An Introduction to Permaculture with Geoff Lawton - Part 2 of 4

[@MrMadalien]

This is absolutely invaluable information, he's a great teacher, very articulate within a subject that is hard to articulate.

[@richnovotny5008]

That was a great video thank you for being on the front line of try to make the earth a better place Mr. Lawton is a great teacher of how we all can make a better place to live Thank You Diego

[@xyzsame4081]

11:00 compost tower explained, drawing, influence 1 m, worms stay in, but juices with bacteria feed the garden. - Geoff feeds even animals into his compost heaps. - no citrus peel (wood preserver and cleaning material, but hard to compost) - and no onions most onions are hard to break downs. Especially if they had been treated with herbicides.

[@lkhfun6575]

Great series. Very intimate. Thanks Diego!

[@droptozro]

Now this is what I'm talking about, great information. Thanks, I will definitely keep listening... really want to visit one of these courses.

[@xyzsame4081]

6:50 Compost worms eat surface organic (red wood wrigglers, etc.) Eat their own weight every day. Black soldiers larvae (which are from the U.S.) eat TEN times their weight every day. If you do not supply compost worms with enough food they leave behind eggs that sit dormant for 5 - 20 years. They are activated by humid acid. - The manure of compost worms if very high in beneficial bacteria (little fungi).

[@xyzsame4081]

8:00 earthworms eat beneficial soil bacteria, so compost worms that provide lots of those bacteria can be helpful

[@bradsuarez2683]

12:16-13:22 Really valuable information! Matter of fact the entire thing was really valuable! Thank you for this video.

[@xyzsame4081]

High quality compost, soil locking up toxins unless pH is changed by air pollution. Problems in Black Forest. Towards the end a very good composter. passive filters for rain water, no energy (UV) or sand filter needed.

[@xyzsame4081]

Organic farming versus permaculture (coat hanger / cabinet / clothes comparsion). 3:00 no (or hardly any) new concepts in permaculture / gardening / farming since he got his PDC (compost towers, mandala gardens, keyhole gardens etc. are discussed). Ben Hur worm seats around trees. No one really had worm _towers._ Longer discussion of compost worms (they are not earth worms and cannot live in soil. compost tower explained. How much do they eat, how long do eggs survive, compost fluid viable how long ?)

[@thornhedge9639]

Man has Dominion (which means nurturing, enabling, and cultivating) all the things Geoff is preaching. It's a short sighted people who think Dominion is about Domination by brute force.

[@teresaprice5070]

I guess my concern is: why, with the knowledge we have regarding the ecocides, are they still allowed to be produced, distributed, and applied?? How can the devastation be allowed to continue??

[@xyzsame4081]

I will have to come back to work with the automatic transcript to get an overview of issues and the timestamp ;) - in the meantime some comments and a like for the algorithm.

[@Hailexx]

Maybe they'd understand if Geoff gave this as a TED talk

[@bte_permaculture]

I recently saw a Ted talk by him..I guess. Will update the link when I find it here.

[@xyzsame4081]

He has 2 or 3 TED talks and I have watched them after binge watching other (practical oriented) content. the TED talks did not do it for me - I think they were too abstract / philosophical. This content partially also covers philsosphy, but it is fleshed out with practical examples (which to me conveys that he not only makes claims, he actually knows what he is talking about, and that has been tested and worked at least on some land). I noticed that the audience of the TED talks also did not seem to be super excited, the videos did not go viral, etc. A lot of people can go on stage and make aspirational statements ..... that we have to be sustainable with energy, the princples of ecosystems that we should imitate, that we can't treat water, and soil as disposable, should follow ethics when dealing with humans (be it workers or consumers or people living in an area). What else is new ? ! Meanwhile our economic and agricultural system is "functioning" the way it does and all the high minded demands and ideas have not changed that. It is not that the ideas and concerns would be incorrect, but there is no solution. Or the presented solutions are dismissed as naive (they can be). A lot of people (in rich nations where they can afford the luxury of such considerations) kinda know that it can't go on like this (regarding fossil fuel, and now also with water and wildfires - awareness of topsoil less is still underdeveloped). There is the systemic inertia, and people are complacent and selfish. They cannot imagine to substantially adjust their standard of living (or not giving up much) and know that many others are even less wiling to embrace self restriction, so they see no chance to change how food is produced at a large scale. The "pragmatic" argument is that we could not feed the world, and also that farmers could not make a living, that it would be too much work, or that small farmers cannot survive, or would have to slave away and minimal wages (per hour) if they cannot use the tools of conventional farming. Farmers do better in some countries of the EU, there are plenty of subsidies that make it for instance possible that in Austria 22 % of farms are working according to organic principles (might be more if they do not bother to get certified, but then they also leave the subsidies behind). They work 26 % of the land. The high EU subsidies for agriculture meet a specific culture in a land that traditionally had tiny farms and also a lot of dairy farms with pasture grazing in the mountains and cool regions with lots of rain. Which lend themselves very well to organic / regenerative farming. Nontheless the rest of the conventional farms do a lot of damage and also get subsidies (and they have nothing on the large farms in Netherlands or Germany, or France). Not even under the good conditions in Austria more farms switch - so that seems to be kind of hopeless. Even I could go on stage and make idealistic statements during a TED talk - but I could not give people hope or convey that I know _how to get it done_ and in a way that is good for producers. Geoff has a track record (Zaytuna, the Greening the Desert project) and the track record of his students. Every time he answers a question (and 5 others that were not asked but he ties it together) he conveys how much knowledge he has, how much he has seen (or indirect knowledge from observing what his students are doing). For instance the Huegelkultur hpye. Geoff cut through it in a question. Have you ever _seen_ a really successful one ? Please let me know, I see a lot of videos where they are set up, but do they have the abundant crops ? I have seen a few that look O.K. (but with crops that are easy to grow, and also would be rampant on a compost heap, or do well in a garden bed. (Sepp Holzer improvised likely after getting knowledge of ancient practices, He had wood, no chance to irrigate, needed a warmer, dryer microclimate. The mound being dried out is not an issue in the Alpes. It receives enough rain (but there is also enough drain). He used wood, needles, leaves, as soil building material because that was what he had on site at a remote location. And most likely there was not a lot of good topsoil, and they could not go into the earth - so building height mades sense - also likely warmer in spring compared to the cold earth. That does not count as benefit in warmer regions without frost in winter, and when they have termites that are attracted by wood, and fireants that are attracted by undisturbed area (and maybe termites). Huegelkulture may not even be the best solution in the mountains if you have better access to resources or deeper topsoil. One commenter under a quarantine Q & A session video (Goeff and family had to stay in in hotel in Melbourne in spring 2020, mostly confined to the room, so he did 8 longer sessions after collecting questions, so that was covering lots of very different questions, climate zones, and of course Geoff went "fractal" when exploring the issues, adding unexpected nuggest to the answer). The commenter said: It is like watching a guitar master at work, either you get frustrated because you will never have that virtuosity - or you go aand start practicing so you can be like him one day. Commenter seems to have felt both ;) The allure of permaculture (done by a master)- and you get that vibe when he deals with practical problems as opposed the the TED talks). it is interesting it is intellectually stimulating, or a challenge to solve the problems in a way that the farmers get the harvest (most) and still do not use the conventional brute force / quick fix solutions independence also from having to pay for fertilizer, large machines and herbicides it is meant to be profitable, and without the farmer / homesteaders wearing themselves down It is meant to allow making a living with interesting, stimulating work, in a dignified manner WHILE also doing good it is meant to make do without the quick fixes against pests, diseases and adverse conditions - and you believe that Geoff can handle it all whether it is in France or Asia or the arid regions of the U.S. - when he rambles and goes off tangent and display his vast knowledge. Among other things he has seen lots of pests, and unfavorable weather and irrigation conditions - and found or has seen solutions that preserved harvests and did not use harmful fixes

[@xyzsame4081]

If you recommend Geoff to others, send them over to the Q & A he does for the students of his online courses, or the Greening the Desert (Jordan) videos *. THAT will excite people and inspire hope - not the TED talks. - Most of the Q & A videos are short, 5 - 10 minutes (so easy to squeeze in and to digest) and they give an insight what permaculture is (I find them much more impressive, since Geoff gives his exhaustive answers they convey a lot about the underlying principles.). The Quarantine Q & A videos are also great (not sure if a newbie can fully absorb them or if they are simply floored by the wide and deep dig) - they give an idea how varied it is, and that this is more than about a number of how-tos for specific problems. The multitude of solutions and the reasoning behind them, gives an idea regarding the underlying SYSTEMIC principles. It puts a lot of flesh on the skeleton. The TED talks are about the skeleton if you will. I understood them, but if I had seen them first, I would not have been nearly as impressed compared to seeing the Greening the Desert and some Q & A videos. * Verge Permaculture in Canada also offers great content, so they must be well established (talking about things they have implemented and the how to, so practical knowledge). He worked in the oil industry, was increasingly uneasy about peak oil and global warming - and then came across the Greening the Desert videos of Geoff Lawton. That was the beginning of his journey. Seeing the site being upgraded and becoming greener is powerful. Zaytuna farm still having water after 2 years of historical draught, when the farms around were brown and had run out of water (and at that time they were not sure if the fires would hit their region too. Luckily they were spared, but Zaytuna likely was the best prepared because they still had water.). Zaytuna farm also used to be a cattle farm like the other farms around, Geoff had it 17 years (as per another video, maybe part 1 meanwhile longer) and got 20 new springs in those 17 years - planting trees, building swales, ponds and connecting them with pipes. During a period when Australia has seen major draughts and horrific wildfires. THAT electrifies people. Unfortunately he has no drone shots from peak draught (I have not seen any) - I think he does not realize HOW powerful that would be. Or he does not want to invest the money, or does not want to offend the neighbours ;) Humans instinctively react strongly to seing green sites and water in the middle of arid landscapes. A sight for sore eyes. Like the fade overs from the Loess Plateau (see the footage of John D. Liu). Original degraded status, and 10 years after the regenerative measures. Made at the very same spot, same angle (certain trees or mountain ranges make that clear - so it is really a fade in). What a difference. Most people are not much into nuance, but when they see one farm being green, all others are brown and the green property does it w/o pumping up groundwater - they need not see any more. Kinda like the ABC documentary of the land that had water management by Peter Andrews (Natural SequenceFarming, they work with things like leaky weirs in creeks and in general stop, slow, and soak in the water in flood plains. So in this case it is not done with swales, and also not much with ponds). Scientists and bureaucrats still wanted "data" and the non-profit Tony Coote helped to set up covered their bases by ALSO providig lots of data - We still have enough water undergound that trees and grass stay in good shape, and a flowing creek is supported by the water table was not "hard data". The general audience saw the drone shots of the ABC documentary and that was all they needed to know. And in that case the simple / simplistic view is really enough. If grass, bushes and trees are still doing well, while all your neighbours have gone brown during the draught, if creeks and springs originate ! from the groundwater that is recharged by the earthworks and that is enough to keep them running during a historic draught - then they are doing something (a lot) right. End of.

[@waylonbreaux2366]

i wonder how well his worm bin idea would work down here in the South, what with all our fire ants

[@rickobrien1583]

It works great..South Florida here. No problem with worms and fire ants.