the ONLY Food Forest video you need to watch (syntropic agroforestry) / NZ

This video was the video I needed 5 years ago when I first started learning about permaculture. It combines a lot if not all of the best principles and practices from all my favorite permaculture pioneers without all the guru jargon. I love it. Once I have a property and can start my own system I will definitely be pulling this video up again!

i'm brazilian, i'm proud that you are teaching to everyone the Ernest Gotsch's system.

"you WANT to make small mistakes as quickly as possible".. what a great life lesson.. ;8)

I’m in a local food forest permaculture group here in Texas - this video just explained concisely and clearly the concepts it takes folks months to learn on their own. I appreciate your breadth of knowledge and that you’re willing to take the time to share it with others.

I'm in Southern California and have great interest in developing a few acres of family owned property into a Noah's Arch of fruit trees. I'm so glad your video popped up on my timeline, I gained lots of good information from you presentation and the least I can do is drop a like and leave you the appreciative comment you deserve!

Good job Byron! I had a permaculture farm in the middle of the Shawnee National forest in S. IL. My garden and food forest was only around 2.5 ac. The rest of my property consisted of ponds and horse pasture. Even on such a small farm we had more production than we could ever use. We have since moved back to a small- to mid-sized town the S. Appalachians. I plan to build up my permaculture farm at my residence in the town and at a small property that we will buy outside of town. We feel that urban and suburban permaculture farms in small- to medium-sized towns are the way to go. You are close to markets, labor, potential students and potential clients and there is more opportunity to influence people as more people will actually see what you are doing and get to experience for themselves the successful alternative ecologically-based lifestyle that you can provide for them. That’s our focus now. Food forests on small farms, community gardens and small suburban and urban properties. Having a smaller property means less maintenance and more time to design, teach, write and consult. You don’t need a huge tract of land to do this. You just need good design, fertile soil, available water and sunlight — all of which is easier to achieve on a small holding.

Fairly basic yet high impact concepts that most, myself in particular, would have otherwise overlooked, start small and build on it. Great advice! Thank you.

I'm an aspiring court reporter/stenographer/closed captionist. I cannot tell you how thankful I am for all of the challenging vocabulary. This is a weird thank you, but thank you! Interesting video!

I should have found the video like this six years ago. I will start doing what I have learned from you from this rainy season. The most beautiful part is that your food forest is full of the kind of food trees we grow in our land. Thank you for sharing. Big heart from Thailand

I like how every permaculture video is like "Permaculture is easy! Step 1: inherit property in the tropics from your family." XD

Dude, your awesome. I'll keep watching. Syntropic Agroforestry, Edible Forest Gardens, and natural catchment of water are the foundations of sustainable civilization. The movement is finally rising to noticeable popularity and more and more people want to get involved. Thanks for sharing your research and expertise.

Your clarification of terms, and you listing the plants that you have used is incredibly valuable to me. Thank you very much.

So thankful I found your channel! I’ve been casually researching permaculture the last 2-3 years but this past year I’ve realized I need to take it more seriously and truly learn all I can to successfully steward a food forest system for not just me but my community.

Awww. These Videos are food for the Soul. Lifts the Spirits and reminds us , It’s all connected.

Extremely useful info while you have no degree. You sir have done your homework and schooled yourself. So much free info out there. Well done

Byron, what I like is your combination of acute observation of which plants work well together and an organized system that can be iterated and optimized over time, so you are both horticulturalist and systems engineer. This is the future of agriculture

This is EXACTLY the solution I need. We bought land with a 7 acre mature citrus grove last year and have been throwing around ideas of how to manage it well…turning down all the traditional management techniques “experts” in the area have thrown at us. They told me to pour Round Up on all the weeds around the trees and I accidentally laughed out loud. We’ve been chopping and dropping the weeds in the meantime, but I can definitely start strategically planting more desirable species in there. I have lots of the ones you mentioned in my garden closer to our home so it will be easy for me to get it all going.

I am in Nebraska started off with some fruit trees, chestnut and thornless honey locust last year. This year adding hazelnut, more chestnut and after watching this video I am going to try to get some divisions of the goose berries that grow rampantly in my area, maybe some elderberry and mulberry as well since those are all local ecotype that I can multiply off my land. Thanks for the video! Gotta figure out what I am going to do for herbaceous material to support the tree lines now.

One of the more elegantly presented descriptions of syntropic that I've seen. Lots of great practical tips. Much appreciated.

Tree Fountain (aka Tree of Life) 1- Bore a hole into and up a tree being careful not to bisect the core of the tree. Alternative: Use bamboo or grow sugar cane as a natural and permeable plumbing and cultivate it so that the tree grows around it. 2- Coat the inside of the hole with beeswax. I would highly recommend making a place to put a beehive in the tree near some water. The natural hum of the bees can promote health throughout the structure and through the water. 3- Put a water basin at the top and a fire pit or fireplace at the bottom. The water basin can actually be used for a secondary water source that would promote growth and potentially allow for the tree to grow taller. 4- Put copper pipe around the inside of the fire pit or up the chimney for a fireplace. This will act as a pump. (You can also use a hotplate if you prefer) The copper pipe should only be used close to the intense heat of the fire. Any amount of heat promotes upward movement in this case. 5- Add water wheels (fidget spinners can be used for some decent mini water wheels) for electricity. This electricity can also be used to promote growth in the structure and in gardens. Check out how electricity is used to directly and drastically improve plant growth. 6- Add hanging gardens for fresh produce. A vertical style garden will do several things to improve overall health and productivity. 7- Splice other saplings and/or fresh tree cuttings using the tongue and groove method for shelter. This can be done with roots as well as branches. Encouraging roots to intermingle and cultivating a healthy mycelium bed are both ways that allow all the plants to share nutrients and different forms of protection. This would create a natural network that can be used similar to a computer for both the plants and people if a computer interface is plugged into the chemical language of the plants. This design provides food, filtered and conditioned water and air, electricity, shelter and SO much more! Everything a person needs for life and survival. Hence the "Tree of Life" nickname! In addition to the benefits listed and the techniques described, this structure will grow and get stronger over time. Crystals can be used as a natural source of low level energy creation and as forms of transistors. Cymatics can be used as a form of communication directly with the plants. There is SOOOOO much more that can be done using this method for creating structures and homes BECAUSE it is living. -This idea will eliminate 90% of the demand for large corporations and industries. - This idea will reverse air pollution and filter the world's air naturally and beneficially. - This idea will reveal the counterproductivity of governments and starve the governments of their power. Your fear and desperation. There will be no need to clear cut entire forests to build ever again and this will encourage the natural ecology in our world instead of fighting with it. Be a part of the change. Not a part of the problem through government. We have made excuses for ignoring the fact that we are supporting all the problems we state we are against. Let's be the change!!!