Permaculture first: regenerating a mine site with a food forest in Laos, by Paul Taylor

The old mine site, heavily compacted over acid producing material, capped with 3 mts of compacted clay and 500mm of very poor soil
Paul Taylor was in Laos in January, working on regenerating a mine site by focusing on soil improvement and planting a food forest. Here you will find his photo diary of the steps they went through to achieve this.

Hydro-seeding immediately after earthworks for improved germination, bio-fertiliser and soil pro-biotics (compost tea) added to hydro-seeder.

The crew were keen to learn and I had 2 good translators. Most training sessions were practical at the nursery site, but there were also 5 classroom teaching sessions.

Teaching at the nursery site making soil pro-biotic with aeration, and also how to make products at home using low tech systems.

We burn bones and crush them into fine powder, then we burn again with rice husk added to make ‘physical’ soluble Ca, Si, and P.

As mixing materials for the planting on site, we used dry cow manure, rice husk, forest soil and compost, which was then wetted with compost tea and bio-fertiliser.

Rough and dry conditions with poor soils, but good for a demonstration site and typical of mine sites.

3 Weeks later we have a green scape using natural products, local waste and natural systems: ‘trust nature’.
Paul is teaching Sustainable Soil Management courses here at PRI Sunshine Coast on the following dates: 1 – 5 April, 3 – 7 June and 26 – 30 August. If you are interested in learning the techniques described in this photo diary, please go to our Sustainable Soil Management page for more information. You can find Paul Taylor’s website at www.trustnature.com.au.
This is a demonstration of the Trust Nature’s Bio-Vital system for soil regeneration. It is a 3 part system for building soil fertility as we improve production. The system combines organic principles with the science and understanding of soil microbiology. If you have any questions feel free to contact me: paul@trustnature.com.au