Put Your Questions to the Experts, Round 4b: Geoff Lawton

General, Podcasts — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor February 15, 2013

Geoff Lawton at the Zaytuna Farm entrance
Photo © Craig Mackintosh

This is Part B of the fourth installment in our popular Q&A series. In case you didn’t catch it on previous occasions, we added a new sub-forum titled ‘Put Your Questions to the Experts!‘, where our forum members put their questions to experienced permaculturists we’ll approach over the weeks and months ahead. First up to be the target of our combined curiosities and the salve of our perplexities, is the PRI’s own Geoff Lawton. Geoff, currently teaching at Zaytuna Farm in NSW, Australia, spends 80 minutes with us, sharing from his wealth of experience in permaculture teaching and consulting in dozens of countries worldwide.

Click play below to hear the podcast!

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Put Your Questions to the Experts, Round 4a: Geoff Lawton

General, Podcasts — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor February 1, 2013

This is the fourth installment in our popular Q&A series. In case you didn’t catch it on previous occasions, we added a new sub-forum titled ‘Put Your Questions to the Experts!‘, where our forum members put their questions to experienced permaculturists we’ll approach over the weeks and months ahead. First up to be the target of our combined curiosities and the salve of our perplexities, is the PRI’s own Geoff Lawton. Geoff, currently teaching at Zaytuna Farm in NSW, Australia, spends 60 minutes with us, sharing from his wealth of experience in permaculture teaching and consulting in dozens of countries worldwide.

Note: In this episode you’ll find the answers to only the first five questions in Round 4. Geoff was called away in the middle, so we’ll attend to the rest of the questions in a subsequent video.

Bill Mollison Interview

Podcasts — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor January 18, 2013

Here’s a great interview, covering a lot of ground and history of the permaculture movement, as told to Frank Aragona.

Geoff Lawton on Permaculture for the Urban Environment (Podcast)

Podcasts — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor January 12, 2013

Geoff Lawton, Director of the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia, gives a positive talk on permaculture for the urban environment in an interview by the Los Angeles-based Institute of Urban Ecology.

geoff is in good form in this talk — it’s well worth a listen.

Click play below to hear the interview!

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Imprinting Soils – Creating Instant Edge for Large Scale Revegetation of Barren Lands

Conservation, Land, Plant Systems, Podcasts, Rehabilitation, Seeds, Soil Conservation, Structure, Water Harvesting — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor September 19, 2012

With the U.S. and other countries caught in unprecedented droughts, and arid areas of the world growing in tandem, this simple method for speeding revegetation at scale offers a lot of promise.

Imprinting roller

Imprinted soil

The barren, arid landscapes of the world are notoriously hard to revegetate. Indeed, the earth in these regions is usually very hard to describe as ’soil’. As vegetation dies off, the soil gets exposed to intense heat and evaporation, and any seeds that are present, or applied, are then unable to get the moisture they need to germinate and survive. With plant roots, organic matter and microorganisms no longer present in the soil, it rapidly loses any of the structure it once possessed. Soil erosion from rain events and harsh winds then easily undermine nature’s attempts at natural, progressive restoration, by sending any accumulated soil particles elsewhere, or out into the ocean.

Human intervention has been, in many cases, the driving force in starting this destructive cycle, and, as evidenced by the rapid advancement of desertification worldwide, it’s also clear that it will only be through human intervention that we can reverse it.

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90 Minutes with Geoff Lawton (Podcast)

Podcasts — by Paul Wheaton August 15, 2012

Permaculture is an ethical design science.
– Geoff Lawton

Today I, Paul Wheaton, sat down with Geoff Lawton to discuss all things permaculture in the 195th edition of my podcast. We spent 90 minutes on topics ranging from the issues of being a leader and having detractors to aquifers under the Sahara.

Geoff will be a special guest on the permies.com forums where you can ask him all your detailed, complex questions and get detailed, complex answers in return. Four lucky permies.com members will receive a free edition of his Food Forests DVD.

