry areas

• Build our organic matter and soil carbon levels so that more water can be held in the top level of our soil before running off

• Increase our plant diversity and density so that they can manage the water we receive, acting like mini contours all across the landscape and building our soil to complete the step we discussed above

By looking to tick off these three things, we can really push forward with our ability to manage water and start recharging our landscapes like they once did, better preparing us for the hard years and making the most of the good years.

🌳 Learning from Plants

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

Onion Weed

Common Names: Angled Onion, Three-Cornered Leek, Three-Cornered Garlic, Triangle Onion, Wild Garlic

Scientific Name: Allium triquetrum

Where in the Succession: Late Succession Accumulator

Thanks to Sally for sending in this month’s plant species, Onion Weed.

What is a Plant Succession?

Onion Weed is a bulbous perennial species from the Allium family (our Onion and Garlic family). It grows to around 30 to 40 cm in height and is capable of reproducing via seed or vegetative reproduction, thanks to its bulbs. Native to parts of the Mediterranean region and other areas of southern Europe, it now finds itself spread around many regions globally, offering its preferred growing conditions of mild, wet winters and warm, dry summers, being a winter-active species - this finds it growing most commonly in the southern half of Australia.

What is it telling me about my landscape?

Onion Weed is a late succession accumulator species.

Where will I find Onion Weed growing, and why is it growing there?

Onion Weed is a soft, fast-growing species that loves moist growing environments with good quality soil. In the instance that Sally shared with us, it is growing prolifically in her garden amongst her Mondo grass and other species.

In many cases, Onion Weed is very opportunistic, taking advantage of sights that provide it with its ideal growing conditions and without the need for it to have to compete with other species. We will often find it growing in sites with the following conditions;

• High soil moisture

• Recent disturbance of areas with little competition

• Shaded or partially shaded sites

• Good quality soil with higher organic matter levels

How can we manage Onion Weed?

💚 Minimise our soil disturbance. We want to limit the opportunities for Onion Weed to start its growth by minimising how much we disturb the soil and keeping good ground cover, we limit its ability to get sunlight and start its growing cycle. Additionally, if using a tool like cultivation, there is the risk of fragmenting bulbs already present in the soil and increasing their spread.

⬆️ Increase our organic matter levels. By increasing our organic matter levels and looking to have a good cover of material over the ground, it will help suppress the germination and growth of Onion Weed - this method will be especially useful in a garden setting. Increasing our organic matter levels will also help in creating favourable conditions for our more favoured plant species.

🚜 Use mechanical intervention. Onion Weed can be mown or slashed to remove its vegetative growth and open up the opportunity for other species to grow and out-compete it. This is also advantageous to complete when the plant is flowering, as it will have used a large amount of its resources to produce the flower and seed, and therefore be at its weakest point to try and recover from such intervention.

Keep in mind, though, that using this method, the bulb will still be present, and the Onion Weed will be capable of coming back.

🌱 Promote the growth of more competitive, desirable species. By looking to incorporate new species into a site or promoting the growth of ones that are already there, that you deem more desirable. We want to look to improve the environment for their growth and use them to suppress and outcompete the Onion Weed, thereby pushing your succession forward and creating the change that you desire.

🐄 Use livestock intervention. Livestock can be used to stimulate change and create opportunities for other species, much like mechanical intervention, by using their impact, but please note that their edibility is limited, and it is known to be capable of tainting the flavour of both meat and milk in livestock.

How to make the most of your Onion Weed

🪨 As a Soil Indicator: Compacted soils with poor drainage and aeration, low calcium levels, they generally indicate a balanced soil chemical makeup to support its growth, suggesting dominance is more strongly linked to soil structure and landscape management.

🐮 Livestock: There is little evidence of its significance as a forage for livestock, albeit they will eat it in some situations, but like I mentioned above, it is known that the Allium family is capable of tainting the flavour of meat and milk when consumed in larger quantities by livestock.

💊 Medicinal: Onion Weed has no specific medicinal uses for itself; however, being a member of the Allium family, it is likely that some of their known qualities, such as cancer protection, reduction of cholesterol levels, antibiotic effects and antimicrobial properties, have been passed along.

It is known to have high sulphur levels, which is an important mineral for a healthy diet, and something that many lack.

🍽️ Consumption: All parts (leaves, bulbs and flowers) of the plant are edible, best eaten raw and often likened most to spring onions. It is a very versatile plant for wild harvesting. Diego Bonetto shares some excellent uses for them in this blog, as does The Urban Nanna here, and Alby Hailes here, leaving you with plenty of options to look at.

Back from the Brink and Beyond the Brink are Back!

We're excited to announce that Peter Andrews's two books, Back from the Brink and Beyond the Brink, are back in print.

Back from the Brink

Beyond the Brink

Bundle of Both

📚 What We’ve Been Learning

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

Clarkson’s Farm Season 4: We’ve just finished watching the newest season of Clarkson’s Farm. If you haven’t already watched this season or the show at all, it is well worth watching. It is full of laughs and has a strong message for supporting our farmers. I think Jeremy has done an excellent job of sending out a strong message to the masses.

Restoring predators, restoring ecosystems: An interesting article sharing the results of a research study that looked into the impact of the return of wolves into Yellowstone National Park in the U.S and the massive impact that one small change to the food web had on the entire ecosystem. There have been a lot of recent studies and documentaries on this specific case study and others that are well worth looking into if of interest.

What Does an Ecological Civilization Look Like?: This article delves into how aligning human activities with ecological principles can benefit our communities and the planet. I found some of the concepts intriguing, particularly around the connection between regenerative agriculture, sustainable economic systems, and nature-inspired urban planning. It's sparked my curiosity, and I'm keen to look further into these ideas and grow my thoughts on the topic. If you're interested in exploring these concepts, it could be a thought-provoking read for you, too!

Smart Farmer Survives Drought, Loses Vital Market!: In this video, Tim Thompson visits TPT graduate Charlie Arnott and explores some of the water management strategies Charlie has put in place since attending our course, along with his approaches to livestock and grazing management for handling dry times. The episode also highlights the growing issue of abattoir closures and how changes in the food supply chain are impacting smaller producers. Well worth a look.

The world's oldest river has a big problem: This short film captures the beauty and deep history of Australia’s outback, following Beau Miles as he runs 100 km along the ancient Finke River. Alongside stunning scenery, it highlights how climate change and distant human choices now threaten even the world’s oldest river. I appreciate videos like this that share these important stories with a wider audience

Good morning, and welcome to the next edition of our monthly newsletter, Reading Landscapes.

Every section will be split with this divider

Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

• How to manage a large “crop” of Cotton Bush

• Blady Grass, a native and a grass, but not always desirable

• Available once more

• What we’ve been learning

🔎 Looking at the Landscape

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

Thanks to Barbara for sending in this landscape to discuss.

