Sepp Holzer's Permaculture: Farming with Nature

While attending the Permaculture Design Course with Darren Doherty in Athens, Greece, a month ago, I had the privilege of copying more than 400GB of videos about permaculture that Darren has collected through the years.

Several of those videos have to do with remarkable people like Sepp (Josef) Holzer of Ramingstein, Austria.

We watched several of Holzer's videos one evening for entertainment. But Sarita and I have been watching videos ourselves most evenings before going to bed.

I thought I'd share a link to one of the most inspiring farmers I have had the privilege of learning about, and a blog worth perusing: the Permaculture Media Blog.

Post you'll want to read (and whose videos you will find inspiring): Sepp Holzer's Permaculture: Farming with Nature - A Case Study of Successful Temperate Permaculture - Documentary Film.

Minor quote from the post to give you a little taste of what Holzer is all about:

Called the "rebel farmer" because he persisted in [ecological farming, or Permaculture] practices despite being fined and even threatened with prison for practices such as not pruning his fruit trees (unpruned fruit trees survive snow loads that will break pruned trees). He has also created some of the worlds best examples of using ponds as reflectors to increase solar gain for Passive solar heating of structures, and of using the Microclimate created by rock outcrops to effectively change the Hardiness zone for nearby plants.

"Microclimates"? Yes! --He has planted a lemon tree--yes, outside, using nothing but the sun, vegetation and rocks to warm the tree--and successfully grown lemons in an area of the world where there is frost for eight months of the year and the average daytime temperature, year-round, is only 5 Centigrade (about 40 degrees F).

Trees helping to rebuild the environment in Africa

There has been so much destruction of the environment in Africa, especially as a result of the removal of trees. It's nice to read about people starting to re-plant trees, or to use trees, for the rehabilitation of the environment.

Check out this great article from the BBC:

The nitrogen-fixing roots of certain trees provide valuable nutrients to resource-poor arable land.Planting trees that improve soil quality can help boost crop yields for African farmers, an assessment shows.

Fertiliser tree systems (FTS) also help boost food security and play a role in "climate proofing" the region's arable land, the paper adds.

"Gentle environmentalism"?

What do you call yourself? How do you describe yourself? How do you speak in such a way that you offer exactly the "right" nuance so that, when it comes to a divisive subject like environmentalism, you don't antagonize anyone in the broad and diverse audience you hope to address?

Oh. And how do you do these things when other people have already chosen some of the names and titles you thought just might do the trick?

I had thought I should call this blog the "Practical Environmentalist." After all, I have always wanted to be very practical in my care for the ecosphere around me. I'm willing--I've always been willing to do . . . and I've pretty much always been ready to do . . . I've actually done things that are (to borrow a phrase from Al Gore's film) somewhat "inconvenient" for the sake of the environment in which I live.

A very minor, almost "stupid" example: I remember Lady Bird Johnson's "Keep America Beautiful" campaign in the mid- to late-60s.* "Don't be a litterbug." "Pitch In."

It made sense. You wouldn't throw your trash on the floor of your own house; why would you throw it into someone else's (or "everyone's") back yard?

So I never littered. I cleaned up after myself. And I would (not go crazy, but if I was walking up a path and came across things on the path, I would) pick up trash and litter on my way.

It made good sense.

Recycling made good sense, too. And "even" when it costs me an extra couple of dollars a month to have my trash company pick up my recyclables (rather than paying the lower price many of my neighbors do for "simply" tossing all the refuse--including all recyclables--into the trash), I am willing to do that, as well.

While I was in college, I looked into bermed housing construction (a very simple means to reduce heat loss, thus reduce energy expenditure). I studied geothermal energy. And when I had the opportunity, as a business person, to build a commercial building, I examined geothermal energy once more. Great concept. But when the calculations came back explaining that it would take me anywhere from 20 to 50 years to pay back my initial cost of installing geothermal energy: Sorry. I wasn't about to do it.

That's where I come up with the idea of "practical." I'm not so "nuts" about the environment that I'm willing to do absolutely "anything" to cut my carbon footprint!

I want to look at risks and rewards, costs and benefits. I want to look at payback periods. I want also to look at total costs. Not just "captured" costs, but "external" costs, too. --Too many prices in modern industry are based on the exclusion of externalized costs. (I hope to talk about that on this blog.)

. . . All of this, what I have said so far, is by way of explaining "where I'm coming from." And I wanted to put that into the idea of the "Practical Environmentalist" title.

But that title was already taken.

So I banged around looking for an alternative.

I liked "Gentle Environmentalist."

That gives some of the impression I want(ed). I'm not here to beat anyone over the head. I'm not a wild-eyed Greenie. I'm not a tree-hugger.

OTOH, I am--more and more--rather fiercely committed to addressing issues related to the environment.

So then I thought maybe I should call this the "Gentle Fierce Environmentalist."

But, oh! Yuck! Too many words! Too complex.

And am I truly an "environmentalist"? Would "true" environmentalists view me that way? (I imgaine not!)

So what if I dropped the "environmentalist" tag and simply spoke of gentle environmentalism?

I rather liked that idea! And so I decided to move forward with it.

I don't know if there's a better title. I'm sure there's got to be. But I'd rather get this blog started than wait till the "perfect" title comes along!

* I just did a search and discovered it really wasn't Lady Bird Johnson's campaign. "Keep America Beautiful" is a corporation that has been in business since 1953. First Lady Lady Bird Johnson "merely" joined with them in 1965 to help promote the concept and practice.