But most importantly, Geoff says I am right that plants do exchange loads of nitrogen with the soil while they are still alive as Geoff has a meta-review of the review that Helen Atthowe and I did of his Food Forests DVD. He also says Helen was right, but you should focus on the fact that I was right!

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The REAL Green Revolution In Africa: Permaculture in Zimbabwe With Julious Piti

Aid Projects, Community Projects, Podcasts — by Sustainable World Radio August 7, 2012

by Sustainable World Radio

Julious Piti is a Permaculture designer and teacher, organic farmer, and conflict facilitator based in Zimbabwe. Julious has been using permaculture in Africa to restore the health of both land and community. A founding member of the Chikukwa Ecological Land Trust (CELUCT) and now the Director of PORET (Participatory Organic Research Extension and Training), Julious’ work shows that degraded land can be transformed. PORET supports farmers in dry-land areas and works to address hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. In 2007, PORET won the Zimbabwe National Environmental Award.

Click play to hear the interview!

Pietro Zucchetti Interviews Chris Evans

Aid Projects, Community Projects, Podcasts — by Pietro Zucchetti July 11, 2012

Chris Evans, who co-created the invaluable Farmers’ Handbook, has lived and worked in Nepal since 1985, co-founding the Jajarkot Permaculture Project, which successfully spread new ideas in line with existing cultural traditions. Chris started his career as a VSO volunteer in a community forestry programme in Nepal after graduating in Forestry in the UK.

Based in the remote western district of Jajarkot, he quickly realised the shortfalls of international development and so in 1988, when he came across the concept of permaculture, he embarked on an ambitious alternative. Starting with a local friend, £500 and an acre of degraded farmland in the district centre of Jajarkot he founded a demonstration and training centre which grew organically into the Jajarkot Permaculture Programme (JPP) — a diverse array of projects spanning 4 districts, 65 villages, 8 resource centres (working farms), 120 staff and volunteers, and a membership of 12,000 farmers.

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3CR ‘Food Fight’ Show Excerpts Evan Young on Omnivorous Diet

Land, Livestock, Podcasts, Salination, Soil Biology, Soil Conservation, Waste Systems & Recycling — by Evan Young March 5, 2012

Zaytuna Farm – Photo © Craig Mackintosh

In the middle of Winter 2011, Trades Hall in Melbourne hosted a debate between the environmental impacts of an omnivorous diet vs. a vegetarian diet. Evan Young, Permaculture Consultant and former Intern and Staff Member of PRI Australia argued in favour of an omnivorous diet, citing many examples both from nature and modern farming techniques that use the natural pattern. These techniques enhance the environment while providing nutritionally dense foods. The debate was recorded by local 3CR Community Radio show "Food Fight" and they later aired some extracts on their programme — the audio of which is below.

Click play to hear the talk!

ABC Rural Talks to Matt Kilby About Farm Restoration Through Installing Trees and Swales (Podcast)

Commercial Farm Projects, Conservation, Irrigation, Land, Plant Systems, Podcasts, Rehabilitation, Swales, Trees, Water Harvesting — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor December 8, 2011

Consultant Matt Kilby stands before one of the swales he has
put in at Gippsland farm, Nambrok.
Photographer: Kath Sullivan

Matt Kilby, the ‘man of a thousand trees‘, shares thoughts with ABC Rural on his work (with Nick Huggins alongside) over the last 18 months at Nambrock, a property in Gippsland, southern Victoria, Australia.

"The first thing we did was put in a swale. A swale is a ditch which runs dead level to contour. The idea of the swale is more of a tree planting system." he said.

"We plant all our trees on the top side of the swale. We plant fertility building trees and all the leaf mulch falls into the swale or ditch, and turns into humic acid when it fills up with water. So all the nutrients are then spread back onto the surface and spread completely around the landscape." he said, describing the swale as a natural way to irrigate. — ABC Rural

Click play to hear the talk!