Barbara manages 12 hectares of flat land situated between two conservation bush areas. Three years ago, Barbara removed cattle that were being agisted on her property because they were damaging the creek, and the farmer refused to implement rotational grazing practices. Last year, she conducted a cool burn of the grasses with guidance from a First Nations fire practitioner. Her soil has a low pH of approximately 4.5.

Following these management changes, Barbara now has a large outbreak of Cotton Bush across the property. She has already tried mulching two larger areas twice, but left a small area untreated.

Barbara would like to understand:

1. Why has Cotton Bush become so dominant after the cattle removal and cool burn?

2. What is the best way to manage this cotton bush?

3. Are there specific strategies that would work well given her acidic soil conditions?

As I always say, a picture only tells part of a story, but given your description of the landscape and from seeing similar contexts in other landscapes, I’ll look to provide you with my observations behind what’s happening.

I expect there to be a number of factors that have caused the cotton bush to arrive. The details of the landscape that you provided, check all the boxes to be an ideal growing environment for Cotton Bush. Providing;

• Hard-ground

• Low organic matter and soil fertility

• Acidic soils

• Disturbed soil, as well as being a forested environment.

The set stocking, continuous grazing program would have created an ideal environment for species that like those conditions, often grass species, capable of continually growing and developing a shield over the soil, protecting it.

Over time, the ground beneath those plants would have become harder, and the nutrient reserves in the soil would have been depleted. The change in plants came with the cool burn.

Completing a cool burn took out the grass and other species that were growing there and the biomass, exposing the soil and potential residual competition and opening up the opportunity for new competition to germinate. In this case, it was the Cotton Bush, which thrives in environments with dry, hard soil and little organic matter.

Thankfully, Cotton Bush, with a little management, is a pretty easy plant to push along to the next successional phase. To change succession, we need to;

• Increase our organic matter in the soil and fertility. You could look to import sources like compost or mulch to add to these areas

• Change our grazing management, which in this case we have already completed

• Keep good ground cover and organic matter to hold as much moisture as possible from rain events. Looking at the broader landscape, contouring could be a potential option as well

• Using grazing management, look to increase the impact on the Cotton Bush, towards the end of its growing cycle. You could also look to use machinery as well, by slashing, like you have been. I would recommend doing that as the Cotton Bush comes to the end of its growth and keeping a watch that you don’t start to see too much organic matter build up, which will minimise the opportunity for new species to germinate

• You could also look to incorporate cover crops as well as a way of getting those new species into the landscape, but I’m sure there are already plenty of seeds there just waiting for the right opportunity

I hope that gives you some tips on the future management of this site, Barbara. Your best bet is to get in and try some experiments to see what works, and don’t worry too much. In my books, Cotton Bush is a pretty easy plant to manage and one that I wouldn’t worry too much about long-term.

🌳 Learning from Plants

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

Blady Grass

Common Names: Kunai Grass, Bladey Grass, Satintail, Spear Grass, Sword Grass, Thatch Grass, Alang-Alang, Lalang Grass, Cotton Wool Grass, Kura-Kura, Cogongrass, Cogon Grass

Scientific Name: Imperata cylindrica

Where in the Succession: Low Fertility Exploiter

Thanks to Jonathan for sharing this month’s plant with us.

What is a Plant Succession?

Blady Grass is a perennial grass species found across most countries, with a preference for more tropical areas with higher rainfalls. It is native to Australia and Southeast Asia along with other parts of Asia, and potentially East Africa.

In Australia, it is found across the country, but it has a distinct preference for coastal and subcoastal areas, with it only being present in some inland areas.

What is it telling me about my landscape?

Blady Grass is a low-fertility exploiter species. And, I think it is our first exploiter species covered in Reading Landscapes. For a refresher on what it means for a plant to be an exploiter, check out the article on Plant Succession.

Where will I find Blady Grass growing, and why is it growing there?

Blady Grass will be found growing across a wide range of conditions; wet and dry, sandy or clay soils, a range of pH. But, in most cases where we find a dominance of it growing and outcompeting other species, we expect to see some of the following characteristics;

• Low fertility soils

• Acidic soils

• Overgrazed areas

• Landscapes disturbed or degraded by practices like overgrazing, fire or cultivation

Once growing in an area, it is excellent at holding superiority through its ability to;

• Reproduces both sexually through seeds and asexually through its rhizomes in the ground¹

• Produce allelopathic compounds inhibiting the growth of neighbouring species²

• Grow dense mats that create a physical barrier by shading out other species and inhibiting their germination

It is for these reasons that it is often used in rehabilitation projects for erosion control and soil stabilisation, as it is excellent at completing those two jobs, but like I said above, at the expense of allowing other species to thrive as well.

How can we manage Blady Grass?

⛏️ Implement practices to disturb it and change the succession. In managing Blady Grass at Forage Farms, I have received great results using livestock and disturbance to change our succession. The best results were with our laying hens, but I have also used our cattle and pigs. In all three cases, I contained the animals in a small area, with high density to use their impact to knock down the Blady Grass and open up the opportunity for other species to actually germinate and grow. For the cattle as they won’t readily graze the Blady Grass I supplemented them with hay and silage. In all three instances I saw my succession change to mid succession accumulators (thistles and cotton bush) followed by farmers friends and grass. The area where I used chickens now has very little Blady Grass; the pigs and cattle have had a shorter time frame and are still being managed through that successional change.

🌱 Incorporate other plant species. Once we limit the dominance of Blady Grass and create an opportunity for other species to have a go, it would help if you got in and lent a hand by spreading seed or planting a multi-species cover crop. It isn’t necessary as other plants will come in, but often they will be mid to late succession accumulators, and by planting a cover crop, you can have more control over the species growing. Just ensure that the cover crop blend has a good mix of deeper-rooted herbs and legumes alongside the grass species.

🧑‍🌾 Change our management practices. If we find Blady Grass becoming a growing issue, look to the cause and how we can change our management to fix the problem. It thrives around the conditions created by continual overgrazing, burning and cultivation. Are we seeing any of those conditions in our landscape? These are some of the questions we need to ask ourselves as we take on the process of changing the succession.

⬆️ Build organic matter and increase soil fertility. In many cases where Blady Grass is growing, the soil is of subpar quality for more productive and palatable grasses to grow. If that is the case, we need to step in and assist Nature with improving that soil quality to try to change the succession. We can look to bring in sources of fertility like mulch, compost, and straw, and create the environment for those more desirable plant species. This step can often be combined with my first tip of using animal disturbance to take out the Blady Grass, then bring in a source of fertility and finish the process off by planting new species, and we can really start to push that succession forward.

You could also use the Blady Grass to help build your organic matter. Studies have found its rhizomes capable of producing up to 6 tonnes of biomass per hectare and a leaf biomass of 10 tonnes³ .

How to make the most of your Blady Grass

🪨 As a Soil Indicator: Low organic matter levels, acidic soils, light soil structure, low nitrogen, heavy metal presence⁴ , low potassium, low magnesium, presence of high salt levels⁵

🐮 Livestock: Blady Grass is not very palatable to livestock, due to its coarse structure. Younger shoots of the plant may be grazed, and I know that pigs have a liking for its rhizomes, which they will dig up.

💊 Medicinal: Blady Grass has a long history in traditional Chinese medicine, being used for relieving fever, managing vomiting, treating irregular menstruation, and for its diuretic effects. In modern medicine, it has been researched for its potential in the treatment of cervical cancer⁷ .

🍽️ Consumption: Blady Grass is rarely used as a food source; in emergencies, some cultures use the young shoots. To make up for its lack of edible uses, it has proven to be an excellent product for textiles. In Africa, it has been used for⁸ ;

• Thatching roofs

• Weaving into mats, baskets and bags

• Forming into ropes

• and as a stuffing material in place of cotton

And in Australia, it has been a fibre source for papermaking⁸ .

🙋 Answering your Questions

Ask the Team! Share your question here, and we’ll answer it in a future newsletter.

💬 Everyone Asks:

Where can I get Peter’s books, Back from the Brink and Beyond the Brink? I can’t seem to find new copies anywhere.

🎙️ Hamish’s Answer:

We're excited to announce that Peter Andrews's two books, Back from the Brink and Beyond the Brink, are back in print. We have received the rights back from the ABC and have them in print again.

These remarkable works delve into Peter's groundbreaking insights on sustainable land management and regenerative agriculture. His passion for restoring our landscapes and nurturing the environment shines through every page, and we can’t wait for you to experience this knowledge firsthand.

Whether you’re a long-time fan of Peter’s work or discovering his wisdom for the first time, these books are a must-have for anyone interested in positively impacting our planet. They are not just books but a call to action, an invitation to embrace a brighter, greener future.

What’s more? You can now purchase your copies directly from our website! Don’t miss out on adding these incredible titles to your collection. Grab yours today and join us in celebrating the return of Peter Andrews’ inspiring works!

Let’s continue to learn, grow, and make a difference!

Happy reading!

P.S. Feel free to share this exciting news with your friends and family! Let’s spread the word that these books are once again available! 🌱✨

Back from the Brink

Beyond the Brink

Bundle of Both

📚 What We’ve Been Learning

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

Natural Sequence Farming: Stuart Andrews: Stuart sits down with Alpha Lo of the Climate Water Project to discuss Natural Sequence Farming and its role in restoring degraded land by rehydrating floodplains, reviving soil health, and reconnecting natural water cycles.

Episode 150: Grazing Beyond the Mainstream with Jim Elizondo: Jim provides an introduction to the concepts behind Total Grazing and how that differs from other grazing methods. The episode covers a range of topics

#55: From Selling Firewood to Natural Sequence Farming with Stuart McWilliam from Blackbird and Beast: Stuart sits down and discusses his journey, with an inspiring story that everyone should listen to. He dives into the significance of practical experience over formal education and how he navigated the shift to regenerative farming. Stuart discusses the challenges of managing his first cattle venture, the impact of mentorship, and the power of community in farming. He also reflects on personal growth, sobriety, and the idea that resilience can lead to unconventional success.

How livestock can "green" global deserts and restore degraded land | Alejandro Carrillo | TEDxBoston: This TED talk provides a great overview of the work Alejandro Carillo has been implementing to restore the degraded Chihuahuan Desert. He discusses understanding the role of plant succession in changing an ecosystem, getting your small water cycle functioning and that even the harshest of our landscapes can be restored. Alejandro is coming to Australia this month, and for those in South-East Queensland, Gympie Beef Group is hosting a one-day field day.

Good morning, and welcome to the next edition of our monthly newsletter, Reading Landscapes.

Every section will be split with this divider

Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

• Thirsty thunderstorms

• Tough, old Plantain

• What’s the difference

• What we’ve been learning

🔎 Looking at the Landscape

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

As last month’s edition of the newsletter went out, we had a looming tropical cyclone sitting off the coast of south-east Queensland, and I observed some interesting events happening in our landscape.

As the storm was growing off the coast, I noticed the landscape around our area rapidly drying off and water levels in dams noticeably dropping.

What was happening?

Like any tropical low, it led to an increased evaporation rate as it took water away from the landscape and fed it to the storm. In any functional landscape, that would be okay, as the storm would eventually move inland to where it was cooler and release what it took as rain. Our problem, like what I discussed in edition #12, our problem is that with all this moisture being taken away and not having enough reserves in our soil and green growing vegetation, the storm was no longer interested in us - we were now too hot for it. So it sat and waited, and if you followed the news, you would have heard how it kept moving along the coast, unsure of where it wanted to go.

Eventually, it decided to come on land just as a tropical low instead of a cyclone - good news, the bad news is it didn’t really bring the rain to us. So we were left in a situation where we became a water donor to the storm, but with no thanks for our donation. Why did this happen?

The problem was that our landscapes were not functioning correctly, meaning we were not holding and storing the water we received in the ground, and too much was being lost to evaporation and gravity. In addition to that, a large high system was sitting to the west, and we had another situation, much like Townsville, which we discussed in edition #12.

When the system came along and started taking water away to feed it, that water was being lost from the landscape, with nothing in storage to replenish it. As a result, the landscape started to heat up, and more water was lost. It also created an environment that no longer attracted the storm; it was not cool and wet but hot and dry. So when the storm reached land, it stuck close to the coast and didn’t return the moisture it took from us.

How can we better manage against this?

We need to look to better manage our water and hold more of it, especially in the ground, where it is better protected against evaporation. We also need to maintain better ground cover and green surface area so we can ensure our water cycle continues operating.

I found that the level of our dam dropped less - now, of course, that could have been something else, but I think because our landscape above the dam held a reserve of water in the ground, it meant that even though we were losing water to evaporation, the landscape was slowly replenishing that level. Additionally, we still had adequate levels of green, growing vegetation so that our small water cycle continued operating and kept moisture in the system.

🌳 Learning from Plants

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

Plantain

Common Names: Ribwort, Lamb’s Tongue, Ribgrass

Scientific Name: Plantago species

Where in the Succession: Late Succession Accumulator

Plantain is a perennial herbaceous species native to Europe and Asia, but now found across many parts of the world. Known by its distinct, long, narrow leaves and tall flower spikes rising from the base of the plant.

What is a Plant Succession?

The proliferation of common Plantain is so closely linked to the spread of agriculture that archaeologists often look for its pollen to estimate the expansion of agriculture. In the Americas, it followed the Europeans so closely that indigenous peoples labelled it ‘white man’s footprints’.¹  

What is it telling me about my landscape?

Plantain is a late succession accumulator species

Where will I find Plantain growing, and why is it growing there?

As the name “white man’s footsteps” suggests, the presence of Plantain is directly related to the movement of agriculture around the world, thanks to its ability for every plant to produce up to 20,000 seeds¹ and its preference for the conditions created in many of these environments, like cleared forests and disturbed soils.

Today, you will find it growing across a range of environments, from your lawn to cultivated cropping land to diverse pastures and even in the cracks of the footpath.

Because of this, the role that Plantain is playing will depend on the environment that it is found in, as it will happily play a role in a diverse pasture mix, but in the case when it is becoming the dominant species, then we often expect to see some of the following characteristics;

• Hard, compacted ground or a shallow hard pan

• Low organic matter

• Low soil life

• Overgrazed areas

• Paddocks lacking ground cover or in fallow

How can we manage Plantain?

💦 Improve your landscape’s hydrology. In landscapes where Plantain is growing due to its hardiness to dry conditions, we can look to change that through our management. Start to focus on increasing our soil moisture levels and holding more water in the landscape. This can be done by increasing ground cover and organic matter to hold the rain that falls for longer and level contours, to slow, spread and hold the water in your landscape instead of letting it be lost.

👨‍🌾 Change our management practices. If we find Plantain becoming a growing issue, look to the cause and how we can change our management to fix the problem. Are we lacking ground cover? Do we need to change our grazing practices? These are some of the questions that we need to ask ourselves.

⬆️ Increase your organic matter. Plantain will happily grow in poor quality soil - the side of the road, between cracks in the concrete, and if we create more conditions like this, it will continue to manage that. We need to look to change that and increase our organic matter levels, improve our soil fertility and increase the soil life present. We can look to bring in sources of fertility like mulch, compost, straw, and create an environment that our soil life and plants like.

🌻 Incorporate other plant species. Growing cover crops in these areas is always a way of starting to change the plant succession - look to build a cover crop around hardy species that will be able to grow in those conditions and incorporate future perennial pasture species at the same time where they can get a start protected by the annual species. Our aim is to a future milestone whereby Plantain forms part of the greater mix of plant species in your pastures and not the sole species looking to manage a bigger problem at play.

How to make the most of your Plantain

🪨 As a Soil Indicator: Low Phosphorus, high Potassium, Magnesium and Calcium, Low soil humus and fertility will happily grow in compacted soils with hardpans. Low moisture and soil with low bacterial life.

🐮 Livestock: Plantain has good digestability for livestock, and with protein levels in one study coming in at around 16%² , it makes it a nutritional choice for livestock. Add to that the seed head, which records levels higher again, with excellent fat content³ as well.

It is a well-regarded species that should be included in pasture mixes for livestock. One trial in Lincoln, New Zealand, found growth rates of lambs on Plantain to be greater than Ryegrass⁴ . It was noted that conditions needed to be right, and the plant’s ability to hold on through the season was limited. In this case, having it as part of a larger species mix is always better. Interestingly, the trial also found that ewes grazing Plantain produced much lower faecal egg counts than those grazing ryegrass, up to one-third less.

The mineral content of Plantain is also as high as that of perennial pasture species and usually higher, according to studies looking at its levels of calcium, magnesium, sodium, phosphorus, zinc, copper, and cobalt⁵ .

💊 Medicinal: The seed husks are abundant in soluble fibre and are often used to make Psyllium powder⁶ and commercial preparations like Metamucil.

It is an effective treatment for bleeding, with an excellent ability to stop blood flow and encourage tissue repair. It has received the name “ointment weed” for its use as a poultice directly on wounds, sores and ulcers, with research finding that it inhibits bacterial action and has anti-inflammatory properties. Additionally, it can relieve stings and bites⁷ .

One of its main uses is for the respiratory system. It has long been used to help dry and nervous coughs, mild bronchitis, whooping cough, bronchial asthma, excessive phlegm, hayfever and sore throats. Diego Bonetto even has a recipe for making a cough syrup from Plantain.

For your eyes, it can be used as an eyewash for conjunctivitis and inflammation.

For your digestive system, it helps with hemorrhoids, diarrhea and constipation.

🍽️ Consumption: The leaves of the plant are edible, the most common varieties having a stronger bitter flavour. It is best to choose the youngest leaves and use them in dishes like salads, soups, stews, stir-fries or smoothies unless you have the buckshorn variety, which is actually cultivated in Italy for its flavour⁸ .

And of course, you can add the seeds to your morning bowl of breakfast cereal to help get things moving.

🙋 Answering your Questions

Ask the Team! Share your question here, and we’ll answer it in a future newsletter.

💬 John Asks:

What is the difference between the Soil Conservation contours seen across many properties and your contours?

🎙️ Hamish’s Answer:

Most of the contours that you see across our landscape are actually drains built by organisations like Soil Conservation.

They don’t follow a level line across the landscape and instead have the task of collecting water at one site and moving it away to the gully not to overwet the paddock.

These were often initially built in cropping operations to control the water they received when it rained, and interestingly, some of the first ones built seemed to be level or at least very close to level.

The problem is that once you start draining water away, managing the energy that the water accumulates as it moves becomes difficult. As a result, many of these banks have since failed and created headwall erosion cuts leading from the gully back up the drain.

The contours that we construct are always level and can spread water across the entire landscape and not just direct it into one place.

📚 What We’ve Been Learning

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

#922 - Naval Ravikant - 44 Harsh Truths About Human Nature: An excellent podcast discussing what it truly means to live well and a plethora of great insights. Full of gems and worth listening to a few times, especially when there is so much to hear.

Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World: I finished this book last month, and it was an excellent read. It looks to change our mindset around the traditional approach of goals and instead start to set ‘tiny experiments’ for yourself with a focus on shifting away from the outcome and instead focusing on the process. Turning the process into a journey, being prepared to adjust and change, whilst sharing it with your community and learning in public.

Coffee's Self-Inflicted Climate Crisis: An interesting piece from Sam about the position that the coffee industry has found itself in, with some staggering figures on the current system's degradation and a look at some of the options that can be taken going forward. 

Peter Andrews was dismissed as 'a lunatic', but now his son's family farm is proof of his vision: Landline did a feature on Forage Farms and Tarwyn Park Training on Sunday looking at how our farm was setup and the results we’ve been seeing running a stacked multi-species operation with a farm setup on Natural Sequence Farming principles.

Good morning, and welcome to the next edition of our monthly newsletter, Reading Landscapes.

Every section will be split with this divider

Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

• What are recharge areas?

• Siam Weed, a plant with many potential uses

• How things could have started in Australia

• What we’ve been learning

🔎 Looking at the Landscape

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

Thanks Donna for asking about recharge areas in our landscape.

Recharge Areas - What are they? And what do they do?

