Survival Food Forest with Chickens: Zero to 10 Years Tour!

Clip from the new "Surviving Collapse - Designing your way to Abundance" is a story on how Geoff Lawton discovered permaculture and what he did to prepare for any global crisis. Survival is not just about hoarding food but building stability and abundance into a natural food forest system. Geoff takes you on a fly-over of his property and explains the things you need to be aware of - should an economic or social upheaval destroy your water, food and electricity systems, you need to be able to cope with any disaster. Could you survive? Geoff says its possible. In fact he's doing and teaching it right now around the world. Come along for the ride. See whats possible. Low tech solutions create abundance when partnered with natural systems that are life enhancing.

Watch the Full 34 minute Video for FREE http://www.geofflawton.net/crisis/?10004

The garden of Eden in the making

   

Thank You Carol

Love for You

mudra

I love it.

FOOD FOREST CANOPY

Step 1 - Prepare the Ground
If the ground is barren scatter seeds the mulched. Allow seeds to get a start before going to next step. Or if in a grassy area prepare the ground with chickens in chicken tractor or within electric netting using lots of mulch for the chickens to scratch up the ground and remove most of the grass and weeds. The remaining few clumps of grass left after the chickens are chipped out by hand.

OR

Prepare the ground by building a swale and planting the food forest on the bare earth of the new swale mound.

Step 2 - Food Forest Plant Design

Ground Cover Support Species

Nitrogen fixing, to repair the ground. They have a relationship with micro organisms to give back free nitrogen from the air.
Time: Live for one season, 6 months, can be planted by seed
Numbers planted at the start: Mass planted initially 100,000
Numbers in the end: All gone after 6 months
Scatter mulched.


Short Term Small Legume Bush
Nitrogen fixing
Time: Short Term Legume bush lives for 4 or 5 years, can be planted by seed
Numbers planted initially:10,000

Medium Term Legume Tree
Planted by seed or a small potted seed from a nurser
Time: Lives for 10 to 15 years
Numbers planted initially: 1000
Numbers in the end: 100 maybe 50 most used for mulch

Long Term Overstory Legume Tree
Becomes a canopy tree of the forest with long term cycles of nitrogen in the ground.
Time: Lives for full term
Numbers planted initially: 100
Numbers in the end: 10 or 5 left

Fruit, Nut, Timber Trees
Numbers planted initially: 10
Numbers in the end: 10

VIDEO: http://www.geofflawton.com/fe/32461-surviving-the-coming-crises?r=y

Free Geoff Lawton Permaculture Videos  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgxdY9L9eQw
Geoff Lawton - Permaculture School Garden in Jordan's Dead Sea Valley   - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa2Kp6Q095g
Geoff Lawton talks about a new school garden project that is a collaboration between the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia (PRI - www.permaculture.org.au) and KidsAreSweet (www.kidsaresweet.com). This project enables children in a small village with severe water shortages to learn how to build soil, maximise water retention, and create garden abundance.

The Permaculture Kitchen Garden with Geoff Lawton - http://permaculture.org.au/

16 Foods That’ll Re-Grow from Kitchen Scraps

Leeks, Scallions, Spring Onions and Fennel

Lemongrass

Celery, Bok Choi, Romaine Lettuce & Cabbage

Ginger

Potatoes

Garlic

Onions

Sweet Potatoes

Mushroom

Pineapple

Fennel, Green Onions & Leeks

The same method is used for these 3. Stick the white root end in a glass with some water, leaving the cut end above the waterline. As the green part grows back, you can either cut it off with some scissors when you want to harvest (it will continue to grow back) or you can plant it in the garden. Change the water about once a week.
Lemongrass is done in the same method except you don't leave it in the water, you directly plant it after new growth starts.

Onions
Use the root end of an onion with 1-2 inches of onion "meat" still attached. Place the onion bottom in dirt. Cover it with 1-2 inches of soil. Once the new growth has developed remove the bottom from the dirt. If there is more than one bulb, separate them into individuals, leaving some roots on each. Plant in soil and cut off two-thirds of each shoot. The cutting will encourage the bulb to grow. Harvest as green onions or allow them to fully develop.


Cabbage, Celery, Bok Choy, Romaine Lettuce, Other Lettuces

Place the root end in a shallow bowl of the water with the top part just above the water line. Optional - occasionally spray the top with water to keep it moist. Change the water every couple days. After about a week you should have new leaf and root growth. At this point bury the whole thing in soil save only the new growth; keep the leaves above the dirt.
 

Garlic
 Plant
A single clove in soil. Once the garlic has established itself again it will start to produce scapes (the green stalk). A common practice is to cut off the scape at the first leaf joint after it's made a few loops. The idea being that the garlic, having no flower to divert resources, will then focus its energy on becoming a full bulb. Remove a clove or two from the full bulb when you harvest and repeat.

Ginger
Simply place a chunk of ginger root in soil with the newest buds facing up and it will start to grow anew. When you harvest, pull the whole root, remove a piece of it, and plant it again to keep the cycle alive.


Potatoes

You can regrow from any old potato that has grown large 'eyes'. Cut the potato into small chunks about 2 inches square, making sure each chunk has at least one eye on it. Let the chunks dry at room temperature for a few days, this will keep the potatoes from rotting after planting. Place each chunk a foot apart along an 8 inch deep trench with the eye(s) facing up. Build up the soil around the plants as they grow, this will allow room for more tubers to form. This is the standard method for propagating potatoes, so there are many different methods for how one can plant the chunks.


Sweet Potatoes

You'll want to use organic, because the majority of commercially grown varieties have been sprayed to discourage them from shooting. There are two methods to produce "slips" (the name for the shoots used to propagate sweet potatoes). Either partially or completely bury a sweet potato in dirt or partially submerge half a sweet potato in a cup of water (supported out of the cup with some sort of skewer.) If you used dirt, don't forget to water. When the slips have grown to about 4 inches, simply pluck them off from the base, plant them, and watch them grow.


Pineapple

Remove all the fruit "meat" from the crown of a pineapple. Cautiously continue to cut thin slices off the end of the crown until you can see the root buds (a ring of little dots around the outside of the pineapple's base). Remove a few outer layers of leaves leaving around an inch's worth of base. Directly plant the crown in soil or submerge the base in water until roots develop and then plant. If growth is successful it will take 2-3 years before the your pineapple plant fruits. But the wait will be worth it because home-grown pineapples.
 
See more at: http://www.reclaimgrowsustain.com/content/foods-you-can-grow-kitchen-scraps#sthash.1p8n8LYY.Jcr7xMG9.dpuf