Free Permaculture Design Videos
Land — by Ecofilms April 12, 2013
A free series of permaculture design videos by Geoff Lawton, world renowned permaculture designer, teacher and consultant, reveals how to not only survive the coming crisis with permaculture design but how to build abundance on your land. How to have all the water you will ever need. How to have all the fish you will ever want. How to have your own food forest and grow all your own food. Where to start. How to understand your land. How to work with it. How to design it, Naturally. Abundance is no accident.
Just enter your email into the website and Geoff Lawton will keep you updated as he releases future videos in the series.
Comments (2)Free Geoff Lawton Permaculture Videos
Education, General — by Ecofilms March 20, 2013
We’re rolling out a series of free videos from Geoff Lawton. The first video is about how Geoff Lawton got started in Permaculture and how he used it to transform his burnt out farm to abundance and what a little permaculture knowledge can do for you. This first video has been a terrific hit and has had thousands of views and over 1,800 comments.
The response has been truly phenomenal. See what you’ve been missing.
Comments (18)DIY Straw Bale Chicken Coop
Animal Housing, Bird Life, Livestock, Working Animals — by Ecofilms October 8, 2012
Here’s a great idea for a chicken coop built to fit the dimensions of straw bales. A simple four post construction with a raised floor and tin roof is all you need. Both sides of the chicken coop have temporary straw-bale walls that keeps the coop warm in winter and cool in summer. Chickens lay their eggs and roost in the center of the coop. In the springtime you replace the straw with fresh material. You don’t need to build any extra timber walls as the straw bales will keep the elements from entering the coop and keep the chickens nice and cosy.
The discarded bales can be either used as mulch bedding for the garden or used as deep litter for the chickens to scratch through and fertilize the material. Either way, its an efficient way to build your coop and keep the chickens happy.
Comments (3)Vertical Gardens
Food Plants - Annual, Land, Plant Systems — by Ecofilms August 30, 2012
Making use of vertical wall space located in a sunny spot is a great way to grow your garden. In fact you don’t need pumps or complicated equipment to start growing your own vegetable garden. As long as you have a consistent amount of sunshine of around 6 hours per day and a collection of plastic drink containers and some ingenuity you can create a mini vegetable garden and have it self-water the system. Consider this novel approach to harnessing gravity to feed your garden.
Soil Creation on the Edge!
Rehabilitation, Soil Biology, Soil Conservation — by Ecofilms July 23, 2012
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 soil, those words begin to ring true.
Comments (1)Growing Fish and Soil on Pool Algae
Animal Forage, Aquaculture, Compost, Natural Swimming, Plant Systems, Urban Projects — by Ecofilms December 7, 2011
Here is Geoff Lawton explaining how this particular swimming pool is growing fish and soil on algae. This is a clip from the recently released Urban Permaculture DVD, which has over 90 minutes of sustainable solutions you can try at home.
Comments (0)Monsanto Versus the Beetle
GMOs, Health & Disease, Insects — by Ecofilms November 17, 2011
 Monsanto versus the Corn Rootworm Beetle in a dangerous game of tit for tat. |
This story is almost a parable of two worlds, a battle between the natural and the man-made.
Like a boxing match, in the one corner we have Monsanto – a large company aided by big money and big investment, tinkering away in the science labs, discovering even more devious ways to develop the perfect pest resistant strain of GM corn that can be easily marketed and harvested to a massively large, over-subsidized monoculture industry.
The one aim is to develop the perfect foodstuff that can’t be attacked by pests or disease. Sounds good.
One the other side we have Nature, in the form of a humble beetle — the corn rootworm beetle — eying off all those wonderful acres of unblemished genetically modified corn, with their silk corn heads waving gently in the breeze signalling “C’mon over here little guy – come on over and eat me!”
The system is out of whack and out of balance. But pesky nature likes a balanced system.
So let the battle begin.
Comments (8)How Not to Milk a Cow
Comedy Break, Livestock — by Ecofilms August 13, 2011
Sometimes things don’t go according to plan…. This is an Elisabeth Fekonia blooper from her excellent DVD on Home Cheese-Making and All Things Dairy. Used with permission from Elisabeth.
Comments (6)
The Making of the Urban Permaculture DVD
DVDs/Books, Urban Projects — by Ecofilms July 27, 2011
Editor’s Note: A few days ago I shared the latest on the Urban Permaculture DVD. Frank, who is the video genius behind our DVDs, gives his own inside view of working with Geoff in this latest creation, below.
It’s been a whirlwind trip over the last six months putting the pieces together for what is to become The Urban Permaculture DVD with Geoff Lawton.
Nothing goes quite according to script and yet making a video like this is a bit like herding cats. It’s chaotic — like walking into a jungle of vines, monkeys and snakes, you are not sure where you are heading or if the whole project will sink into a disaster.
Permaculture is a bit wild and rampant and just when you think you have it all figured out, neat and tidy-like and have it organized and in the bag — a spanner gets thrown into the works and you realize there is so much more to the story that can be told in 90 minutes.
