228 – Spreading Permaculture with Geoff Lawton Part 2

Podcast: Download (Duration: 49:53 — 11.4MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS

This is part 2 of Spreading Permaculture with Geoff Lawton. Paul and Geoff Lawton continue their conversation about spreading Permaculture. They start off by discussing that there are enough people on the ground doing permaculture successfully and recording it, so the creditability is there to prove that permaculture is a system that works.  Geoff says that Permaculture Global shows people successfully using the practices of permaculture all over the world. Geoff tells us that if we can work with the world and stabilize the systems we can help save the world.

One of his most famous quotes is you can solve all the worlds problems in a garden.

They discuss the use of paper and cardboard in permaculture. Geoff recommends that you only use it once, if at all, and then move on to a permanent solution. Paul worries about the toxicity of the paper, Geoff tells us to trust in the carbon cycle that happens when the paper starts to decompose.

Geoff and Paul discuss the vast amount of high quality knowledge that is on the internet about permaculture. But we have to be conscious of information overload. Geoff says the key is to get the right information at the right time. If you sign up on his new website, he will send you new information in the right order.

Geoff then goes on the explain the difference between his PRI website and his new site: PRI is a news site that helps people set up PRI in their area and GeoffLawton.com is Geoff’s personal thoughts and experiences about permaculture. They touch on how Paul’s sites and Geoff’s sites have things in common and how they do differ, but they are both parts of the same whole.

By the way, Paul and Geoff are not in a competition, they want to collaborate on projects and share permaculture information with each other and the rest of the web.

They move on to discussing different parts of Geoff’s video. One part shows a paddock shift system and chickens. They then discuss the aesthetic of permaculture and food forest.  There is an awkward ugly phase but given time, it will get better.  Most people give up while it is still in the ugly stage.  Paul mentions that many people are worried about what their neighbors will think, especially since most people are expecting weed free areas and straight rows.

Paul and Geoff finish up by talking about the magical world of swales. They are not just for warm climates any more.

You can discuss this podcast on this thread at Permies.

Get all of the podcasts in convenient, giant zip files