RUclips channels allow people like us watch people like you Danou and Shaun Overton transform themselves from enthusiastic amateurs to seasoned experts over time, and that process is the really valuable part of the education you give to others.
You said kindly but firmly what needed to be said: let's try to understand in order to learn and transmit without pretension. The Internet is an unimaginable opportunity to share our experiences, learn from each other and progress collectively more quickly. Thank you for your honesty. you not only sow plants, you also propagate a beautiful way of being, which, of course will be growing.
Thank you so much for what you are doing. I am a local politician in London working hard to do what I can to get to net zero and people like you and Shaun Overton give me hope that some of the damage can and will be reversed. It helps me keep going. I love your deep respect for everyone you work with. Look after yourself and your family.
You have a great outlook 😊 I am so glad you have a thick skin because the work you are doing is amazing and it’s amazing that you are able to share the journey. The point of Observation is to step back and see if what we did works and if not try again. A wise man once said… “just start” doesn’t matter if you don’t know everything… we are learning along the way. Thanks for sharing!
Like the way you speak and answer, and the work with your land. I like to watch people round the world doing things, it's a good way to understand the world and different ways of living.
Shaun is, like me, is in the Sonoran Desert. I have 64 years living and learning about the Flora here (AZ/USA). Cactus don't care. I've literally cut off a pad, scuffed the ground with my heel and stuck in the shallow hole only to watch it sprout new growth and take off from there. ANY method that succeeds in your environs is a winning solution. Best wishes in manifesting a greater purpose for yourself, your family and your neighbors.
he cracked some nuts on propagating plants I'll give him that but he's not really doing permaculture, saying that as someone also working with southwest terrain
Though both spots are damaged land destroyed by over grazing, both of their environments are very different too. That spot in Texas is almost pure gravel on top, leaving little to nothing for seeds to germinate in. This part of Central Namibia has soil and no rocks, meaning things can get started, but if a monsoon type rain storm hits, all that progress can wash away in a blink.
@thefoodforestnamibia it was made better than great by your videos! We had a nice homestead harvest Thanksgiving meal. We also harvested our biggest farm animal yet, a 125 pound ram lamb (18 mo old). We are not perfect, but always observing and adjusting to fulfill the foundational ethos of feeding our family and stewardship. Blessings
Those who insult others are those who are lazy and who do nothing. They think that they are knowledgeable when they insult other people who mean and do good things. Shaun Overton frequently said that he is in the learning process, he admitted he makes mistakes and frequently corrected them after learning from the failures and after listening to the advice from others. He even brings experts to his farm to show him how to do things. I salute Shaun Overton for all his efforts to improve one of the worst type of land.
Same ppl who frame Bring a quack Overton would also say Bad Thing about this Channel : A White man makes Videos while the black men are working - racism. What a Bull Sh!t.
"Quack" is unfair but his process is def let's say off, who tries to grow in the desert while completely ignoring the arroyo the biggest source of water? Permaculture isn't about drip watering random shit on a dry terrace. There's no swales, no water harvesting, no pond. The minute he stops everything will go back to how it was the key part of the word "permaculture" is permanence which is achieved through working with the natural sequences in nature. I'd describe it as a vanity project and for more useful info I go elsewhere. I'm working with the same type of land as he is and also I gotta say I don't really appreciate you calling the high desert the "worst type of land". Maybe if you and Shaun understood it better you'd see the beauty that's in it and how abundant it truly is.
@@PermacultureCowboy Shaun is digging, building, etc. He knows his little spot could fall apart if ignored. It appears that he is just trying to plant a few things he can water while he prays for even a drop of rain. If it ever does rain, the many "bath tubs" he dug have great potential. His location makes getting any rain a great big IF.
@@OublietteTight i get that, his planting and propagation is the thing his content is most useful at showing, even if he does miss the bigger picture on water harvesting near an arroyo
Living Springs Retret Barbara O'Neil " Kindness is a universal language. Its something everyone can understand, no matter their background" "Let your actions speak louder than words today" "Show kindness to those around you and make a difference in the world" "Kindness is a language that the deaf can hear and the blind can see" I value your honesty and you not afraid to stand for what is right, you walk your talk. That to me speaks volumes! 🌿💚🌿
That was truly a well-meassured response to a somewhat trolly comment. That is how a gentleman respond to a different point of view. Personally, I find that arguing with people on the internet is a bit like wetting your pants to keep warm....it feels good for a minute or 2, and then the whole thing goes downhill from there. Good to see everything greening up. How has the rainfall been in Namibia so far, are you on track for an average year, or is it dryer than usual? Thanks for the video, and take care.
Well said. I must admit I do start to regret this video. Pants are getting cold 😂😂😂 our rain season is now falling behind. This could become a big problem very soon. Thank you for sour support! @stevejohnstonbaugh9171
So glad.to hear that you do not buy into the negative and less than constructive criticism of Shaun Overton. You are both working on different continents with very much the same goal - you kindly share some of the lessons learned (especially from errors) which will help others worldwide who are working for the benefit of the planet - by example. Also appreciate the way you involve and listen to the guys working WITH you! All the best from the UK.
Shaun is doing what he can in his area. He has never claimed to be an expert. He made a mistake, which he admitted to, but that does not make him a quack. Great work on your farm.
respectfully disagree about shaun's project, as someone also doing it in the west texas desert I can't for the life of me understand any of his decisions or approach. He is good at cactus propagation though
@PermacultureCowboy Good for you. Shaun is learning as he goes along. He has not claimed to be a permaculture enthusiast or expert. In fact, several people suggested various approaches to him, which to his credit he has dabbled in. His 'thing' is ultimately to green the desert. He has yet to choose a methodology to pursue, which is clear to everyone who watches his videos. He will get there in his own time.
@@mandandi "good for you" ok man. I'm not saying he's a bad person, I'm saying the overall approach for the stated goal won't work. I grew up in this climate on a ranch so I'm coming from a place of understanding the plants, animals and weather cycles. It would behoove him to become a permaculture enthusiast btw.
I can confidently say that although Shaun Overton is new and wanting to make a profit on his investment like anyone would, but at least when he does mess up he tells his audience and corrects it. and that thing with the law, a viewer called it in and whined about non native grass in the Chihuahua dessert.
Great to see the growth in the garden and on the swale with the drip line. The trees are also looking greener. Trying dams etc will also help you work out what is effective and where they are best placed. The imp thing is taking the principles and applying them to your land, we all have to start somewhere.
Hello Danou 👋 I'll say time and time again how much I appreciate your content and allowing us all to ride along with you on your permaculture journey. With so much permaculture content available today, particularly on social media, It would be challanging to gauge what other peoples' experience would be applicable to your environment/ farm set up. But you're following the basic permaculture principles and you are wise enough to process all the information and opinions coming your way. I am so glad to be here
Huglemounds is a great idea but it is designen for cold climates were moisture is in plenty and woody materials are abundant. In dry areas I don't think it will be a good thing unless you use cactus as the "woody material". Thanks for great content!
The wood would probably retain moisture like in the Alps, the problem here are the termites, which they don't have in the Alps, at least not outside. The only way to know would be to build one and see how it evolves in these specific conditions. The termites will also digest the wood and help break it down, they will loosen the soil and create galeries. I heard that in Africa they don't have earth worms but termites do a similar job. So, it would be worth a try.
I have used prickly pear pads , agaves leaves, palm fronds, pomegranate, mesquite, fig branches. I soaked them in a pit lined with four inches of clay using my grey water. It takes about two weeks for the material to be absorbed. Then it is ready to be applied in hugelkultur On the mounds I grow cassava. Squash, sweet potatoes, tithonia and vetiver grass..
@@FanNy-ku6wtwe certainly do have earthworms in Africa, in fact the area I live in, the Eastern Cape province in South Africa is home to the world's largest earthworns
Shaun isn't a quack, he's just inexperienced and trying to learn by trial and error, maybe a bit headstrong and lacking in the wisdom of working with the land, but he is making progress. Good luck to him. Criticism is easy, support is hard. Advice is easy, but it has to have on the ground knowledge and experienced to be applied. We can't know what you know, we don't have contour maps, plans, budget etc etc to worry about. I offer advice, but in a "take it or leave it" way, and then I wait for a response or more information for a better understanding of your situation and what you want. The more you tell us, the better tailored that advice will be, but it will never have the precision of that gleaned from being directly involved.
his whole learn through error facade is a bit tired. He could spend a couple hours watching Geoff Lawton lectures and realize his entire approach is off. I personally think he just believes he knows better and can figure it out himself and doesn't want advice. Where's the "learning" in that? He clearly knows very little about mesquite for example.
@@PermacultureCowboy Knowing little about mesquite isn't a sin. I know nothing about mesquite. He's a flawed human being, just like the rest of us. He had some bloke from mexico up for a week teaching him all sorts. It's his money, his time, his land. If you don't like it, don't watch. Maybe come back to it in a year and say "I told you so", or don't. It's not worth getting riled up over.