Comments (3)Frank Fekonia
News — by Ecofilms March 7, 2011
I was very sad to hear of the passing of a true legend and active member of Permaculture Noosa – Frank Fekonia. Husband to Elisabeth, Frank was a true maverick character who told me how he escaped from communist Slovenia in the early 1960s by stealing a canoe and paddling night and day for the shores of Italy. Exhausted by the journey, he was picked up by Italian fisherman when he tumbled into the water off the Adriatic Coast. Eventually, as a refugee, he made it to Australia. A frustrated musician and trumpet player who was more used to the traditional Jazz and Swing sound of the 50s, he became a builder instead when the Beatles, he said, ended his career as a musician.
He eventually moved to Cooroy in Queensland and with little money built a three storey home – entirely out of concrete – from moulds he designed himself.
Comments (4)
Urban Permaculture Gets Redesigned
DVDs/Books, Developments, Land, Urban Projects — by Ecofilms February 22, 2011
He looks like a rangy cowboy, but it’s not a six gun that he carries, but rather an artist’s pad and a felt pen marker. In his mid 50s and on a hot muggy Monday morning, Geoff Lawton and fifteen permaculture interns stride into a suburban home located in Lismore, NSW.
The owner turns to me and asks “Who are all these people?” I whisper to her while loading the video camera that these people are all permaculture interns from around the world — Canada, the United States and Europe. They’ve all descended on her little country town to get first hand experience with permaculture and what Geoff has to teach.
Comments (5)Keeping Native Australian Stingless Bees
Insects, Working Animals — by Ecofilms February 2, 2011
There are reported to be over 1600 varieties of bees in Australia, but only 14 species are stingless. Australian stingless bees are a lot smaller and darker looking than your average sized honey bee. There’s one good advantage in being small, and that’s being able to pollinate tiny, delicate, hard to reach blossoms.
That’s where the Australian native, stingless bees come into the picture.
Permaculture practitioner Anne Wensley has been keeping these bees for over 25 years. Whilst we were filming a segment with Anne about her chickens we spotted her bees in a log outside her door. Generations of these bees have inhabited the same log.
Watch the Youtube clip to see Anne show you her native bee hive.
Comments (3)
Ecofilms 2011 – What Are We Working On?
Animal Forage, Animal Housing, Animal Processing, Aquaculture, Bird Life, Breeds, Courses/Workshops, DVDs/Books, Developments, Fish, Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Land, Livestock, Plant Systems, Presentations/Demonstrations, Urban Projects, Village Development — by Ecofilms January 2, 2011
We’re planning a number of exciting new titles to be released in 2011.
Urban Permaculture DVD
One of the complaints we often get from people living in the city is that we focus a little heavily on Permaculture titles that require a large scale farm to get the most benefit from practicing Permaculture.
So we are happy to announce that in 2011 we will be working on the Urban Permaculture DVD with Geoff Lawton.
Actually, we really started shooting a lot of footage already that we were going to include in the Permaculture Soils DVD that we completed, but for various logistic reasons we found the segments would work best in a video that focuses in detail on adopting Permaculture techniques in small scale domestic environments instead.
From courtyards to backyards to places where you thought you could never do anything with, we want to make this DVD a Permaculture techniques DVD where people can be inspired by what is really possible.
Here’s an example of the kind of thing we mean. It’s a sneak preview of Geoff Lawton visiting a beautiful Mandala garden in an urban permaculture garden. It shows permaculture can be aesthetically pleasing to the eye with a richness of patterns as well as a productive food source:
Comments (8)
Building a Mandala Garden
Compost, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Land, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Soil Composition, Structure, Urban Projects — by Ecofilms
Building a mandala garden is a great way to break up your garden beds into a riot of living colour, allowing easy accessibility and visual interest. It looks great too. Whilst filming at the Yandina Community Garden with Geoff Lawton we came across this very easy to build mandala garden bed that was tucked away in the shady end of the garden. It’s circular in shape and has a number of keyhole paths or spokes that invite you to look closer at the assortment of plants on display.
Comments (10)Permaculture DVDs on IMDB? Are We Going Mainstream?
DVDs/Books — by Ecofilms December 13, 2010
A couple of months ago we got an email from Todd Moody who wrote to us, “Earlier this year I began an endeavour to submit all released permaculture documentaries to IMDb.com (the Internet Movie Database). I later expanded that effort to include documentaries about other topics related to sustainable living, social issues, and ecological awareness. To date, I’ve successfully registered dozens of documentary films.”
But every Permaculture DVD submitted by Todd got rejected from the submission process. It seems the problem wasn’t that IMDB staff hated Permaculture or Geoff Lawton but a technical mix up with the name of the production company producing the films resulted in the application being rejected. Now getting ourselves listed on the IMDB wasn’t a major consideration for us at Ecofilms as we’ve always considered our work outside the mainstream media anyway. But was this in fact a mistake to think this way?
Todd had proved to be the catalyst for us to investigate the matter further. So a few weeks later we are now recognized by the IMDB as being “official” and all of our films are now listed or in the process of being listed on their site.
So where do you come into the picture?
Well if you have viewed any or all of the Permaculture DVD titles with Geoff Lawton, consider logging onto the IMDB site and rating the films (honestly) and help by writing a short or lengthy review. You’ll need to first register with IMDB before you can either cast a vote or leave a comment.
Please keep your criticism objective and explain where we got it right and where we failed to address your concerns. Let’s get Permaculture out of the fringe and into the mainstream spotlight and start competing against popular Hollywood Blockbusters!
Links to our Permaculture DVDs on IMDB
Harvesting Water the Permaculture Way
Introduction to Permaculture Design
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