Put simply, a recharge area is an area of land where water intake happens more readily. Typically, these areas will have different soil types compared to the surrounding area, which is comprised of sandy, gravelly soils that readily allow water to infiltrate into the underlying layers of soil, where the water can then be stored. Recharge areas are located on the high parts of a landscape - on the ridges. But not only the ridges you think of when you first hear the word ridge.

Ridges are also present on a floodplain; they are simply the higher parts of the landscape. It’s as simple as that; we don’t want to overthink it.

Recharge areas are everywhere in our landscapes as they form a crucial part of the hydrological process - they are responsible for getting water back into our soil where it is protected from evaporation, slowed down and stored in a way that makes it readily available for plants.

This is why we focus on building contours (and why that is one of the biggest things we teach in our courses) - as they have the ability to connect lower, wet areas where there is excess water to the higher, dry areas that are our recharge areas. This would have once happened naturally, but since our flow paths have become eroded, the ability to get that water out and across the landscape has been lost - the role of the contour is to get that process started again.

🌳 Learning from Plants

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

Siam Weed

Common Names: Siam Weed, Jack in the Bush, Triffid Weed, Bitter Bush

Scientific Name: Chromolaena odorata

Where in the Succession: Early Succession Accumulator

Thanks to Simon for sending in this month’s plant species Siam Weed.

What is a Plant Succession?

Siam Weed is a perennial shrub native to tropical America. It grows to 1.5 to 3 metres in height. It has been introduced and is now found in most subtropical and tropical areas worldwide.

What is it telling me about my landscape?

Siam weed is an early successional accumulator species.

Where will I find Siam Weed growing, and why is it growing there?

It is most often found growing in disturbed environments;

• Roadsides and forest margins

• Cleared forest

• Cropping land, plantations and cleared pastures

Its ability to create an allelopathic effect on the plants around it and provide low palatability and high nitrate levels provides it with the very best attributes to fill the role as an early pioneer species in landscapes.

Landscapes where Siam Weed is found growing often show some of the following characteristics;

• Low organic matter

• Cleared forest landscapes

• Acidic soils

• Overgrazed areas

• Lack of ground cover/paddocks in fallow

How can we manage Siam Weed?

🚜 Mechanical Intervention. One method of managing growth is slashing. However, it should be completed regularly, as the plant will readily regrow from cutback material and propagate from cuttings. One report found that in operations that didn’t undertake tillage, slashing carried out 4-5 times over a 4-6 week period in the summer growing season effectively suppressed the growth of Siam Weed¹ .

In many areas worldwide, there are alternating views on its role as a weed or a fallow species. One study looked into research papers on the role of Siam Weed as a weed or a fallow plant, and interestingly, there is a large body of research on the role of the plant as a fallow species in cropping systems. These studies found² ;

• That it can better handle acidic soils

• Has a fast decomposition rate after being slashed

• Capable of providing a regular source of organic matter and nutrients after slashing for crops and

• Weeds were less rampant in paddocks following a Siam dominated fallow

🌿 Incorporate other plant species. At the same time, as we manage the Siam Weed, we should be looking to incorporate other more preferred species to take over its role in the environment. A good option would be legume species, which can take on the role of the siam weed whilst having the hardiness and growth ability to compete with it.

⬆️ Increase soil fertility and organic matter. Siam Weed is often found colonising landscapes that were once forested but have been cleared. Its role is to start the successional process back to a forest, and a big part of that is increasing soil fertility—building up elements like carbon and nitrogen. One study found that areas with a severe invasion built carbon and nitrogen back up closer to levels observed in restored native forest plots³ .

Siam Weed can also contribute to this, thanks to the incredible volume of biomass it can produce—up to 18.7 tonnes/ha in fresh form⁴ —which can then be left to break down or composted into a more available form of fertility. In this particular study, Siam weed compost resulted in higher available nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium than the traditional NPK treatment⁴ .

🌲 Reincorporate forest species. Many landscapes where Siam weed grows were once forested, and Siam weed is becoming an early successional forest species to start the shift back to forest. Knowing this, we can incorporate more trees and shrubs into that landscape to promote diversity while also increasing the fungal balance in our soils and evening out the relationship between bacteria and fungi.

🪰 Biological control. C. connexa is being researched as an insect management method for the plant, with it first being released in 2019 in Northern Queensland⁵ .

How to make the most of your Siam Weed

🪨 As a Soil Indicator: Low organic matter levels, bacteria-dominated soils, acidic soils, low nitrogen, low phosphorus, presence of heavy metals - as it holds the ability to remediate such levels⁶ .

🐮 Livestock: The plant has high nitrate levels, which indicate its desire to be left alone and complete its task. Interestingly, the high nitrate levels are the most potent at its young growth stage, when it needs the most protection. 

Despite this, numerous studies have been conducted on its use as a food source for livestock. Thanks to its high protein content, it has the potential to be a more affordable protein source than traditional products in more deprived economies.

Studies have shown that once adequately processed, nitrate levels are reduced to acceptable levels for consumption, and nutritional quality is high. In one study, protein levels were recorded up to 24%.

💊 Medicinal: Siam weed has a long history in traditional medicine and is being actively researched for use in modern medicine. The plant's most common use is for wound healing. It also exhibits anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and anti-microbial properties⁸ .

🍽️ Consumption: Very little evidence of Siam weed being used in cooking.

🙋 Answering your Questions

Ask the Team! Share your question here, and we’ll answer it in a future newsletter.

I want to share this question from Peter’s book Back from the Brink for this month's edition.

💬 Asks:

If you’d been in charge of the colony when the first white settlers arrived, what would you have done to prevent the floodplain systems from being ruined?

🎙️ Peter’s Answer:

I’d have made the farmers manage their hard-footed animals. Precisely how they went about it is something I’d have to have spent time working out, but the basic aim would have been to prevent erosion, which would certainly have entailed keeping the wetlands at the bottom of the floodplains intact. Eventually, this may have involved fencing off the wetlands, but to begin with (this was the 1800s, remember) we’d definitely have needed orderly grazing routines. This could have been handled successfully by the shepherds who were employed in large numbers on sheep stations in the 1800s. The shepherds stayed with the stock all day and moved them around as needed. It was the random destruction of the environment by vast numbers of animals that did the damage.

A fellow I went to school with in Adelaide has told me he’d been digging into the records of his family’s sheep property in South Australia and discovered that 100 000 lambs were marked there one year. At least 150 000 ewes would have been needed to produce those lambs, so you would have had a quarter of a million sheep running around in huge mobs without any fences to restrain them. And this was on just one property. It isn’t hard to imagine how all the sensitive areas of the Australian landscape were wiped out in fifty years.

Our floodplains were enormously productive when farmers first occupied them. They not only carried five times as many sheep and cattle as today, but those sheep and cattle were also virtually free of disease and worms because of the biodiversity in their diet. If we’d prevented erosion and allowed the floodplain systems to continue operating, the land would be carrying just as many stock today, and they’d be just as healthy. In fact, the floodplains would probably be more productive now than then.

Our floodplain systems were the most efficient nature ever devised. If they’d been preserved, the Australian landscape would have to be better than ever, considering we now have the benefits of modern technology. But they weren’t preserved. The thought of preserving them didn’t even enter our heads.

📚 What We’ve Been Learning

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

How Joel Salatin Develops Leaders Ready to Thrive at Polyface Farms (WCP 400): A great chat with Joel about how they are creating the next generation of leaders and farmers at Polyface Farms.

Total Grazing: I spent the first weekend of March at a two-day Total Grazing school with Jaime Elizondo at Mellow Farm. Having already completed his online program, Real Wealth Ranching, this was a great follow-up. The school covers four key areas - Total Grazing Program, Adapted Genetics and Selection, Nutrition, and Optimal Calving Season. I highly recommend watching Jim’s YouTube channel to learn more.

Will Winter on The A to Z of Apple Cider Vinegar: An interesting episode covering the unique benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar as a supplement for livestock in increasing on-farm production and health of livestock.

Good morning, and welcome to the twelfth edition of our monthly newsletter, Reading Landscapes.

Every section will be split with this divider

Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

• What’s happening with our weather?

• Managing Lippia

• What to do with Chilean Needle Grass

• What we’ve been learning

🔎 Looking at the Landscape

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

Satellite Imagery of the LA Fires

The California bushfires last month were disastrous, and unfortunately, they are a growing issue not only in America but also, as we’re well aware, here in Australia and around the globe. I thought it would be worth looking at why these fires are happening, why they seem to be getting worse every year, and most importantly, what we can do about them.

What’s causing these events to happen?

Our landscape is becoming hotter and drier (but also wetter and colder at times) due to large amounts of unmanaged energy.

It centres around how our landscapes manage water through the biotic pump or large water cycle.

The biotic pump discusses how, in functional landscapes, warm, moist air is attracted from the oceans to our cooler forests, creating a wind current that draws in more warm, humid air.

But when our landscapes are hotter than the oceans, this effect reverses. This process is affecting both sides of the weather spectrum worldwide.

In California, the Santa Ana winds blew in large amounts of hot air from the drier inland areas of the country. This hot air was drawn to a mass of cool air, which, in the case of the dry California landscape, was the ocean. This hot wind current created the ideal conditions for one spark in a large, dehydrated landscape to turn into a large, disastrous fire system.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Northern Queensland is currently being dumped with significant rain events. In this case, the landscape of Townsville and its surrounds are cooler than the body of warm, moist air sitting over the ocean and has drawn that mass in, but because inland Australia is hot and dry, unlike what would typically happen with the water body continuing to move inland it is stuck in that one position and just continually raining until the system runs out.

Check out Michal Kravčík’s discussion on the topic.

The solution to both disasters requires looking beyond the impact site to the greater landscape and how we can change the conditions that power these events.

How can we fix the problem?

First and foremost, we must change our management practices. Our current approach to managing our landscapes has not been effective.

Two key areas that need to be addressed are managing our water and maximising our green surface area (the number of green, growing plants actively photosynthesising). Fortunately, these are two areas that we can all contribute to.

Managing our water

We need to rehydrate our landscapes and get our hydrology functioning correctly. This is not simply about getting water into the soil; it is a more significant process of learning to understand hydrology—how water moves through our landscape and how we can restart entire hydrological processes crucial to its functioning.

Discussing the events surrounding fire lately made me think about a demonstration we created quite a number of years ago at a course in Warwick. At the course, we wanted to get people thinking about how a wet, functioning landscape operates compared to a dry, dysfunctional landscape, particularly in the context of fire.

To demonstrate this, we took two bales of hay, soaked one in water, and left the other dry to simulate a hydrated landscape rather than a dry one. Then, we tried to set them on fire.

How do you think they reacted?

As you would expect, the dry one burned, leaving very little organic material, whereas the wet one couldn’t ignite or at least be burned on the edges.

Our landscapes are no different. A functioning wet landscape will not readily burn. Yes, parts of it may, and yes, during dry times, it might, but the crucial thing is not to the extent that we are now seeing fires burn.

Every large fire I’ve seen of late on the east coast of Australia, you hear about it burning further into the parts of our rainforest that very rarely, if ever, burn. Why? Because they are becoming hotter and drier, no longer functioning like they once did and are now prone to bushfires.

If we can change how we manage water across our landscapes and create a new paradigm, that will be a big step in altering the effects of fire we currently see.

That brings us to part two of the solution.

Maximising Green Surface Area

By increasing the number of green and growing plants in our landscapes, we can help them complete their natural role of managing our small and large water cycles.

Like the example below of the Rabbit-Proof Fence in Western Australia, we have farmland with limited green, growing vegetation on one side of the fence. On the other side, we have scrubland with diverse vegetation.

As you can see, the scrubland has clouds, while the other side doesn’t. The green, growing vegetation is changing the microclimate, and once it expands over a large enough area, it can start changing that area’s climate.

¹

This is just one example of how maximising our green surface area can significantly change our climate.

Some of the key ways to bring back our green surface area is looking to;

• Incorporate trees back into the higher parts of our landscape and rebuild our forests

• Focus on having a year-round green surface area to the best of our ability

• Reintroduce our wetlands

• Focus on plant diversity in all areas

• Limit our concrete jungles and get plants back into those environments

If you’re interested in looking into this further, I recommend looking into some of these resources;

• The New Water Paradigm

• The Biotic Pump

• Alpha Lo’s Climate Water Project has a number of great articles on the topic

🌳 Learning from Plants

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

Lippia

Common Names: Carpet Weed, Fogfruit, No-man Grass, Phyla, Red Flower, Condamine Couch

Scientific Name: Phyla canescens

Where in the Succession: Mid Succession Accumulator

What is a Plant Succession?

This month, we will be looking at Lippia or Phyla canescens. Thanks to Sam for sending this one in.

Lippia is a well-dispersed plant being found on every continent around the world except Antarctica and within Australia, being found in every state and territory.

In Sam’s case, it started growing in the waterways but has since spread out to a larger array of soil types.

Phyla cansecens is closely related to the Lippia and Lantana families. It was first brought to Australia in the early 1900s as a lawn ornamental² .

What is it telling me about my landscape?

Lippia is a mid to late succession accumulator often coming into disturbed landscapes as a ground cover - a layer of defence over the soil.

Where will I find Lippia growing, and why is it growing there?

It is most often found growing along waterways and floodplains, preferring clay soils, but it will also grow in loamy and sandy soils.

Lippia most often starts its journey in waterways and actively degrading ones, before spreading further out into the broader floodplain areas.

Landscapes where Lippia is found growing often show some of the following characteristics;

• Low organic matter

• Compact soils

• Overgrazed areas

• Low soil moisture

• Floodplain areas with higher clay content soils

How can we manage Lippia?

Now that we understand the growing conditions that Lippia prefers and some of the attributes of the landscapes it is most frequently found in, how can we change those conditions to improve the succession and better manage the Lippia?

🐂 Change our grazing practices. It is ideal to remove continuous grazing in areas where Lippia is found and instead focus on incoprotating adequate recovery into the pastures. A study in Argentina found a direct correlation between constant grazing and an increased growth response by Lippia³ . Therefore, the implementation of adequate recovery times after grazing an area is crucial to managing its effects.

⬆️ Increase your soil fertility and organic matter. Lippia often comes into environments with limited plant cover. Its sprawling nature is like that of a scab on the human body. It is coming to protect and hold together what’s underneath. We could add organic matter like mulch, compost, manure, or a combination to assist it with this task. This will help add fertility to support higher-order species and hold more moisture, creating an environment for those plants to grow and protect the soil surface.

🌧️ Improve soil hydrology. By focusing on your hydrology and creating systems that promote the rehydration of the landscape, we can create an environment that is more suited to higher-successional species.

🌊 Manage water. Lippia often begins from an actively degrading waterway lacking vegetation and the ability to manage water flow. If we can do our best to manage these environments and not create the ideal growing conditions for Lippia, we can look to stop it from even having to start its role.

How to make the most of your Lippia

🪨 As a Soil Indicator: Low Calcium, Low organic matter levels, Poor soil structure, slightly acidic soils, low nitrogen, low phosphorus

🐮 Livestock: Lippia is typically not favourable when grazed by livestock, with low palatability and nutritional value. This makes sense, seeing as though it often arrives in overgrazed areas as nature’s protective armour.

💊 Medicinal: Lippia has limited known medicinal benefits when compared to its closely related relative, Phyla nodiflora, which has a number of traditional uses³ . 

One study in 2002 used extracts from lippia as a measure against the proliferative effects of carcinoma cells. The study found that the extracts were capable of this task³ .

🍽️ Consumption: There are no known uses of lippia as a food source.

🙋 Answering your Questions

Ask the Team! Share your question here, and we’ll answer it in a future newsletter.

💬 Peter Asks:

I am interested to learn how to deal with Chilean Needle Grass in my paddocks on a holistic basis. Spraying poisons is not my thing, and physical removal is not practical.

🎙️ Hamish’s Answer:

Hi Peter, Thank you for your question. Chilean Needle Grass is a tricky one and definitely not a short term fix. Unlike many of our annual weedy friends, being a perennial grass makes it a step above and longer term management horizon, but solutions are available none the less.

The first two steps I would consider are grazing management and fertility. I know of cases where farmers have incorporated high-density grazing with high plant utilisation followed by a long recovery time, which has reduced the amount of Chilean Needle Grass over time and opened up the opportunity for other species to grow.

Increasing soil fertility is another route to changing the succession and promoting our more favourable species. The areas where the Chilean Needle Grass grows may lack the fertility to support higher-order species. To overcome this, you could import fertility from sources like chicken manure, compost, waste hay, and products like that.

I would also look at changing the hydrology in the areas where it is growing and see if increased soil moisture is able to change its growth patterns.

Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet for managing plants like these. However, by looking at the root cause of their existence and implementing practices to manage that, we will start on a path to finding a long-term, manageable solution. Most importantly, we should treat these changed practices as experiments, recording what we do and observing the results over time.

📚 What We’ve Been Learning

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

The Positive Development™ Podcast: Episode 2 (Stuart Andrews and Natural Sequence Farming): Stuart chats with Bart and Dante, discussing all things Natural Sequence Farming, the mindset shifts we need to create, and the longer-term vision for what we can all start to play a role in.

Drought Resilience Grazing with Col & Jackie Clark: Check out what our TPT graduates Col and Jackie have been up to putting what they’ve learnt into practice.

Regenerative Agriculture Beats Carbon Emissions Hands Down: A fascinating conversation around the potential of regen farming and the role that it can play in managing the CO2 that we hear being linked to climate change.

Note: That’s wetlands lost nationally, and in our populated coastal areas, we have lost 90% of wetlands, which play a crucial role in managing fertility and water at the last point of the system before it is lost to the ocean, and now many of those management systems are gone completely.

Good morning, and welcome to the 11th edition of our monthly newsletter, Reading Landscapes.

The end of the year has come around quickly, and this will be the final newsletter for this year. I thank you for reading and sharing your fantastic feedback - it is fulfilling to hear that you’re enjoying reading this newsletter monthly.

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

While you're hopefully having a break, think about any questions you’d like answered and send them through for the newsletter next year.

Every section will be split with this divider

Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

• Charging your landscape

• How to deal with Prickly Pear

• Leaching… how can I manage it

• What we’ve been learning

🔎 Looking at the Landscape

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

Looking through photos recently, I realised that it’s been almost a year since we undertook a trial at Forage Farms to see how the impact of charging our contours in the dry season would play out when the rains arrived.

Last winter was a very tough season in the local area, with it being one of the driest years in the lead-up to summer. With little rain, I wanted to conduct a test whereby we began charging our contours to get the landscape's hydrology working and moisten the subsoil. The plan was that when the rains did arrive, water wouldn’t need to try and hydrate the soil as that was already complete. It could all go to the plant and maximise plant growth.

This would also mean that because we had already filled our soil with water when the rains arrived, the potential for our fertility to be leached away would be minimised, as the rain would fall on soils where the hydrology was already in place and prepared.

How did we do this trial? Well, we just filled the contours. We pumped water (and fertility) from the lower parts of our landscape into higher contours. We spread that water across the landscape and over the top to begin stimulating the hydrology.

Why do this:

• Stimulate your plants and prepare them for the rain that’s coming

• Keep your landscape hydrology functioning and the area hydrated to maintain production

• Bring fertility and water back to the top of the landscape for reuse rather than be lost

What were the results?

As you can see from the photos, water definitely impacts the number of green-growing plants during the dry season. However, the most significant impact was the time it took for the other plants to grow and become dominant after rain arrived. In that case, it was almost instantaneous.

However, the results are what we were after. We should have started the process earlier; the dry season had already set in by the time we started. The results would have been better if we had started earlier in the year and continued with a monthly session of charging the contours. I will try this in the future when we see another dry season coming.

🌳 Learning from Plants

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

Prickly Pear

Common Names: Common Pear, Nopales, Prickly Pear, Common Pest Pear, Australian Pest Pear, Tree Cactus, Rabbit Ears Cactus

Scientific Name: Opuntia species

Where in the Succession: Early Succession Accumulator

This month, we will be looking at Prickly Pear. A plant that is well known around the world, the term Prickly Pear is a collective name for the opuntia family, of which there are more than 150 species around the world.

What is a Plant Succession?

Interestingly, it was first introduced to Australia and many places worldwide for the cultivation of cochineal insects, which produced a purple die for industry. It happily took up residence and led to widespread growth.

An idea of the size the Opuntia species can grow to⁸

What is it telling me about my landscape?

Prickly Pear is an early succession accumulator or pioneer species tasked with building a landscape. The plant is armed with spikes and designed in a way that is not to be messed with so that it can continue growing and complete its role. It is perfectly adapted to a hot and dry climate with its large water holding capacity and its ability to close stomata during the day, unlike most other plants, and instead complete gas exchange at night - a perfect adaptation for the harsh, dry climates that it is found in¹ .

Where will I find Prickly Pear growing, and why is it growing there?

As discussed above, the Prickly Pear is perfectly adapted to harsh, dry climates, often growing in arid-like conditions. Landscapes that Prickly Pear is found growing frequently exhibit the following characteristics;

• Well-draining, low-quality soils that are sandy or gravelly

• Low soil moisture levels

• Little to no organic matter is present

• Limited to no soil life

How can we manage Prickly Pear?

As land stewards, we can begin to implement practices that shift the environment and move the succession forward by understanding the conditions in which prickly pear grows.

Some ways we can look to manage the Prickly Pear include;

🌧️ Manage your water. Prickly Pear is an excellent species for drier and more arid environments. By starting to focus on your hydrology and beginning to create systems that promote the rehydration of the landscape, we can create an environment that is more suited to higher successional species, and by managing the Prickly Pear with the steps listed below, we can make the opportunity for those other species to begin growing.

✂️ Thin out the Prickly Pear. By getting in and removing the Prickly Pear, we can open up the environment and create an opportunity for other species to germinate and begin growing. Before doing this, we must ensure the environment is ready to support the species we plan to follow.

Note that if you plan to thin by mechanical means, this must be actively monitored, as Prickly Pear pads can directly root from the pad itself and start a new plant once they have fallen on the ground. This is an extraordinary example of its hardiness, further promoting its ability to be an early successional species.

⬆️ Increase your soil fertility and organic matter. Prickly Pear will happily grow in lighter and less fertile soils, but if we step in intending to increase our organic matter and improve the soil, we can create the conditions to support higher-order species. Some ways of beginning this could be by adding organic matter like mulch, compost, manure, or a combination. This will help add fertility to support higher-order species and hold more moisture to create an environment for those plants to grow.

🌳 Incorporate more plant diversity into the landscape. Prickly Pear often grows in landscapes that once had tree cover: forests, open woodlands, and similar landscapes. In many cases, the trees and plant diversity from these landscapes were removed to make way for pasture, and the Prickly Pear happily took up residence to increase diversity and try and return the landscape to what it once was.

To manage this, we could selectively thin the Prickly Pear and leave some of it, or we could try to fulfil its role by adding trees, shrubs, and other plant species to increase the diversity again.

How to make the most of your Prickly Pear

🪨 As a Soil Indicator: Low Calcium, High Potassium, Higher Copper, Low Humus, Sandy soils, Little biology, Low moisture levels²

🐮 Livestock: Prickly Pear can provide livestock with a critical feed supply during dry periods of little growth. It has a high water content, contains essential minerals and a moderate protein content of 4 - 8%³

The edibility of the plant is an issue for livestock; a study researching the utilisation of Opuntia for livestock forage found that using fire to burn off the spines from the plant significantly increased utilisation by the livestock and created an adequate feed source for the herd during more challenging periods⁴ . Trials were also completed on cutting down cactus plants and feeding them through a chopper before being fed to livestock.

💊 Medicinal: Research has found that the Opuntia species can lower blood sugar levels, reducing levels between 17% and 46%⁵ . Further research is currently looking into its effectiveness at lowering cholesterol levels and its potential anticancer and antiviral properties for helping with autoimmune diseases.

Traditionally, the plant has also been used as a topical application for wound healing and treating burns due to its ability to act as a coagulant and treat inflammation⁶ .

🍽️ Consumption: Unlike most cacti, the entire Prickly Pear plant is edible, but care must be taken to remove the thorns on both the fruits and pads. Mexicans consider it the la planta de vida (plant of life)⁷ .

Young pads can be used in salads, or they can also be boiled or steamed to improve tenderness. That’s just the beginning; they can be grilled, pickled, or canned. The fruit can be eaten fresh or turned into juices, jams, syrups and alcoholic or fermented drinks. The possible uses of the Prickly Pear pads are nearly endless.

If you want more details on the nutritional benefits or even some recipes to start your foraging journey, check out Eating Cactus: Prickly Pear for Food by the University of Nebraska.

Interestingly, Prickly Pear is also being used for the creation of;

• Biofuel

• Bioplastics, and;

• Plant Leather

Showing further uses for the plant.

🙋 Answering your Questions

Ask the Team! Share your question here, and we’ll answer it in a future newsletter.

💬 Tom Asks:

How do you manage against the effects of leaching?

🎙️ Hamish’s Answer:

The installation of contours to manage water, increase infiltration, and build up the water table of your landscape is one way you can manage against leaching.

However, plants are more efficient at the task in many ways and offer the best prevention. The best plants at preventing leaching can go deep with their roots, bring fertility to the surface, and collect those losses. In particular, trees and coarse vegetation, like weeds, provide the best results.

By incorporating these plants across our landscapes and, in particular, our accumulation areas, we can begin to reverse leaching by the plants slowing the movement of water across a landscape whilst sending their roots down deep to return the lost minerals to the surface where they are now readily accessible to other plants.

Now that we have set up our accumulation areas with trees and some contours, we can also aid this process by recycling our fertility and returning it to the top. If we can manage against leaching whilst also bringing new fertility into the landscape, we can potentially boost that landscape’s productive capacity.

When planting these areas, we must focus on a diversity of species. If your climate suits, including a large percentage of deciduous trees, would be beneficial as they provide yet another source of fertility along with excellent resistance to fire.

📚 What We’ve Been Learning

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

Mobile Milking: An interesting approach to the dairy industry. The idea of being mobile allows for the enterprise to be taken anywhere. For the landscape, the increased amount of fertility from the milking area can be moved around and spread across the property, allowing you to continuously cycle fertility without having to move it manually.

Farmer Stories with Martin Royds: Meet TPT graduate Martin Royds and look around his property, “Jillamatong”, and the works implemented to restore natural landscape function.

Huge* If True: I’ve enjoyed this YouTube series by journalist Cleo Abram, who explores interesting tech areas with detailed explanations.

Heifer USA visits Polyface Farm: Heifer USA visits Polyface Farm and tours with Daniel Salatin. Obviously, like many people, I admire Polyface, and what we do at Forage Farms is based around the Polyface model, so I always enjoy a farm tour video and see what they’ve been up to.