Back to the important syntrophic business at hand, Danou 😊 1. Prickly Pear Cactus planted east to west as a crop. This is an intriguing idea because its growth is spectacular in your region. Suggestion: As time allows, harvest enough overlapping or touching pads from the living fences to plant a small "field" of cactus for animal fodder and people food. Plant the rows east to west and 1 meter apart. The paddles should all orient to the south so the planting can be fairly dense. I understand that the needles can be singed [burned] off in a quick pass through fire and the paddles can also be grilled. The health benefits of cactus [ both paddles and fruit ] as food are huge. I'm certain your pigs would love them. What do your fellows say? 2. Sorghum is growing in spectacular fashion. A must grow moving forward. let the heads fully ripen so they can be eaten as a grain. They are cooked like rice and are a great source of vegetable protein. The grains can also be cooked into a mash for the pigs. After harvesting the heads, cut the stalks down to about 50 cm and feed the green stalks to the pigs. The roots and remaining stack will regrow for a second harvest. These two crops are leading the way for your syntopic food forest. All around winners. Huge accomplishments' since May 4, 2023. HURRAH! 3. Sweet Potato thoughts; Buy several different varieties from your local vendor's [most likely to be pesticide free] and use them to start slips by putting one side of the potato into a bed of potting si. {1 part clay, 1 part sand, 1 part sifted worm castings]. This is a good job for your eldest daughter because it can be done as a science project. one potato can produce 50 slips or more from the energy stored in the potato. Plant slips out one by one as they reach about 10 inches in length about 6 inches apart. You can grow them on a berm or a mound. ruclips.net/video/0igp5IzO21g/видео.html
Here's what I have learned about gardening over the past 5 years of trying really hard to learn good techniques and practices. Some things work and some things don't. What worked this year may not work next. The weather, water, vacations etc all play a part in how the garden is going to grow. I just work hard to make MY garden work for me. I watch videos, see what others are doing, and try to do to my situation what looks like will work. I hope you get way more positive comments than negative because I am really amazed at what you are doing. I do wonder about not pulling the weed roots out. I cut my vegetables at the soil level and leave the roots but the weeds I pull the roots so they won't spread. Winter here so all I can do is look out the window and wait for spring!
Beaver Analog Dam, check dam, sand dam or a long lasting pond are dependent on your particular situation, (Environment or ecosystem). If you are trying to push water up and over the bank and water the adjacent field try what you did. A check dam works to prevent erosion and soil settlement behind the check dam and encourage water to settle into the water table. I use check dams to primarily reduce erosion, but you are in a different ecosystem.
The Beaver dam analogues are from a Texas state program. That's where Shaun Overton gets his terminology, and the state sent inspectors to check his work. If your commenter disagrees he should take it up with the state of Texas.
lots of annoying arguments online about the "beaver analog" term. It doesn't matter what they are called or how varied imo the principal is always the same - trap sediment, slow down water. Millions of ways to do this and none of them are made by a beaver anyways lol
Cutting before flowering will keep the weeds in juvenescence, which means they will keep contributing products of photosynthesis to the soil. You can also do this to your sorghum sudan grass. Cut it before its grainhead flowers and feed to your animals or chop and drop. It will regrow over and over again, pumping those sweet carbohydrates into your soil.
Sean often states that he is continually learning on Camera and wants to show his mistakes so that other people learn from them. I’m excited about his huge project and wish him well. Perhaps someday I’ll get out there to meet him.
Try not to take negative comments to seriously. Most of us who are following your story are intrigued and are cheering you on. You are a very level headed man with a lot of get up and go in you. I am fascinated with your project and really look forward to every video.
I have tried the hugelkulture-like method on a small scale and am astounded by the results. This was done by digging a pit about 3mx3mx2m deep, filling it with dead wood, lots of horse manure , and topped with a thick layer of soil and compost and mulching thick with grass (taken from the horses' mouths )to make the mound. Duing the summer when my dam was full, I regularly pumped lots of water into it until about April 2023 when it dried up. I planted pumkins on the mound at beginning September. Usually this time of the year these pumpkins are still in the seedling tray stage, but these guys have exploded and already bear fruits with little watering and we have yet to have rain! Give it a go once you have lots of water to play with. Btw, Sean Overton's desert makes Namibia look like a tropical rain paradise. Respect for the dude!
9:00 Pig Labor!!! 😁 It is crazy to think that a comment from western North America can change the life of hogs in western Africa!! Smooches to the piggies!!! 🎉
Use dry cleaner metal hangers (3-4 mm stiff wires) and create a twist tie around bottom wire of the fence with the ends of the hangers into the ground at an angle to hold down the fence. American dry cleaning hanger wires are coated to prevent rust on your cloths, but that might not be applicable or available to Namibia. Pigs can push it aside the wire stakes if they really want to, mice and rodents just go through the fence, it works for rabbits and other smaller animals. I am not sure why you need to close that 10 to 30 mm gap at the bottom of the fence, but concrete make little sense to me.
Shaun Overton: well, he never claimed to be an expert. Watching him make mistakes and slow progress is the advertised deal on his channel. Even the satellite imagery of his Dustups Ranch is basically like watching paint dry. There's no big green patch in the desert, but just more disturbed dirt. In my opinion, he needs to take a much more radical approach and build very large dams first, and only then refine the slopes, build more dirt bathtubs and terraces. That would also form pits with steep slopes on three sides where the hydration is greatest and wind is blocked - ideal places for starting trees. He's not getting any appreciable amount of rain, so my conclusion is that if he wants to achieve even a little bit of afforestation, radical water harvesting must be the number one action.
Considering he has such a low level of rain, I think his approach is more manageable. He's here just for one or 2 years, how would a satellite image show some progress ?? Maybe in 10 or 20 years it will show something, but that's useless for now. They are alone in this project and building big dams requires a lot of time and energy for 2 days of rain in the year. They have built a few dams and have to see how it will work in case of rain, and in the meantime they build beds with drip irrigation and expand slowly. He needs to transform little pieces of land at a time and not focus on regreening (greening ?) all the desert, which will never work.
I agree with some of your points, it would help if he dug a well on his land so he doesn't have to keep bringing in huge amounts of water and then he could hydrate more terraces.
@@FanNy-ku6wt There is a new capture showing mostly the cleared dirt where he set up the roads, as well as the bare dirt of the terraces. It's an unfair comparison, but other regions that have 9-10 months drought but meaningful rain experience drastic grass growth with the first large rainfall. It's best to not look at the vastness of that desolate area. When zooming out, the task looks impossible - yet I wonder how it looked a few decades ago.
@@hardwareful Well yeah, it's even better to focus only on his 1 or 2 beds with drip irrigation, because he's in a desert, far from everything, no water on site, only one guy here full time, and not too far from the drug kingpins of Mexico, snakes... So many conditions against his project. But I think we need people with crazy ideas like this, after all plants are growing on his bed, so it works, next year it will look better and encouraging.
A lot of the "quacks" in Australia are being followed now 😂😂😂 don't worry about people who want you to do exactly what they want like me😁 just do your thing ✌️👏 it's obviously working well compared to the surrounding
Great video Danou. Everyone has their opinions and advice. There is so much information and ideas out there and one needs to sift through. At the end of the day, what makes sense is what counts. Hugel Culture is not a strategy for dry lands, you will end up with a pile of petrified wood, if the termites does not eat it. Sep Holtzer is in a very wet climate , where hugel culture is ideal... one needs to look at the situation on the ground and what climate you are in, for the strategies to apply. Your pits is the way to go, dig and put organic matter underground, where it is cooler and where there is moisture to help the biology break it down. Same like your raised garden beds, they were designed to drain water out, and I know you mentioned changing to sunken beds Ina previous comment, which would be the right way to go. Don't pull out your weeds, yes 😅! Loving the learning journey with you! We take inspiration for our place in the desert from you!
The good thing about permaculture is that you can take people ideas and their practical learning mixed with advise good or bad from others .then mix it all together to suit our own situation..as longs as we are all happy with our own journey that's what matters
The village idiots are in the comments section . Don't bother debating them , it's a waste of time and effort. I enjoy watching Shaun and your videos too . Keep up the good work
The activity in the comment section makes videos suggested more. Unfortunately, baiting people into commenting is a legit technique for growing a channel.
So glad was scared my Mpumalanga comment scared you. But you covered all my issues in this video. Ad vis dont dig holes for food leave them on the ground level in pots let the biology pull them in the ground 🤷🏾♂️ worked for me feel disturbing the soil is an issue. Where you started this video by the corn and very green stuff plant trees there amangst the animals on them edges of your green belt to extend it those mulberries you plant there will attract the birds and they will plant better than you can. Great video thank you for choosing the tough life on the edge a lot of permaculture doesn’t fit exactly for us as we have more bugs. I wanted to plant figs sweet potato in circle pit garden as the hole worked wonders with papaya for me in botswana
Have you tried using Johnson-Su compost with your plantings or your seedlings? I am the guy that has provided Shaun Overton with the Johnson Sue that he uses. If you’d like to try it, I will send you some along with the instructions on how to use it. Just 12:53 send me an email to let me know. I love the work you’re doing and you’re a fair man.
agree. there's too much of labelling people "he/she IS (whatever)" these days as if that says anything at all of substance, and it says nothing about any of their methods and thus only detracts from any discussion and progress.
For the record, I am a farmer in Southern California raising sheep, pigs, and poultry, while growing trees in a desert environment (10-12 inches of rain annually). I wouldn't call Shaun a quack but I do understand the sentiment. RUclips is full of content providers doing remarkable things in unrealistic ways. People that become inspired are often disappointed to discover that the content provider's true intent was to provide content, not to teach how to realistically solve a problem. To the viewer, they often feel conned when they realize their sincere interest was simply a means for a content provider to gain sponsorship. What Shaun is doing really has no economic value other than providing content, so it shouldn't be that surprising. I have to support a family and employees on my land. If I followed Shaun, I would go bankrupt, and I know how to farm on desert land. A new farmer wouldn't last a season doing what he does unless they had unlimited funding and a penchant for disappointment and failed experiments. And, I won't even go into detail as to what a real flood event will do to all the work he's put in. If he thinks he can control the water in his environment, he is headed for a rude and possibly deadly awakening. He doesn't really understand the land he's on and why it exists as it does. For people from these environments, who have some perspective, his comments and plans can feel like quackery. Here is some reality for you. Broad scale reforestation/afforestation doesn't really work. Maybe in the timber industry, but those aren't really forests, they are ecological disasters. On land like Shaun's it's an utter impossibility, no matter how much money your throw at it. The broad scale forests you hear about around the world in impossible environments are not forests they are tended gardens with trees as they lack the resilience necessary to survive without human intervention. This is why the earth is currently in a global crisis and experiencing the 6th Extinction Event. Deforestation, de-vegetation, loss of habitat/biodiversity, etc. are principle causes, and it exemplifies our inability to reforest a planet we have ravaged. California receives the most funding for reforestation in the U.S (over $100 Million/yr) yet it has the highest deforestation rate in the country. China launched the largest reforestation project in the history of the world, only to watch over a billion trees die. Shaun will also fail, but he may get rich doing it. That doesn't make him a quack, it makes him an opportunist. I can tell you how to grow a forest in the desert or on bad, degraded land. It's not very interesting in terms of content, compared to what Shaun is doing, but it's the only thing that will eventually transfer to broad scale reforestation. It's not with food forests or normal agriculture, or relying on charities/corps. to fund tree planting. If fact, if you study the data on tree planting efforts, you would be tempted to call that quackery. There's really only one way to outrace urbanization, chemical poisoning, overgrazing, industrial agriculture, aridification, etc. You have to make it profitable for a person to grow a forest on the land they are surrounded by -- whether it is a backyard, front yard, 1/4 acre, or 100 acres. It will require extensive use of keystone trees and plants, and you will have to get used to sharing your environment with bugs, birds, amphibians, and critters of the night. In order to make it profitable, you have to integrate livestock, high value fruit and nut trees, fodder trees, etc. I do this by collecting food and yard waste, breeding rare livestock which produce compost and fertility, maintaining a nursery, growing worms and insects, harvesting water and mulch, digging ponds, and so on. Very quickly, you have little oasis's popping up teeming with life and sound. I don't have to advertise my animals, tree cuttings, plants, vegetables, etc. because it's very clear I am doing something quite different. You wont see crop fields or massive gardens, you will see micro-forests beginning to spread across what was once a hay field. And, you'll scratch your head when you discover how much is being produced and earned. If a 100 people around me followed suit, we'd change our local climate. Enough people, and we could change the rainfall, the evaporation rates, and the soil saturation capacity. You'd have stronger local economies and wildlife would benefit immensely. But people want to see massive reforestation efforts unfold, despite what we know to be true about them. That' why Shaun will always have an audience. People aren't so interested in how the tiny forest in your backyard will interact with a 1000 others nearby, or how farmers can transform hay fields and row crops into natural beauty and function, or neighborhoods rededicating the interspersed shared land, but that's the only real path to reversing what seems so irreversible. It's going to have to make economic and common sense to everyday people to grow viable forests where and around where they live.
I'm pretty sure Sean's already well off, so him throwing money at the ranch isn't really a problem.. It's fun to watch, and it'll either pay for itself, or it won't. I follow Dr.Tallamy's sage advice when it comes to planting -- native plants only. Too many people get caught up with the newest thing to hit the big box stores, and as DrTallamy notes, it has destroyed our ecosystem even though things look pretty and greeen. Currently, more land than 20 of our largest national parks are taken over by non-native plants which have been stuck in the ground by homeowners and city authorities who think they are beautifying the place. The "fragmentation" of the local ecosystem only ripples out from there, causing huge problems for the nation as a whole. And, honestly, so does this fetishization of "reforestation" as though the world was once naught but trees. The best way to heal things is to start from the ground up, and that means native grasses first. Grasses grow far faster than trees, and return ecosystem benefits in rather short order. Their leaves can also be trimmed several times in a growing season to provide mulch that cools the soil and allows that biome to start functioning again. I'll often point to Brad Lancaster's work in AZ as a good example of what people can do at the local level to make a huge difference. We have to remember, though, that every step is important, and it starts at the ground level for a reason. The DustUps experiment is facing a serious problem because of what is happening miles away, up in the mountains - showing us that actions have consequences even if we don't see them.
I share Geoff Lawton's opinions and application of Permaculture principles. I also thank you for your sober assessment of what it takes to green a desert. One day I hope to have my own plot of land, and it may be a desert because green fields are way out of my price range right now. My personal opinion is that it's ok to use non-native species depending on context. Aren't all orchard trees and all grains original from somewhere else anyway? Why not use the best species for the context of kickstarting the succession process we want, while native species are given time to re-establish themselves? My thinking is that we have habituated to a certain way things are, like the boiling frog. Americans are really blessed to have experienced a mostly untouched landscape where they can compare things the way they were in recent history, but also they are cursed to think the desert as it is today to have been always like it is, and that the dominant species in that context today were the same ones as that time 200 or 300 years ago. Changes occurred and some native species didn't make it. Might as well use non-natives performing the same function in order to regreen it. As far as Shaun's long term plans, it's up to him. My understanding is that he's on a very remote location, and has trouble bringing in the resources you say he needs. He does have resources to geological and topographical surveys that didn't use to be very easy to get to, but now are. When governments are saying not to plant specie X, Y, Z, they really have no moral high ground, as governments have been the single biggest importer of invasive species. The philosophers at the top of the hierarchy are really clueless and reactive, once they realize they made mistakes, promptly blaming the land owners and not themselves. We're not going through an extinction event, we're going through a change event. So far, it's been good for human existence. Once it ceases to be good for human existence, Earth will remain being good for other species and Life will go on.
@@marlan5470 The native v. not argument depends on context. Sure, you can say that food crops are non-native, but that doesn't justify using non-native plants in other aspects. We can't say we're working to repair the environment while doing things that are not repairing the environment. Too many people see plants growing and think things are awesome because plants are cool. Never a thought to how those plants are interacting with the local ecosystem, or not. As Dr. Tallamy notes, we've lost over 40% of our pollinators because we have fragmented the ecosystem by planting so many non-native plants. In the US, we grow more turf grass than anything else, and it takes up more room than 20 of our largest national parks. Nobody really thinks about it because all they ever see is a nice green yard full of flowering bushes. When you look at it, though, you see that 80% of a yard is non-native plants that provide no home or food for the native pollinators because they didn't evolve together. That's the real cost of not paying attention to the details. If you ask folks, they'll tell you that their one little plot of land won't make a difference. And they're right. The problem is that there are millions of people saying the exact same thing and doing what they want. That adds up to an ecosystem so wrecked that the damage is really incalculable. Folks complain about the burning in the Amazon, but that's damage you can easily see. In Western Civilization, we've done as bad, or worse, by introducing non-native plants to our ecosystems in such numbers that they've fragmented the whole thing, causing a slow collapse. And it's invisible because everyone can look around and see greed plants growing. It's easy to say we should just use whatever can work best for a site, but we have to be very cautious about what we introduce. Ever "invasive" plant on the list was introduced by educated people, the experts, and those plants were only put on the Invasive List long after the damage was done. Why take that chance? Why not just start out with native plants in the first place? What non-native plant can you use that doesn't have an equal in the native plant catalogue? Maybe those non-native will grow well, but are they feeding the pollinators and birds what they need? According to current science, the answer is no. So you get some green growth, but no service to the local ecosystem? If you're growing food for yourself, I can see making that trade, but if you're trying to repair the ecosystem.... how can you say that's your goal as you go about literally replacing the ecosystem?
Mr. Overton is more like manager or salesman than practical person. But he admited that, and learns. Sometimes its too much fancy emotional content, but people like it, so he can get more view and money, but we all need money.
I think the general view of Sepp Holzer design is to create the right microclimate for the right plant, and it’s up to you to identify the best way to implement it. He created hugel mounds because he had an excess of rotten wood, maybe in your site there’s not so much of it. I remember he experimented a lot with water bodies, wind protection, walls and rock masses to protect plants from frostbites
No, the termites are the clever for that. They eat far away from their homes build new temporary homes around what ever they are attacking eat it and leave. You rarely see a termite close to his mount.
In a low biomass situation harvesting weeds and making compost with them is a good way to start boosting it. Once you've improved the soil you can be more picky about what you use for ground cover.
John Kempf, on the Advancing Eco Agriculture channel, has tons of information about how beneficial it is to have plant diversity, and weeds volunteer for the position. Evidently, when you've got representatives from 4 out of the 16 plant types, competition transforms into collaboration. The exudates and microbes fine-tune into a cooperative community and plant health soars. I just completed my first season with chop and drop weedy pathways between my trenched plantings. We're up on the arid Colorado Plateau in a tricky microclimate that even the resident Master Gardener is pessimistic about. Best garden success yet, and looking ahead to a covercropped winter to carry those results forward into 2025. 🎉❤
Shaun is his own biggest obstacle sometimes but he means well. I was absolutely face palming when he in a video was saying Moringa can't be grown on his property because none of his seeds sprouted so commenters should stop suggesting them, bruh we've all had our troubles growing plants welcome to the club but it's fully possible.
Another benefit of chop and drop is that it provides cover for the soil, to decrease the temperature and evaporation. That would make your drip system more effective. Maybe you can drop one every 3 chops or something like that to keep using it as feed.
Yes there’s a lot of different approaches to Permaculture. I have some different approaches to yourself but I still love watching and will be interested in the outcome. I truly hope you are successful. We all discover things in our journey. So I think we can all learn something from each other.
Shain is at least trying to make a difference and docimentin g everything he is doing. Its an unproductive area so good on him for using him money to do something like that. You learn and try. So what if somebody says if this way or the highway. Mankind has always learned from mistakes. We have also forgotten a lot from the pass. Keep doing what your doing Mate, great to see and learn with you
The more mistakes Overton makes the more I like the show . Now that's entertainment . Eventually he's going to make a real nice dessert Forest . He's learning from his mistakes and from many experts . Professor 'Know It ALL ' below should start his own youtube Channel if he's so smart and good at growing in the same area as Overton. If he did ,and was good, I'm sure that I'd watch it as well as Dust Ups . Then in a few years we could do a comparison and see who did the best job .
Ignore the negative comments, don’t reply to negatively. Eventually the person or people will stop commenting. This is your project and you can only learn by trial n error. You’re doing an excellent. Hedgerows we call bushes along the fence and road side . Great for wildlife and for crops loads of bugs for the birds 🦅 and hedgehogs 🦔 stoats etc . 🙂
Groete van n soutie in Alberton GP. As an aside: Not sure what your fire season is like where you are. I helped fight a veldt fire last week. It was massive and quite scary at times. So maybe include that in your planning? Piles of dry wood are a threat if there is a fire. If it is damp underneath the wood though, I suspect mosquitos would love it. Not sure how either would affect your operation? :-)
Thanks you for reading all our comments, i know that when you reply to mine it makes my day to know that you have not only bithered to read the comment but replied to it even when you are very busy. Like many South African I know, Namibians have the thick skin, i assume its because life is hard graft out there, you dont have time to pussy foot around so tell us how it is..
What were you going to say about termites? I think they could be an asset in the future, specially if you manage to make them eat biochar and introduce that into the soil. I hope the best for you and your project!
I like Shaun, he does what is possible in terms of time and invests his own money in it. all of this is limited, he could also share these precious resources with his family. anyone who makes such assertions from afar should buy a piece of desert themselves and green it up. I see this attack as empty words and agree with you, that you are making it easy for yourself
Quem gosta e quer aprender sobre "Agrofloresta"...ela está sendo muito difundida no Brasil. Eu recomendo o canal chamado "Antônio Gomides agrofloresta". Uma área que está sofrendo com a desertificação...
Hi Danou, thank you for the videos, I was wondering what is the elevation difference from where the river enters your property to the BDA? Check dams pool the water before spilling over, this takes the energy out of the water before spilling over and filling the next dam, one dam alone is insufficient they need to be placed in succession of each other, so that the top of the lowest dam is level with the base of the one above it.
In our garden the wired of the fence are hold to the ground by sticks with a hook at the end. They are simular to tent staked. But I suppose this would not stop bigger animals.
Keep going,don't bother with this guy,obviously someone who probably doesn't do much but call other names...Its your project,at the end of the days you do whatever you want...lol.I'm not a fan of your old tires everywhere,but again if you like it, go ahead 😁.Its very nice to see your project moving foward.Im living in Bali ,and will start mine in a couple of years,very different environment,but for sure it has his own challenge.Peace
Imagine considering hiring people that use magic to find water (thats a quack). When he builds new roads he goes right over all the plants when he could have transplanted them to all those empty dirt holes. He continually goes on about generating biomass on the property but has only grown a few stalks even while irrigating.
Shaun Overton is working worth the government (Grant for beaver dam analogs). He did get a slap on the wrist for planting elephant grass. It's unfortunate because elephant grass, like many invasive plants, is great for restoration work.
1 Shaun admits he's learning as he goes. His local government is happy with what he is doing, A check dam and a BDA are built differently. 2. Don't treat every comment with the same value. 3. You're doing fine. Haters are going to hate. I see things going well there.
I admire your spirit of charity and "steelmanning" Overton. My opinion of him is since following from the start: 1. He dawned on the scene with too many followers and polished front as if engineered by a social media company. 2. His history is of start ups and international adventures with the anarcho-capitalist crypto bois and war-torn regions dominated by the cia. He looks and acts like a fed. 3. In his early videos, he responded to all suggestions to check out Geoff Lawton with, "I refuse to learn from others." On Spirko's livestream, he lied about following Lawton for years. 4. He was totally ignorant of basic gardening much less permaculture principles, but lied and said he studied permaculture for years. For example, I shared basic information about the node on a cactus pad being the place where roots can grow. He told me he had to do it wrong first to learn. His suburban home has no garden. He is not a gardener. 5. He shills products like the economic weapon Temu. He is not transparent with his donations like you are. Every episode is a commercial. He associates with other grifters like the ghost town guy who destroyed an historic site. 6. It's not that people disagree with everything he does. His bathtubs were a great project. His time with Joao learning syntropic techniques was almost a redemption arc. The problem is that people can smell a grifter. Too many inconsistencies. 7. My opinion is that he could be an infiltration op like what was done to the environmental movement in the 80s where intelligence agencies put undercover agents who went so far as to MARRY unsuspecting activists. He spreads ignorance that divides the community. I have seen ops like this before. Lowest denominator content he stated was "for the narrative" that viewers take to YOUR door creating controversy and dissension. I will sit back and see if yt allows this comment to stand. I am kinda shadowbanned around this platform.
Extraordinarily well thought out and rational observations. The overarching term in my mind is 'fraud' "Fraud: someone who deceives people by saying that they are someone or something that they are not." Thank you for taking the time and staking out our position. 👍
@stevejohnstonbaugh9171 Thank you. Countering desertification using permaculture and regenerative agriculture is too important to let sheep-dipped clowns demoralize our community. There are huge obstacles to overcoming chemical ag. If people realize they can seize control of their own means of food production, oversized entities will topple.
@OublietteTight True except for the verb "follow" is now past tense. I was here for it. But I have a long attention span for comments and meta analysis of parasocial spaces. The interview with Spirko convinced me that Overton is not just a naive, he is a liar; Spirko in his turn called me names and censored me, a subscriberfor years. Unsubcribed from them both, but still plagued by the ubiquitous references to the dullard popping up on quality channels like this one, with an altruistic host who faces real danger if trust is breached. If Danou were to act like Mr. Overton, he would not have the support and safe passage from the various tribal persons scrambling for resources in his region. If he picked up trendy topics, failed, shilled, and left the community hanging on unfinished utopian business, which of the previously unfed laboring men whom he pays in money, produce, and sense of accomplishment would thrive? Are you aware of the thin line of safety our host here walks? Literally a machete's edge.
You are not farming prickly pear so who cares how you plant them? Shaun is a novice and he admits that but he is still trying and that’s the main thing… he only got in trouble because someone watching his channel didn’t like him and reported him for planting a plant he didn’t know wasn’t allowed in his area… have you heard of a miyawaki style of planting? It’s really intensive way of planting trees…
Its complex. If you have the mulch for pulling roots for weeds. But we keep the roots for normal crops and in a lot of cases let it decompose in place. Mulch is the key though, years and years of it. Cali is arid where we live a lot n common with Spain and places in Africa. Building the mulch layer is extremely hard. So you spend years trying to deal with building the organic matter back up. Why you keep roots. But I never keep weird roots. I rather just grow into pasture or covercrop areas. Really are no real weeds but you get what I mean. Better to create a desirable crop mulch blanket in arid areas. We even do a layber of spent mushroom spawn combine with compost in our first double dig. To creat bed layers. Spent mushroom spawn is the greatest cheater garden that and cardboard. Oh and shredded cardboard moldy hay as well. It can cut 10 years off garden development
I disagree with your decision to wade into controversy Danou. It feels like clickbait. To borrow from Stephen Covey; "Put first things first: Prioritize the most important things and put them first". My suggestion is stay focused on the permaculture world you are creating. Engaging in controversy is of no benefit to your growth. Those of us who have followed overton from the beginning have our own opinions.
As always you have wise comments. I am starting to regret this video. It is click bait to a certain extend because views and engagement is what we do on youtube. But you are right and it is not the right approach to reach my goal of spreading permaculture into Africa... Quoting convey caught me of guard 😂 well played! I tried to tag you in another comment where someone says what I did was like peeing in my pants. Nice and warm for two minutes and felt good. But it is all going down hill from there. I did however learn allot of things about Shaun in the comments that I never knew...
@@thefoodforestnamibia I agrree with Steve's comment in general. However, sometimes it's worth addressing some issues and I found your responses in the video well balanced. Nothing to be ashamed of. Last but not least, already Stoics found that feeling regrets make no sense. I also like your "thick skin" attitude to "being offended". Nowadays many people feel offended too easily. "Instead of feeling offended, feel curious" - brilliant! 👍
@@thefoodforestnamibia I spent two days with Covey 25-30 years ago learning to apply his principals' to everyday life. I carried a Covey Daytimer always until I retired. 😉 I think of his work as an expansion of the Golden Rule. I've never heard 'peeing ones pants' but I have often used 'filling ones diaper' - nice and warm while it lasts.😂 At one point overton had over 300 recommendations to buy a medium sized excavator to dig African smiles [the only technique that has naturally worked for him ] all over the ranch. Instead, he bought a clapped out bulldozer. I really don't know why he asks for comments because he NEVER listens. I suspect he's working YT as a money making scheme. My observation after about 3 years of watching. 👍 live and learn.
RUclips channels allow people like us watch people like you Danou and Shaun Overton transform themselves from enthusiastic amateurs to seasoned experts over time, and that process is the really valuable part of the education you give to others.
You said kindly but firmly what needed to be said: let's try to understand in order to learn and transmit without pretension. The Internet is an unimaginable opportunity to share our experiences, learn from each other and progress collectively more quickly. Thank you for your honesty. you not only sow plants, you also propagate a beautiful way of being, which, of course will be growing.
I watch Sean Overton and I like him ...he owns his mistakes and keeps going ....he is no quack imo
Thank you so much for what you are doing. I am a local politician in London working hard to do what I can to get to net zero and people like you and Shaun Overton give me hope that some of the damage can and will be reversed. It helps me keep going. I love your deep respect for everyone you work with. Look after yourself and your family.
You have a great outlook 😊 I am so glad you have a thick skin because the work you are doing is amazing and it’s amazing that you are able to share the journey. The point of Observation is to step back and see if what we did works and if not try again. A wise man once said… “just start” doesn’t matter if you don’t know everything… we are learning along the way. Thanks for sharing!
Long time watcher. Loving the journey
Like the way you speak and answer, and the work with your land. I like to watch people round the world doing things, it's a good way to understand the world and different ways of living.
Shaun is, like me, is in the Sonoran Desert. I have 64 years living and learning about the Flora here (AZ/USA). Cactus don't care. I've literally cut off a pad, scuffed the ground with my heel and stuck in the shallow hole only to watch it sprout new growth and take off from there. ANY method that succeeds in your environs is a winning solution. Best wishes in manifesting a greater purpose for yourself, your family and your neighbors.
he cracked some nuts on propagating plants I'll give him that but he's not really doing permaculture, saying that as someone also working with southwest terrain
@@PermacultureCowboy Agreed. These Men are doing completely different agendas.
Though both spots are damaged land destroyed by over grazing, both of their environments are very different too. That spot in Texas is almost pure gravel on top, leaving little to nothing for seeds to germinate in. This part of Central Namibia has soil and no rocks, meaning things can get started, but if a monsoon type rain storm hits, all that progress can wash away in a blink.
Thank you so much for viewing with me! How was your weekend?
Long and filled with food and friends and family. 😊
@thefoodforestnamibia it was made better than great by your videos!
We had a nice homestead harvest Thanksgiving meal. We also harvested our biggest farm animal yet, a 125 pound ram lamb (18 mo old).
We are not perfect, but always observing and adjusting to fulfill the foundational ethos of feeding our family and stewardship. Blessings
Those who insult others are those who are lazy and who do nothing. They think that they are knowledgeable when they insult other people who mean and do good things. Shaun Overton frequently said that he is in the learning process, he admitted he makes mistakes and frequently corrected them after learning from the failures and after listening to the advice from others. He even brings experts to his farm to show him how to do things. I salute Shaun Overton for all his efforts to improve one of the worst type of land.
Same ppl who frame Bring a quack Overton would also say Bad Thing about this Channel : A White man makes Videos while the black men are working - racism. What a Bull Sh!t.
"Quack" is unfair but his process is def let's say off, who tries to grow in the desert while completely ignoring the arroyo the biggest source of water? Permaculture isn't about drip watering random shit on a dry terrace. There's no swales, no water harvesting, no pond. The minute he stops everything will go back to how it was the key part of the word "permaculture" is permanence which is achieved through working with the natural sequences in nature. I'd describe it as a vanity project and for more useful info I go elsewhere. I'm working with the same type of land as he is and also I gotta say I don't really appreciate you calling the high desert the "worst type of land". Maybe if you and Shaun understood it better you'd see the beauty that's in it and how abundant it truly is.
@@PermacultureCowboy
Shaun is digging, building, etc. He knows his little spot could fall apart if ignored. It appears that he is just trying to plant a few things he can water while he prays for even a drop of rain. If it ever does rain, the many "bath tubs" he dug have great potential. His location makes getting any rain a great big IF.
@@OublietteTight i get that, his planting and propagation is the thing his content is most useful at showing, even if he does miss the bigger picture on water harvesting near an arroyo
@PermacultureCowboy teach me what an arroyo is, please?
Living Springs Retret
Barbara O'Neil
" Kindness is a universal language.
Its something everyone can understand, no matter their background"
"Let your actions speak louder than words today"
"Show kindness to those around you and make a difference in the world"
"Kindness is a language that the deaf can hear and the blind can see"
I value your honesty and you not afraid to stand for what is right, you walk your talk. That to me speaks volumes!
🌿💚🌿
great fair content and audio as usual SUPPORT THIS CHANEL
Support support support!! 🎉
@@OublietteTight look at what you do with nothing,and how hard you have to work,for every slightest gain.I support that ethic
Your videos make my day. Living for this journey of yours as you restore your land
😊
That was truly a well-meassured response to a somewhat trolly comment. That is how a gentleman respond to a different point of view. Personally, I find that arguing with people on the internet is a bit like wetting your pants to keep warm....it feels good for a minute or 2, and then the whole thing goes downhill from there.
Good to see everything greening up. How has the rainfall been in Namibia so far, are you on track for an average year, or is it dryer than usual? Thanks for the video, and take care.
Well said. I must admit I do start to regret this video. Pants are getting cold 😂😂😂 our rain season is now falling behind. This could become a big problem very soon. Thank you for sour support! @stevejohnstonbaugh9171
@@BrianJensen-ym5gk thumbs up
So glad.to hear that you do not buy into the negative and less than constructive criticism of Shaun Overton. You are both working on different continents with very much the same goal - you kindly share some of the lessons learned (especially from errors) which will help others worldwide who are working for the benefit of the planet - by example. Also appreciate the way you involve and listen to the guys working WITH you! All the best from the UK.
Shaun is doing what he can in his area. He has never claimed to be an expert. He made a mistake, which he admitted to, but that does not make him a quack.
Great work on your farm.
Yeah, I like his videos because here you can see the development of the landscape right from the beginning to the 'end'.
@@TheCongratulationsChannel well when it does end, everything will die and go back to how it was
respectfully disagree about shaun's project, as someone also doing it in the west texas desert I can't for the life of me understand any of his decisions or approach. He is good at cactus propagation though
@PermacultureCowboy Good for you. Shaun is learning as he goes along. He has not claimed to be a permaculture enthusiast or expert. In fact, several people suggested various approaches to him, which to his credit he has dabbled in. His 'thing' is ultimately to green the desert. He has yet to choose a methodology to pursue, which is clear to everyone who watches his videos. He will get there in his own time.
@@mandandi "good for you" ok man. I'm not saying he's a bad person, I'm saying the overall approach for the stated goal won't work. I grew up in this climate on a ranch so I'm coming from a place of understanding the plants, animals and weather cycles. It would behoove him to become a permaculture enthusiast btw.
I can confidently say that although Shaun Overton is new and wanting to make a profit on his investment like anyone would, but at least when he does mess up he tells his audience and corrects it. and that thing with the law, a viewer called it in and whined about non native grass in the Chihuahua dessert.
There is a lot of small minded people, keep it up , thank you for your time
Great to see the growth in the garden and on the swale with the drip line. The trees are also looking greener. Trying dams etc will also help you work out what is effective and where they are best placed. The imp thing is taking the principles and applying them to your land, we all have to start somewhere.
Hello Danou 👋
I'll say time and time again how much I appreciate your content and allowing us all to ride along with you on your permaculture journey. With so much permaculture content available today, particularly on social media, It would be challanging to gauge what other peoples' experience would be applicable to your environment/ farm set up. But you're following the basic permaculture principles and you are wise enough to process all the information and opinions coming your way. I am so glad to be here
😊
Huglemounds is a great idea but it is designen for cold climates were moisture is in plenty and woody materials are abundant. In dry areas I don't think it will be a good thing unless you use cactus as the "woody material". Thanks for great content!
The wood would probably retain moisture like in the Alps, the problem here are the termites, which they don't have in the Alps, at least not outside.
The only way to know would be to build one and see how it evolves in these specific conditions. The termites will also digest the wood and help break it down, they will loosen the soil and create galeries. I heard that in Africa they don't have earth worms but termites do a similar job. So, it would be worth a try.
I have used prickly pear pads , agaves leaves, palm fronds, pomegranate, mesquite, fig branches. I soaked them in a pit lined with four inches of clay using my grey water. It takes about two weeks for the material to be absorbed. Then it is ready to be applied in hugelkultur On the mounds I grow cassava. Squash, sweet potatoes, tithonia and vetiver grass..
@@FanNy-ku6wtwe certainly do have earthworms in Africa, in fact the area I live in, the Eastern Cape province in South Africa is home to the world's largest earthworns
@estebancorral5151 great input!
@@Frog13799 Ok, but those must be rare.
You must have more termites than earthworms.
Your journey is inspiring, as are your words. Intrigue not offense is advice that far more people need to adopt in this world,
Thank you so much!!
Shaun isn't a quack, he's just inexperienced and trying to learn by trial and error, maybe a bit headstrong and lacking in the wisdom of working with the land, but he is making progress. Good luck to him. Criticism is easy, support is hard.
Advice is easy, but it has to have on the ground knowledge and experienced to be applied. We can't know what you know, we don't have contour maps, plans, budget etc etc to worry about. I offer advice, but in a "take it or leave it" way, and then I wait for a response or more information for a better understanding of your situation and what you want. The more you tell us, the better tailored that advice will be, but it will never have the precision of that gleaned from being directly involved.
his whole learn through error facade is a bit tired. He could spend a couple hours watching Geoff Lawton lectures and realize his entire approach is off. I personally think he just believes he knows better and can figure it out himself and doesn't want advice. Where's the "learning" in that? He clearly knows very little about mesquite for example.
@@PermacultureCowboy Knowing little about mesquite isn't a sin. I know nothing about mesquite. He's a flawed human being, just like the rest of us. He had some bloke from mexico up for a week teaching him all sorts.
It's his money, his time, his land. If you don't like it, don't watch. Maybe come back to it in a year and say "I told you so", or don't. It's not worth getting riled up over.
@@Argrouk Mesquite is pretty critical to the phases of growth in this region
Back to the important syntrophic business at hand, Danou 😊
1. Prickly Pear Cactus planted east to west as a crop. This is an intriguing idea because its growth is spectacular in your region. Suggestion: As time allows, harvest enough overlapping or touching pads from the living fences to plant a small "field" of cactus for animal fodder and people food. Plant the rows east to west and 1 meter apart. The paddles should all orient to the south so the planting can be fairly dense. I understand that the needles can be singed [burned] off in a quick pass through fire and the paddles can also be grilled. The health benefits of cactus [ both paddles and fruit ] as food are huge. I'm certain your pigs would love them. What do your fellows say?
2. Sorghum is growing in spectacular fashion. A must grow moving forward. let the heads fully ripen so they can be eaten as a grain. They are cooked like rice and are a great source of vegetable protein. The grains can also be cooked into a mash for the pigs. After harvesting the heads, cut the stalks down to about 50 cm and feed the green stalks to the pigs. The roots and remaining stack will regrow for a second harvest.
These two crops are leading the way for your syntopic food forest. All around winners. Huge accomplishments' since May 4, 2023. HURRAH!
3. Sweet Potato thoughts; Buy several different varieties from your local vendor's [most likely to be pesticide free] and use them to start slips by putting one side of the potato into a bed of potting si. {1 part clay, 1 part sand, 1 part sifted worm castings]. This is a good job for your eldest daughter because it can be done as a science project. one potato can produce 50 slips or more from the energy stored in the potato. Plant slips out one by one as they reach about 10 inches in length about 6 inches apart. You can grow them on a berm or a mound. ruclips.net/video/0igp5IzO21g/видео.html
Here's what I have learned about gardening over the past 5 years of trying really hard to learn good techniques and practices. Some things work and some things don't. What worked this year may not work next. The weather, water, vacations etc all play a part in how the garden is going to grow. I just work hard to make MY garden work for me. I watch videos, see what others are doing, and try to do to my situation what looks like will work. I hope you get way more positive comments than negative because I am really amazed at what you are doing. I do wonder about not pulling the weed roots out. I cut my vegetables at the soil level and leave the roots but the weeds I pull the roots so they won't spread. Winter here so all I can do is look out the window and wait for spring!
I like your straight, sensible talking
Beaver Analog Dam, check dam, sand dam or a long lasting pond are dependent on your particular situation, (Environment or ecosystem). If you are trying to push water up and over the bank and water the adjacent field try what you did. A check dam works to prevent erosion and soil settlement behind the check dam and encourage water to settle into the water table.
I use check dams to primarily reduce erosion, but you are in a different ecosystem.
The Beaver dam analogues are from a Texas state program. That's where Shaun Overton gets his terminology, and the state sent inspectors to check his work. If your commenter disagrees he should take it up with the state of Texas.
lots of annoying arguments online about the "beaver analog" term. It doesn't matter what they are called or how varied imo the principal is always the same - trap sediment, slow down water. Millions of ways to do this and none of them are made by a beaver anyways lol
cutting they will give you constant food,for your pigs/duck/chickens.opposed to pulling them bye the roots
Cutting before flowering will keep the weeds in juvenescence, which means they will keep contributing products of photosynthesis to the soil.
You can also do this to your sorghum sudan grass. Cut it before its grainhead flowers and feed to your animals or chop and drop. It will regrow over and over again, pumping those sweet carbohydrates into your soil.
Sean often states that he is continually learning on Camera and wants to show his mistakes so that other people learn from them. I’m excited about his huge project and wish him well. Perhaps someday I’ll get out there to meet him.
Liking the spirit. U are the one doing things. Everyword is welkome. It helps keep growing your video community
Don't worry. Prickly pairs are quite forgiving. We've got so much sunlight in Namibia they'll be okay👌
its not the thorns oyu have to watch its the ( Glochids )
Try not to take negative comments to seriously. Most of us who are following your story are intrigued and are cheering you on. You are a very level headed man with a lot of get up and go in you. I am fascinated with your project and really look forward to every video.
Well said! Appreciate all your efforts. Regards Carol Aberdeen
I have tried the hugelkulture-like method on a small scale and am astounded by the results. This was done by digging a pit about 3mx3mx2m deep, filling it with dead wood, lots of horse manure , and topped with a thick layer of soil and compost and mulching thick with grass (taken from the horses' mouths )to make the mound. Duing the summer when my dam was full, I regularly pumped lots of water into it until about April 2023 when it dried up. I planted pumkins on the mound at beginning September. Usually this time of the year these pumpkins are still in the seedling tray stage, but these guys have exploded and already bear fruits with little watering and we have yet to have rain! Give it a go once you have lots of water to play with. Btw, Sean Overton's desert makes Namibia look like a tropical rain paradise. Respect for the dude!
Wow that sounds awesome! Thanks for sharing.
Shaun is not a quack. He is a novice. He admits it over and over. He has a ton to learn and he is trying. He is no expert and he never claimed to be.
9:00 Pig Labor!!! 😁
It is crazy to think that a comment from western North America can change the life of hogs in western Africa!! Smooches to the piggies!!! 🎉
I love sweet potatoes! I hope they grow well for you. 🙂
Use dry cleaner metal hangers (3-4 mm stiff wires) and create a twist tie around bottom wire of the fence with the ends of the hangers into the ground at an angle to hold down the fence.
American dry cleaning hanger wires are coated to prevent rust on your cloths, but that might not be applicable or available to Namibia.
Pigs can push it aside the wire stakes if they really want to, mice and rodents just go through the fence, it works for rabbits and other smaller animals.
I am not sure why you need to close that 10 to 30 mm gap at the bottom of the fence, but concrete make little sense to me.
Also by leaving the weed roots in,also helps the Microble fungi in the soil,Which will help your veggies
Shaun Overton: well, he never claimed to be an expert. Watching him make mistakes and slow progress is the advertised deal on his channel. Even the satellite imagery of his Dustups Ranch is basically like watching paint dry. There's no big green patch in the desert, but just more disturbed dirt.
In my opinion, he needs to take a much more radical approach and build very large dams first, and only then refine the slopes, build more dirt bathtubs and terraces. That would also form pits with steep slopes on three sides where the hydration is greatest and wind is blocked - ideal places for starting trees. He's not getting any appreciable amount of rain, so my conclusion is that if he wants to achieve even a little bit of afforestation, radical water harvesting must be the number one action.
Considering he has such a low level of rain, I think his approach is more manageable. He's here just for one or 2 years, how would a satellite image show some progress ?? Maybe in 10 or 20 years it will show something, but that's useless for now.
They are alone in this project and building big dams requires a lot of time and energy for 2 days of rain in the year. They have built a few dams and have to see how it will work in case of rain, and in the meantime they build beds with drip irrigation and expand slowly.
He needs to transform little pieces of land at a time and not focus on regreening (greening ?) all the desert, which will never work.
I agree with some of your points, it would help if he dug a well on his land so he doesn't have to keep bringing in huge amounts of water and then he could hydrate more terraces.
@@FanNy-ku6wt yeah, it's going to take multiple decades before a real difference can be noticed.
@@FanNy-ku6wt There is a new capture showing mostly the cleared dirt where he set up the roads, as well as the bare dirt of the terraces. It's an unfair comparison, but other regions that have 9-10 months drought but meaningful rain experience drastic grass growth with the first large rainfall.
It's best to not look at the vastness of that desolate area. When zooming out, the task looks impossible - yet I wonder how it looked a few decades ago.
@@hardwareful Well yeah, it's even better to focus only on his 1 or 2 beds with drip irrigation, because he's in a desert, far from everything, no water on site, only one guy here full time, and not too far from the drug kingpins of Mexico, snakes... So many conditions against his project.
But I think we need people with crazy ideas like this, after all plants are growing on his bed, so it works, next year it will look better and encouraging.
It is amazing to see the bush turn green in your background.
Thank you for documenting everything and sharing with us
Danou ,thats why we like you you seem Honest and striaght forward.if a person is full of crap ,you get found out lol
A lot of the "quacks" in Australia are being followed now 😂😂😂 don't worry about people who want you to do exactly what they want like me😁 just do your thing ✌️👏 it's obviously working well compared to the surrounding
Great video Danou. Everyone has their opinions and advice. There is so much information and ideas out there and one needs to sift through. At the end of the day, what makes sense is what counts. Hugel Culture is not a strategy for dry lands, you will end up with a pile of petrified wood, if the termites does not eat it. Sep Holtzer is in a very wet climate , where hugel culture is ideal... one needs to look at the situation on the ground and what climate you are in, for the strategies to apply. Your pits is the way to go, dig and put organic matter underground, where it is cooler and where there is moisture to help the biology break it down. Same like your raised garden beds, they were designed to drain water out, and I know you mentioned changing to sunken beds Ina previous comment, which would be the right way to go. Don't pull out your weeds, yes 😅! Loving the learning journey with you! We take inspiration for our place in the desert from you!
The good thing about permaculture is that you can take people ideas and their practical learning mixed with advise good or bad from others .then mix it all together to suit our own situation..as longs as we are all happy with our own journey that's what matters
I have the worst luck with sweet potatoes. I get beautiful plants and no potatoes. I will watch intently to see what you do.
Been my experience as well. But I Wil see what I can change
I like the sweet potato plan
The village idiots are in the comments section . Don't bother debating them , it's a waste of time and effort. I enjoy watching Shaun and your videos too . Keep up the good work
Agreed everybody and their two cents
The activity in the comment section makes videos suggested more. Unfortunately, baiting people into commenting is a legit technique for growing a channel.
So glad was scared my Mpumalanga comment scared you. But you covered all my issues in this video.
Ad vis dont dig holes for food leave them on the ground level in pots let the biology pull them in the ground 🤷🏾♂️ worked for me feel disturbing the soil is an issue.
Where you started this video by the corn and very green stuff plant trees there amangst the animals on them edges of your green belt to extend it those mulberries you plant there will attract the birds and they will plant better than you can.
Great video thank you for choosing the tough life on the edge a lot of permaculture doesn’t fit exactly for us as we have more bugs.
I wanted to plant figs sweet potato in circle pit garden as the hole worked wonders with papaya for me in botswana
Have you tried using Johnson-Su compost with your plantings or your seedlings? I am the guy that has provided Shaun Overton with the Johnson Sue that he uses. If you’d like to try it, I will send you some along with the instructions on how to use it. Just 12:53 send me an email to let me know. I love the work you’re doing and you’re a fair man.
Would love it
@ I will need an address to send it to you.
Beatifull.Unfortunatly you will always hear the negative.Dont even listen to them.Poeple like that you just ignore.
agree. there's too much of labelling people "he/she IS (whatever)" these days as if that says anything at all of substance, and it says nothing about any of their methods and thus only detracts from any discussion and progress.
For the record, I am a farmer in Southern California raising sheep, pigs, and poultry, while growing trees in a desert environment (10-12 inches of rain annually). I wouldn't call Shaun a quack but I do understand the sentiment. RUclips is full of content providers doing remarkable things in unrealistic ways. People that become inspired are often disappointed to discover that the content provider's true intent was to provide content, not to teach how to realistically solve a problem. To the viewer, they often feel conned when they realize their sincere interest was simply a means for a content provider to gain sponsorship. What Shaun is doing really has no economic value other than providing content, so it shouldn't be that surprising.
I have to support a family and employees on my land. If I followed Shaun, I would go bankrupt, and I know how to farm on desert land. A new farmer wouldn't last a season doing what he does unless they had unlimited funding and a penchant for disappointment and failed experiments. And, I won't even go into detail as to what a real flood event will do to all the work he's put in. If he thinks he can control the water in his environment, he is headed for a rude and possibly deadly awakening. He doesn't really understand the land he's on and why it exists as it does. For people from these environments, who have some perspective, his comments and plans can feel like quackery.
Here is some reality for you. Broad scale reforestation/afforestation doesn't really work. Maybe in the timber industry, but those aren't really forests, they are ecological disasters. On land like Shaun's it's an utter impossibility, no matter how much money your throw at it. The broad scale forests you hear about around the world in impossible environments are not forests they are tended gardens with trees as they lack the resilience necessary to survive without human intervention. This is why the earth is currently in a global crisis and experiencing the 6th Extinction Event. Deforestation, de-vegetation, loss of habitat/biodiversity, etc. are principle causes, and it exemplifies our inability to reforest a planet we have ravaged. California receives the most funding for reforestation in the U.S (over $100 Million/yr) yet it has the highest deforestation rate in the country. China launched the largest reforestation project in the history of the world, only to watch over a billion trees die. Shaun will also fail, but he may get rich doing it. That doesn't make him a quack, it makes him an opportunist.
I can tell you how to grow a forest in the desert or on bad, degraded land. It's not very interesting in terms of content, compared to what Shaun is doing, but it's the only thing that will eventually transfer to broad scale reforestation. It's not with food forests or normal agriculture, or relying on charities/corps. to fund tree planting. If fact, if you study the data on tree planting efforts, you would be tempted to call that quackery. There's really only one way to outrace urbanization, chemical poisoning, overgrazing, industrial agriculture, aridification, etc.
You have to make it profitable for a person to grow a forest on the land they are surrounded by -- whether it is a backyard, front yard, 1/4 acre, or 100 acres. It will require extensive use of keystone trees and plants, and you will have to get used to sharing your environment with bugs, birds, amphibians, and critters of the night. In order to make it profitable, you have to integrate livestock, high value fruit and nut trees, fodder trees, etc.
I do this by collecting food and yard waste, breeding rare livestock which produce compost and fertility, maintaining a nursery, growing worms and insects, harvesting water and mulch, digging ponds, and so on. Very quickly, you have little oasis's popping up teeming with life and sound. I don't have to advertise my animals, tree cuttings, plants, vegetables, etc. because it's very clear I am doing something quite different. You wont see crop fields or massive gardens, you will see micro-forests beginning to spread across what was once a hay field. And, you'll scratch your head when you discover how much is being produced and earned.
If a 100 people around me followed suit, we'd change our local climate. Enough people, and we could change the rainfall, the evaporation rates, and the soil saturation capacity. You'd have stronger local economies and wildlife would benefit immensely. But people want to see massive reforestation efforts unfold, despite what we know to be true about them. That' why Shaun will always have an audience. People aren't so interested in how the tiny forest in your backyard will interact with a 1000 others nearby, or how farmers can transform hay fields and row crops into natural beauty and function, or neighborhoods rededicating the interspersed shared land, but that's the only real path to reversing what seems so irreversible. It's going to have to make economic and common sense to everyday people to grow viable forests where and around where they live.
I'm pretty sure Sean's already well off, so him throwing money at the ranch isn't really a problem.. It's fun to watch, and it'll either pay for itself, or it won't.
I follow Dr.Tallamy's sage advice when it comes to planting -- native plants only. Too many people get caught up with the newest thing to hit the big box stores, and as DrTallamy notes, it has destroyed our ecosystem even though things look pretty and greeen.
Currently, more land than 20 of our largest national parks are taken over by non-native plants which have been stuck in the ground by homeowners and city authorities who think they are beautifying the place. The "fragmentation" of the local ecosystem only ripples out from there, causing huge problems for the nation as a whole.
And, honestly, so does this fetishization of "reforestation" as though the world was once naught but trees.
The best way to heal things is to start from the ground up, and that means native grasses first. Grasses grow far faster than trees, and return ecosystem benefits in rather short order. Their leaves can also be trimmed several times in a growing season to provide mulch that cools the soil and allows that biome to start functioning again.
I'll often point to Brad Lancaster's work in AZ as a good example of what people can do at the local level to make a huge difference. We have to remember, though, that every step is important, and it starts at the ground level for a reason. The DustUps experiment is facing a serious problem because of what is happening miles away, up in the mountains - showing us that actions have consequences even if we don't see them.
I share Geoff Lawton's opinions and application of Permaculture principles. I also thank you for your sober assessment of what it takes to green a desert. One day I hope to have my own plot of land, and it may be a desert because green fields are way out of my price range right now. My personal opinion is that it's ok to use non-native species depending on context. Aren't all orchard trees and all grains original from somewhere else anyway? Why not use the best species for the context of kickstarting the succession process we want, while native species are given time to re-establish themselves?
My thinking is that we have habituated to a certain way things are, like the boiling frog. Americans are really blessed to have experienced a mostly untouched landscape where they can compare things the way they were in recent history, but also they are cursed to think the desert as it is today to have been always like it is, and that the dominant species in that context today were the same ones as that time 200 or 300 years ago. Changes occurred and some native species didn't make it. Might as well use non-natives performing the same function in order to regreen it.
As far as Shaun's long term plans, it's up to him. My understanding is that he's on a very remote location, and has trouble bringing in the resources you say he needs. He does have resources to geological and topographical surveys that didn't use to be very easy to get to, but now are. When governments are saying not to plant specie X, Y, Z, they really have no moral high ground, as governments have been the single biggest importer of invasive species. The philosophers at the top of the hierarchy are really clueless and reactive, once they realize they made mistakes, promptly blaming the land owners and not themselves.
We're not going through an extinction event, we're going through a change event. So far, it's been good for human existence. Once it ceases to be good for human existence, Earth will remain being good for other species and Life will go on.
Have you seen Andrew Millison's and the half moon episode?
@@marlan5470 The native v. not argument depends on context. Sure, you can say that food crops are non-native, but that doesn't justify using non-native plants in other aspects.
We can't say we're working to repair the environment while doing things that are not repairing the environment. Too many people see plants growing and think things are awesome because plants are cool. Never a thought to how those plants are interacting with the local ecosystem, or not.
As Dr. Tallamy notes, we've lost over 40% of our pollinators because we have fragmented the ecosystem by planting so many non-native plants. In the US, we grow more turf grass than anything else, and it takes up more room than 20 of our largest national parks. Nobody really thinks about it because all they ever see is a nice green yard full of flowering bushes.
When you look at it, though, you see that 80% of a yard is non-native plants that provide no home or food for the native pollinators because they didn't evolve together.
That's the real cost of not paying attention to the details.
If you ask folks, they'll tell you that their one little plot of land won't make a difference. And they're right. The problem is that there are millions of people saying the exact same thing and doing what they want. That adds up to an ecosystem so wrecked that the damage is really incalculable.
Folks complain about the burning in the Amazon, but that's damage you can easily see. In Western Civilization, we've done as bad, or worse, by introducing non-native plants to our ecosystems in such numbers that they've fragmented the whole thing, causing a slow collapse. And it's invisible because everyone can look around and see greed plants growing.
It's easy to say we should just use whatever can work best for a site, but we have to be very cautious about what we introduce. Ever "invasive" plant on the list was introduced by educated people, the experts, and those plants were only put on the Invasive List long after the damage was done.
Why take that chance? Why not just start out with native plants in the first place? What non-native plant can you use that doesn't have an equal in the native plant catalogue?
Maybe those non-native will grow well, but are they feeding the pollinators and birds what they need? According to current science, the answer is no. So you get some green growth, but no service to the local ecosystem? If you're growing food for yourself, I can see making that trade, but if you're trying to repair the ecosystem.... how can you say that's your goal as you go about literally replacing the ecosystem?
I did yes
Shaun ignorantly planted something illegal (I think elephant grass but can’t remember). He removed it immediately upon learning it was illegal.
Mr. Overton is more like manager or salesman than practical person. But he admited that, and learns. Sometimes its too much fancy emotional content, but people like it, so he can get more view and money, but we all need money.
I think the general view of Sepp Holzer design is to create the right microclimate for the right plant, and it’s up to you to identify the best way to implement it. He created hugel mounds because he had an excess of rotten wood, maybe in your site there’s not so much of it. I remember he experimented a lot with water bodies, wind protection, walls and rock masses to protect plants from frostbites
If you caged the chickens around a termite mound for a day would they eat most of them and break down the mound?
No, the termites are the clever for that. They eat far away from their homes build new temporary homes around what ever they are attacking eat it and leave. You rarely see a termite close to his mount.
I also trim my weeds instead of removing them. One function of weeds is to act as a ground cover.
In a low biomass situation harvesting weeds and making compost with them is a good way to start boosting it.
Once you've improved the soil you can be more picky about what you use for ground cover.
Weed: Definition - a plant that is in a place where a person does not want it.........
