Soil, pasture and paddock
How Australian soils fail, recover and feed us — from cracking clays to suburban compost heaps.
Cover crops fail in Australia when they are planted on a northern-hemisphere calendar. This essay sets legumes against cereals, Mediterranean winters against summer-rainfall districts, and the need to terminate a cover before it steals the spring.
Dr Maya Chen · 21 April 2025 · 8 min read
A suburban heap is not a farm windrow. This is a practical note on hot and cold piles, rats and soldier flies, council bins, January heat, and how finished compost behaves on a Perth sand versus a Melbourne clay.
Tom Phelan · 10 February 2025 · 7 min read
Rest, density and water points can change how cattle use a run, but they do not manufacture rain. A field note on northern and southern rangelands, feral grazers, and what regeneration can honestly do in a drought.
Tom Phelan · 2 September 2024 · 8 min read
Soil carbon is a stock you can measure, not a vibe you can market. This essay separates organic matter from Australian Carbon Credit Units, pasture from cropping, and a one-per-cent claim from what a paddock can actually hold.
Dr Maya Chen · 17 June 2024 · 7 min read
A cracking clay on the Darling Downs is not a sand on the Swan Coastal Plain. This field note shows how to read colour, structure, pH and sodicity in an Australian profile — from a dug pit or a roadside cutting.
Dr Maya Chen · 11 March 2024 · 7 min read