Desert Permaculture THAT WORKS! 

This reminds me of a video I watched a few years ago but his name wasn't Dan. He cut the curb to allow the precious rainwater to run into earthen and rock water collection areas (swales) that he had planted all of those native plants in. He used solar ovens for cooking and his outdoor shower water heating system. He used olla's to water plants in the back yard. The amazing part was that the whole neighborhood got involved. I wish he would have allowed you to film, but I 100% get it that he wanted to protect his privacy. They are both incredible, innovative individuals! (Edited to remove his name)

I'm trying to create a permaculture food oasis here in the desert of Slab City in Southern California. It's slow going, especially when I need to protect seeds/seedlings from all sorts of wildlife. Any progress is good progress. Moringa trees are very dense with nutrients and is my main plant I'm focused on to begin this project. Love watching your channel.

Enjoy your visit to our wonderful state of Arizona!

January I have a crazy beautiful spring garden in Mesa, AZ. Night temperature are 45-55 degrees.☺️

I hope you enjoy your stay here in AZ. my permaculture orchard is still in the messy hair day stage.

Hoping you are doing Earthship training! I drew out plans for an Earthship 28 years ago but life and a disinterested spouse got in the way. Now I am researching and drawing out plans again.

Billy check out Brad Lancaster. He lives in Tucson and does incredible things in his neighborhood with rainwater harvesting.

I really wish this would catch on everywhere especially with climate activist. Permaculture would correct the planet without destroying nature

Billie get a hold of Greg Judy and find out where the study area he is involved in down there is located. You would love to interview them and share us your take on what they are doing

Billy you should check out that farm in Arizona called the edge of nowhere , they have a youtube channel as well .

Safe travels & good learning to ya

We live in the high desert in Northern NV. Below zero temps in the winter, over 100 in the summer, little rainfall and high alkaline soil (sand) and water. We have put in a food forest, pushed the limits a bit on what grows here successfully. The plant life that will grow here is pretty narrow. We started with 30 or so wood chip dumps and covered most of the back of the property. I have compost bins and 2 chicken runs that I pile leaves and garden waste into for them to break down for me. What doesn't go to the chickens goes into the bins. I have created enough living soil to put in 10 - 50ft rows (market garden style) and 10 - 4x8ft garden beds in addition to the fruit trees, berry bushes and nitrogen fixer trees and bushes. It has been a lot of work but is starting to come together nicely. ALL the garden centers here told me I was crazy and it won't work. Permaculture CAN be done here, I am doing it! I have brought hubby along kicking and screaming and we have to compromise on some of the things I want to do....LOL.

3:25 😸 We studied the water harvesting work being done in Tucson at my PDC in CO. Inspiring.

I bet it was mind blowing to talk to that guy ! Very cool , video.

Man I couldn't imagine not having access to water. We have 5 spring's that I can tap into plus one that feeds my 600 gallon reservoir for the house. It makes you have more humbility having steady fresh water

Oh wow!! I’m in Tucson and new to this permaculture. Love ok’ing to learn too.

Thanks, Billy!!! I grew up in the desert in southern New Mexico. I always dreamed I would be a gardener growing up, but mostly all I could grow were zinnias & rose bushes. I moved to Tucson for a year. I was fascinated by the landscape there, but lived in an apartment with nowhere to grow anything. Then I moved to Oklahoma, where everything looked so green to me! I can grow almost anything here, but 40 years later, I have never forgotten the desert. I was thinking about it just this morning! I never knew anything but the cactus was edible! My sister still lives there, so the next time I go back, I will have to see what is edible on her acreage! My brother lives in Tucson. I need to go for a visit! God Bless!

Don't know if you're looking for other people in the area, but Rudy Poe is a permaculture designer in Dragoon Arizona

Brother I love your mentality

Very interesting thanks for sharing.