You Are Part of the Web of Life – A Conversation With Permaculture Designer and Teacher Warren Brush (Podcast)

Aid Projects, Community Projects, Podcasts — by Sustainable World Radio September 29, 2011

by Sustainable World Radio

Warren Brush, co-teaching the pre-IPC10 PDC in Amman, Jordan
Photo © Craig Mackintosh

Warren Brush, Permaculture Designer and educator talks with us about his work in Africa, the power of storytelling, and why children need us to be part of the solution. Brush, co-founder of Quail Springs Learning Oasis and Permaculture Farm, has mentored youth and educated adults around the world teaching them Permaculture and other practical life skills.

Click play to hear the talk!

Sustainable World Radio Interviews Margie Bushman & Wes Roe on IPC10

Community Projects, Conferences, Courses/Workshops, Podcasts, Presentations/Demonstrations, Social Gatherings — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor September 10, 2011

Margie Bushman & Wes Roe on Amazon boat tour, IPC8 Brazil

Here’s a great opportunity to get a bit of background and foreground on the International Permaculture Conference & Convergence (IPC10), which is now imminent! Listen to the podcast below to hear Margie and Wes talk to Sustainable World Radio and give their experiences with past IPCs, and their hopes for the current and future IPC events. It’s an inspiring, upbeat conversation that makes me more fired up to go (it’ll be my first!), and I’m sure it’ll be the same for you. At the very least, if you can’t make it yourself, it’ll encourage you to watch via livestream or follow the blog posts on www.ipcon.org over the dates (between September 17-23 and even beyond).

Click play to hear the talk!

ABC’s Bush Telegraph Helps Push National Permaculture Day

Community Projects, Conferences, Courses/Workshops, Podcasts, Social Gatherings, Society — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor May 6, 2011

This little promo interview by ABC’s Michael Mackenzie with Geoff Lawton, Kat Lavers and Liz Silvolli was for Australia’s National Permaculture Day — which saw a flurry of permaculture activity across Australia just a few days ago, on May 1. I post the talk for your interest. I’d welcome reports from the day from organisers and observers of some of the various events. It would be a great way to get people to start thinking about May 1, 2012! Just email me on editor (at) permaculturenews.org

Click play below to hear the interview.

Sustainable World Radio Interview with Doug Weatherbee: Life Within the Soil, Part I

Compost, Fungi, Podcasts, Rehabilitation, Soil Biology, Soil Composition, Soil Conservation, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Structure — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor January 28, 2011

I had the pleasure of meeting Doug Weatherbee at Geoff Lawton’s PDC course at Quail Springs in California in August 2008. With his coming from an IT background, it’s great, and interesting, to see his metamorphosis into an expert in all things soil.

Given that the soil beneath our feet is the source of all we eat, breathe, possess, and are, and given that it’s disappearing fast, it is imperative that we begin to protect and even restore it. Understanding a little better how it works is one giant step towards accomplishing this.

The content of Sustainable World Radio’s interview with Doug brings one face to face with the absurdity of a monocrop, industrialised, product-based agriculture, as he looks at the real secrets of a healthy soil — mega-diversity in soil life — and its potential to bring not only resiliency, but also gift us with a self-perpetuating system.

Click play to hear the talk!

Continue to Part II

Interview with Jesse Lemieux, Who is Soon to Teach at Zaytuna!

Courses/Workshops, Podcasts — by Patrick Blampied September 25, 2010

I had an amazing chat to Jesse Lemieux today and luckily… I recorded it!

Jesse is farm-sitting Zaytuna while Geoff’s away and also teaching a PDC there starting on November 21st. With such big shoes to fill I thought I’d pick his brain on all things permaculture to see if he’s up to it.

We talked about the newly launched PRI Canada and the permaculture explosion in the region, his background, being taught by Bill Mollison and Geoff Lawton, his experience teaching, the perils of temperate gardening in the extreme arid conditions in Jordan, and where he thinks Permaculture is heading over the next 60 years.

Just chatting to him for that short time I already feel like I’ve known him for years and I’m certain he’s up to the job. Have a listen. Click play below: