A couple of years ago whilst shooting the Food Forest DVD with Geoff Lawton he remarked how “only on edges do we get fertility” or words to that effect. At the time that phrase didn’t really make much sense to me but when you stop and think for a moment how nature creates...

The term “swale” is often used by Permaculture people when designing large earth work constructions but it’s very rarely spoken of in an urban setting. What is a swale anyway? Well its commonly defined as “a water harvesting ditch on contour.” Imagine it as a...

Permaculture teacher Geoff Lawton scrambles through a clump of reeds perched over a some large boulders and gingerly steps over a pond choked with Duckweed and Salvinia floating on the surface. You can hear the frogs croaking in the background. Birds are singing in the trees. He peels back a...

A while back when we made our first DVD on harvesting rainwater to drought proof your property we first came across this term “Swale.” What does it mean exactly and why do Permaculture people advocate its usage? If you asked Geoff Lawton from the Permaculture Research Institute...

This DVD looks at a small acreage farm and follows Permaculture teacher Geoff Lawton and a team of students as they consult with a client, survey the landscape and discuss the best way to capture rainwater and divert it into a series of swales to feed a dam system that they will construct over...