Day One. BHU.
Well, I don't think GEotU has ever seen me so hyper at the end of a working day. :-) He managed to get out a polite enquiry about how my day went before he was drowned in a wave of high-speed talking and wild gesticulations. It's only day one and I'm just feeling so happy about having chosen to do this and so inspired by what I've already seen.
The day started with a general introduction from Bill Martin, the course co-ordinator, about the course and its requirements. (I love that my course requirements list is headed by "secateurs".) It's going to be pretty full-on, I think, once I add in 12 or so hours of non-contact study time to my week as well as time to look after my plot (more on that later). I'm slightly daunted by the soil science side of things, since I haven't done even general science since 5th form. But hey, I have a brain and it needs some exercise (a bit like the rest of me, really...). It's about 60% class and 40% field work, with different subjects weighted more one way or the other depending on the needs of the subject. There are regular assessments and students keep diaries of their studies and field work.
After morning tea we had a site tour and historical overview from the man who set the whole place up, Bob Crowder. He's retired now but has been (in his own words) brought out of mothballs to teach some of the classes this year. He's a walking, talking encyclopedia of information and I probably learned more about beneficial plants and shelter belts during the course of the hour-long tour than I've known and forgotten up until now.
The Biological Husbandry Unit was set up in 1976, which makes it (they think) the oldest continuous organic production unit in New Zealand, and possibly Australasia. It was a product of student radicalism and the energy crisis - as he put it, we're only really interested in things like organics as a society when we feel a sense of imminent ecological danger. In the 90s, with the retirement of some of the key staff and a decrease of interest in organics, alternative energies etc. (combined with various decisions made by the university - I think there wuz Politics), the Unit pretty much shut down and fell into a certain degree of neglect. In the early 2000s Bill Martin got things started again (at which point it became the BHU Organics Trust), working with Telford Rural Polytechnic (in Balclutha) to get the courses running. It's run in conjunction with Telford because the courses are certificate-level and universities are not supposed to impinge on what is seen to be the province of the polytechs, despite such courses being a part of Lincoln's provenance. This is the third year of classes onsite, and their largest intake of students to date.*
There are beehives, plots for vege crops and beautiful orchards, including an orchard of heritage apple varieties selected for their natural disease resistance. The shelter belts are stunning. Wide belts of trees and shrubs of various varieties and heights, they are mini-ecosystems all of their own, rather like English hedgerows but on a large wind-break scale. Within them the Canterbury wind was reduced to a gentle breeze. They are full of bird life and all sorts of underplantings which bring in insect diversity (we had to fight our way through lush cow parsley as tall as me). Many of the belts are designed to be coppiced. It ain't tidy in the way a conventional horticulturalist would expect and it ain't meant to be. Diversity is the key and it makes for a landscape teeming with life, rich in production and really, truly beautiful.
After lunch we walked into the main Lincoln campus and had a tour of the library. It's the first time I've visited a library with a gumboot parking area by the door. :-)
Finally, we were allocated our personal garden plots by ballot. These 3m x 3m plots are for us to do with as we will. They are not part of our assessment. We can choose whatever cultivation method we like (as long as it's organic, of course!), plant what we like and do whatever we like with our harvests. The plots are where we get to try out our new-found knowledge. My predecessor had left me my first harvest - perfect globe artichokes. :-) I'm still thinking about what I want to do with my plot but I'm leaning towards trying out the Three Sisters garden out there (see two posts back) rather than in town as the plot is a good size to grow a small block of corn in.
So that was it. Day one. Bloody glad I made it.
*This is my summary of what I think Bob said. Any mistakes or pieces of misinformation are all my bad.
The day started with a general introduction from Bill Martin, the course co-ordinator, about the course and its requirements. (I love that my course requirements list is headed by "secateurs".) It's going to be pretty full-on, I think, once I add in 12 or so hours of non-contact study time to my week as well as time to look after my plot (more on that later). I'm slightly daunted by the soil science side of things, since I haven't done even general science since 5th form. But hey, I have a brain and it needs some exercise (a bit like the rest of me, really...). It's about 60% class and 40% field work, with different subjects weighted more one way or the other depending on the needs of the subject. There are regular assessments and students keep diaries of their studies and field work.
After morning tea we had a site tour and historical overview from the man who set the whole place up, Bob Crowder. He's retired now but has been (in his own words) brought out of mothballs to teach some of the classes this year. He's a walking, talking encyclopedia of information and I probably learned more about beneficial plants and shelter belts during the course of the hour-long tour than I've known and forgotten up until now.
The Biological Husbandry Unit was set up in 1976, which makes it (they think) the oldest continuous organic production unit in New Zealand, and possibly Australasia. It was a product of student radicalism and the energy crisis - as he put it, we're only really interested in things like organics as a society when we feel a sense of imminent ecological danger. In the 90s, with the retirement of some of the key staff and a decrease of interest in organics, alternative energies etc. (combined with various decisions made by the university - I think there wuz Politics), the Unit pretty much shut down and fell into a certain degree of neglect. In the early 2000s Bill Martin got things started again (at which point it became the BHU Organics Trust), working with Telford Rural Polytechnic (in Balclutha) to get the courses running. It's run in conjunction with Telford because the courses are certificate-level and universities are not supposed to impinge on what is seen to be the province of the polytechs, despite such courses being a part of Lincoln's provenance. This is the third year of classes onsite, and their largest intake of students to date.*
There are beehives, plots for vege crops and beautiful orchards, including an orchard of heritage apple varieties selected for their natural disease resistance. The shelter belts are stunning. Wide belts of trees and shrubs of various varieties and heights, they are mini-ecosystems all of their own, rather like English hedgerows but on a large wind-break scale. Within them the Canterbury wind was reduced to a gentle breeze. They are full of bird life and all sorts of underplantings which bring in insect diversity (we had to fight our way through lush cow parsley as tall as me). Many of the belts are designed to be coppiced. It ain't tidy in the way a conventional horticulturalist would expect and it ain't meant to be. Diversity is the key and it makes for a landscape teeming with life, rich in production and really, truly beautiful.
After lunch we walked into the main Lincoln campus and had a tour of the library. It's the first time I've visited a library with a gumboot parking area by the door. :-)
Finally, we were allocated our personal garden plots by ballot. These 3m x 3m plots are for us to do with as we will. They are not part of our assessment. We can choose whatever cultivation method we like (as long as it's organic, of course!), plant what we like and do whatever we like with our harvests. The plots are where we get to try out our new-found knowledge. My predecessor had left me my first harvest - perfect globe artichokes. :-) I'm still thinking about what I want to do with my plot but I'm leaning towards trying out the Three Sisters garden out there (see two posts back) rather than in town as the plot is a good size to grow a small block of corn in.
So that was it. Day one. Bloody glad I made it.
*This is my summary of what I think Bob said. Any mistakes or pieces of misinformation are all my bad.