I thought your thumbnail said ‘dessert 🍨 food forest ‘ I was really excited 😂

Enjoy Arizona😊

Tip a P.!.M.P! Mesquite is an amazing tree for desert permaculture! Glad you shared this with us! I love your channel and love learning from you guys. Hope you get to teach us more desert permaculture info in the future! High desert farming over here in New Mexico 🌶

Really nice video! Thanks for sharing

Happy New Year my friend. Sorry I haven't stopped by in awhile. The end of last year was a complete blur after the sudden passing of my older sister. I'm here for this video ~ Let's Go!

Mad respect for you 😅

OMGoodness Billy!!! you ninja-mission-man....you're in my state! i am in need of perma-culture!!! just north of prescott. my farm is an empty slate ready to be resurrected! bring on the great info!

Oh, yeah. Anybody interested in desert permaculture should look to India's efforts in de-desertification. Tea tree is one of their great tools for this . There is some great info about this out there, much of it free. Also locust tree , prickly pear and Osage orange which makes a great natural fence when trained correctly. See England's natural wall training.

Always good to see things from another angle.

How extraordinary! Thanks for sharing this. Randy and I were in Arizona a couple years ago (in June) and everything just looked dead and barren. I realize that is normal terrain but I was so thankful for the lush, green vegetation of Kentucky.

Thanks for taking the time and effort to show us something really cool!!

Great stuff Billy! I was born in Tucson, but haven't been back there for around 60 years. 😞

Hey! Welcome to Tucson! I'm right here with ya!

Brad Lancaster in Tucson is great for permaculture and building swales and water basins.

We have prickly pears here in OH too. They wilt over in the winter but stand right back up when it warms up

You should check out the Tiny Shiny Home channel. They have a property in Southern Arizona and seem like really great people.

The nopales are the cactus most people have seen wide thick leaf like shape. They tast just like okra and are even slimy if cooked wrong. There are cultivars that don't have the large spines on them and are very nutritional. In a dry climates they are a must have.

Brad Lancaster (in Phoenix, I think?) has water harvesting techniques videos and Andrew Millison from Oregon does too. Good Talk!

Thanks Billy, for the urban wilderness broadcast! Neat looking area, and like we say, it's what you make of it that counts. Stay safe brother.

Superb. Thanks for sharing. . New Mexico here tapping in.

We live in Eastern Washington and our annual rainfall is about 9". We have two 150 gal ibc totes and one large tank that is about 300 gal, which we plan to run gutters into for all the snow melt we get. My husband has most of the inground sprinklers set up for drip irrigation as well. This spring and summer I should be able to grow a ton of veggies and edible flowers. Thanks Billy for the information.

I love the adventure of checking out different methods of gardening/farming in different growing zones to see how it all works. Permaculture is so impressive when you see it in person! Thank you Billy

Amazing find!

Great video

Is there a writeup on the project? A book?

Great informative video my friend. Good to see permaculture in action in a much different environment and from another part of the country, actually in a part of the country that I never would have thought permaculture would work that well. Praying for safe travels back home to the Homestead Honey on the hill lol 😂 😇😇😇🙏🏻😇🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Thanks Billy

The" lugume "tree you saw probably was honey locust or one of the locust tree types. Which have multiple uses.

OMG! You're in my neck of the woods...or should I say, desert! Whoohooo! You really need to see Brad Lancaster's place while you're in the Tucson area!! It will blow your mind! 😍

Permaculture must work and share for free at all levels with all players including insects, birds, rodents, and predators as well as humans living there actively and passively involved. Government generally works by restricting access to land and funneling water resources to for profit organizations.

I have a rental in Tucson. Only ppl who know about mulch, laundry water reuse and water saving can live in one of my units.

Where do you find your shirts Billie!

Where do we go to find permaculture people nearby?

Welcome to Arizona.

Mmmm.....I love prickly pears.

Why live in a desert? Challenge! Pure and unadulterated...challenge!

HaHa.....I live in the Las Vegas desert for now I'll let you in on my little secret. I am moving back to California so I can be closer to my two Adult kids and five Grandkids. Losing my sister, made me realize that FAMILY is all we have at the end of the day. To tell you the truth my friend, I really don't know why I'm still living in Nevada. I guess because my late husband is buried here......That's no excuse because I know he is with GOD in Heaven. My daughter is looking for a place somewhere on the outskirts of the city for me. I really want a tiny homestead and, maybe I will even get me some chickens after watching your videos about your chickens!! You already know I will have me a big garden. And you also know I will be bugging you with questions about growing my garden👈🏽🤣This video was so cool. You are always looking for awesome stuff to share with all of us.. I appreciate your passion for what you do my friend. Be Blessed and Safe Travels back home.

I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert - Isaiah

viva Arizona! Best trees are native; most produce their own nitrogen. But, even they benefit from extra water, and usually need wind shelter for a year or so. Right now, elderberries will go in. Our native elderberries are a small tree that can grow over 15 feet high. Native cherries like the capuli and sand cherry are sweet, but only when dead ripe. Capuli grows rapidly and produces chains of blooms. Peruvian apple cactus ignore the sun and create the absolutely best fruit ever. Those dragon fruit cannot compete.

Dr. Walter Jehne maintains that deserts are both self-sustaining and unnatural environments. Ma Nature had no use for them, they are the handiwork of men. Once created, they generate heat vortices that drive rain clouds away: so the solution is to start from the peripheries and work inwards to the centre, or from the rain-bearing side to t'other. Simple enough on paper. Best we can say is that islands of productivity are heroic in the fatalist Ancient Greek sense.

Hey there. When will comfrey be back lol

So many people think of deserts as lifeless places! I've been blessed with lots of opportunities to hike hundreds of miles in various desert environments (also spent a few desert "paid vacations in third-world nations", courtesy of Uncle Sugar). If we take the time to look a little closer, deserts are FULL of life! And you're spot-on...if there's little water, governments will get rid of what there is, and if there's a lot of water, governments will direct it into the worst possible locations and hold it there!

i have heard Mesquite pods can be used for smoking meat.

👍🏼

Billy we follow you come visit us we are in Marana @ Homegrown Haven

The only thing ppl wont do is vote for someone else. Get rid of the dinosaurs in city/town council, and vote in ppl who understand permaculture.

Would have been useful for you to say what plants were there....

Permaculture = तमोप्रधान and रजोप्रधान culture. Whereas our Dharma Culture = सतोप्रधान Sustainable Culture.

Had to say "pimp"? Ew. When you know the sad origin it's not cute or hip. Anyway these plants are native and xeriscape gardening. It's the most common type one sees in Az deserts. Yards mimic or retain the natural desert. I'd not qualify this as a "desert food forest" but for wildlife. Yes one can harvest prickly pear fruit, saguoro cactus and other cactus fruit for short periods when available. They are all horribly bland and mealy. Tiny Wolfberry drupes come in a very limited time and are mostly pit with a papery thin edible layer. You have to kind of scrape them around in your mouth til it wears off. Yes, mesquite pods can be ground into a flour. Again this happens once a year and you need to have access to a heavy duty mill to process them. One could forage here and there for the novelty of it but the amount and quality of food would quickly leave you starving. What IS great is the wildlife habitat aspect. Copying the native desert is not at all unique here but track homes too often put in nothing but gravel. I'd call what Dan did "habitat restoration", which is very commendable. If you want to see Permaculture in Az desert/espec hugh desert where he was, they're all over RU-vid! Shamus O'Leary has a perma channel for growing tropical food forests in the low desert where i live. Jake Mace too but he moved. There are many Permaculture enthusiasts in Az but the heat can be defeating if you don't follow mother nature's lead.

too much african sumac, oleander and burmuda. i like rhus lancea kinda, but only if its a male. they are super invaise out in tucson. i would much rather see a Lysiloma watsonii, feather bush, in its place. has same presentation and is native

Lived in Scottsdale for almost two years. Couldn’t stand it. Perhaps in northern AZ, like Flagstaff maybe. Also lived in Las Vegas for a year - couldn’t wait to leave.

You didn't show us anything.