@@garryhancock3394 I thought we were talking ganja
John Kempf, on the Advancing Eco Agriculture channel, has tons of information about how beneficial it is to have plant diversity, and weeds volunteer for the position. Evidently, when you've got representatives from 4 out of the 16 plant types, competition transforms into collaboration. The exudates and microbes fine-tune into a cooperative community and plant health soars.
I just completed my first season with chop and drop weedy pathways between my trenched plantings. We're up on the arid Colorado Plateau in a tricky microclimate that even the resident Master Gardener is pessimistic about. Best garden success yet, and looking ahead to a covercropped winter to carry those results forward into 2025. 🎉❤
Shaun is his own biggest obstacle sometimes but he means well. I was absolutely face palming when he in a video was saying Moringa can't be grown on his property because none of his seeds sprouted so commenters should stop suggesting them, bruh we've all had our troubles growing plants welcome to the club but it's fully possible.
Good video and good philosophy man. Wish to visit Namibia one day
Another benefit of chop and drop is that it provides cover for the soil, to decrease the temperature and evaporation. That would make your drip system more effective. Maybe you can drop one every 3 chops or something like that to keep using it as feed.
Yes there’s a lot of different approaches to Permaculture. I have some different approaches to yourself but I still love watching and will be interested in the outcome. I truly hope you are successful. We all discover things in our journey. So I think we can all learn something from each other.
Shain is at least trying to make a difference and docimentin g everything he is doing. Its an unproductive area so good on him for using him money to do something like that. You learn and try. So what if somebody says if this way or the highway. Mankind has always learned from mistakes. We have also forgotten a lot from the pass. Keep doing what your doing Mate, great to see and learn with you
The more mistakes Overton makes the more I like the show . Now that's entertainment . Eventually he's going to make a real nice dessert Forest . He's learning from his mistakes and from many experts . Professor 'Know It ALL ' below should start his own youtube Channel if he's so smart and good at growing in the same area as Overton. If he did ,and was good, I'm sure that I'd watch it as well as Dust Ups . Then in a few years we could do a comparison and see who did the best job .
Ignore the negative comments, don’t reply to negatively. Eventually the person or people will stop commenting. This is your project and you can only learn by trial n error. You’re doing an excellent. Hedgerows we call bushes along the fence and road side . Great for wildlife and for crops loads of bugs for the birds 🦅 and hedgehogs 🦔 stoats etc . 🙂
I have watched since the beginning and have never seen so much growth. Did your pigpen pumpkins germinate.?
They did.... However to my sadness I had to sacrifice them to split the younger and older pigs from one another. Was a sad day indeed
Carry on doing what you are doing. It’s working. Ignore the rubbish that some people spout.
Groete van n soutie in Alberton GP.
As an aside: Not sure what your fire season is like where you are. I helped fight a veldt fire last week. It was massive and quite scary at times. So maybe include that in your planning? Piles of dry wood are a threat if there is a fire. If it is damp underneath the wood though, I suspect mosquitos would love it.
Not sure how either would affect your operation?
:-)
I should probably do a whole video on fires here. But yes your fires there gets CRAZY!
This is getting nerdy, holding back water is the name of the game, call the structures what you like...
Strong clapping here. Indeed. Water does not care what we call it.
Do you use a bokashi bucket to produce compost faster?
Are there mice on yout property? Mice love sweet potatoes!
Thanks you for reading all our comments, i know that when you reply to mine it makes my day to know that you have not only bithered to read the comment but replied to it even when you are very busy.
Like many South African I know, Namibians have the thick skin, i assume its because life is hard graft out there, you dont have time to pussy foot around so tell us how it is..
Hahahahaaha. You are welcome!
What were you going to say about termites? I think they could be an asset in the future, specially if you manage to make them eat biochar and introduce that into the soil. I hope the best for you and your project!
I'm enjoying your channel!
I like Shaun, he does what is possible in terms of time and invests his own money in it. all of this is limited, he could also share these precious resources with his family.
anyone who makes such assertions from afar should buy a piece of desert themselves and green it up.
I see this attack as empty words and agree with you, that you are making it easy for yourself
Shaun Overton is a bloody legend..come at me 😂
I agree shaun overton is a 'quack' but his heart is in the right place.
I like your approach
It's a great chanel 👏
Danou,I am interested in what your minium temps are
We measured - 5 cellius on the plot but not often - 2
You are a good man to think like that about shaun evrybody is differend and want to do things different ❤
For keeping the fence down whitout rotting . hammer some tent pins in the ground and pull the wire down with them (every 30cm ).
Could we please have a little longer to read the comment you are responding to - obviously we can pause the video but a little longer would help? :)
Quem gosta e quer aprender sobre "Agrofloresta"...ela está sendo muito difundida no Brasil. Eu recomendo o canal chamado "Antônio Gomides agrofloresta". Uma área que está sofrendo com a desertificação...
Hi Danou, thank you for the videos, I was wondering what is the elevation difference from where the river enters your property to the BDA?
Check dams pool the water before spilling over, this takes the energy out of the water before spilling over and filling the next dam, one dam alone is insufficient they need to be placed in succession of each other, so that the top of the lowest dam is level with the base of the one above it.
In our garden the wired of the fence are hold to the ground by sticks with a hook at the end. They are simular to tent staked. But I suppose this would not stop bigger animals.
Keep going,don't bother with this guy,obviously someone who probably doesn't do much but call other names...Its your project,at the end of the days you do whatever you want...lol.I'm not a fan of your old tires everywhere,but again if you like it, go ahead 😁.Its very nice to see your project moving foward.Im living in Bali ,and will start mine in a couple of years,very different environment,but for sure it has his own challenge.Peace
great video
Imagine considering hiring people that use magic to find water (thats a quack). When he builds new roads he goes right over all the plants when he could have transplanted them to all those empty dirt holes. He continually goes on about generating biomass on the property but has only grown a few stalks even while irrigating.
Thank you! Actually details with substance
Shaun Overton is working worth the government (Grant for beaver dam analogs). He did get a slap on the wrist for planting elephant grass. It's unfortunate because elephant grass, like many invasive plants, is great for restoration work.
1 Shaun admits he's learning as he goes. His local government is happy with what he is doing, A check dam and a BDA are built differently.
2. Don't treat every comment with the same value.
3. You're doing fine. Haters are going to hate. I see things going well there.
I admire your spirit of charity and "steelmanning" Overton.
My opinion of him is since following from the start:
1. He dawned on the scene with too many followers and polished front as if engineered by a social media company.
2. His history is of start ups and international adventures with the anarcho-capitalist crypto bois and war-torn regions dominated by the cia. He looks and acts like a fed.
3. In his early videos, he responded to all suggestions to check out Geoff Lawton with, "I refuse to learn from others." On Spirko's livestream, he lied about following Lawton for years.
4. He was totally ignorant of basic gardening much less permaculture principles, but lied and said he studied permaculture for years. For example, I shared basic information about the node on a cactus pad being the place where roots can grow. He told me he had to do it wrong first to learn. His suburban home has no garden. He is not a gardener.
5. He shills products like the economic weapon Temu. He is not transparent with his donations like you are. Every episode is a commercial. He associates with other grifters like the ghost town guy who destroyed an historic site.
6. It's not that people disagree with everything he does. His bathtubs were a great project. His time with Joao learning syntropic techniques was almost a redemption arc. The problem is that people can smell a grifter. Too many inconsistencies.
7. My opinion is that he could be an infiltration op like what was done to the environmental movement in the 80s where intelligence agencies put undercover agents who went so far as to MARRY unsuspecting activists. He spreads ignorance that divides the community. I have seen ops like this before. Lowest denominator content he stated was "for the narrative" that viewers take to YOUR door creating controversy and dissension.
I will sit back and see if yt allows this comment to stand. I am kinda shadowbanned around this platform.
Extraordinarily well thought out and rational observations. The overarching term in my mind is 'fraud'
"Fraud: someone who deceives people by saying that they are someone or something that they are not."
Thank you for taking the time and staking out our position. 👍
@stevejohnstonbaugh9171 Thank you. Countering desertification using permaculture and regenerative agriculture is too important to let sheep-dipped clowns demoralize our community.
There are huge obstacles to overcoming chemical ag. If people realize they can seize control of their own means of food production, oversized entities will topple.
Wow now I know allot more!
Putting together everything commented above... you clearly follow him.
Do not like? Do not watch.
@OublietteTight True except for the verb "follow" is now past tense. I was here for it. But I have a long attention span for comments and meta analysis of parasocial spaces. The interview with Spirko convinced me that Overton is not just a naive, he is a liar; Spirko in his turn called me names and censored me, a subscriberfor years. Unsubcribed from them both, but still plagued by the ubiquitous references to the dullard popping up on quality channels like this one, with an altruistic host who faces real danger if trust is breached. If Danou were to act like Mr. Overton, he would not have the support and safe passage from the various tribal persons scrambling for resources in his region. If he picked up trendy topics, failed, shilled, and left the community hanging on unfinished utopian business, which of the previously unfed laboring men whom he pays in money, produce, and sense of accomplishment would thrive?
Are you aware of the thin line of safety our host here walks? Literally a machete's edge.
😂😂😂 prikly pear planted wrong like nature cares✌️👏
You are not farming prickly pear so who cares how you plant them? Shaun is a novice and he admits that but he is still trying and that’s the main thing… he only got in trouble because someone watching his channel didn’t like him and reported him for planting a plant he didn’t know wasn’t allowed in his area… have you heard of a miyawaki style of planting? It’s really intensive way of planting trees…
Agreed. Arm chair quarterbacks reported him and he corrected immediately.
little playground and zen area here and there.
Sounds just right!
Its complex. If you have the mulch for pulling roots for weeds. But we keep the roots for normal crops and in a lot of cases let it decompose in place. Mulch is the key though, years and years of it. Cali is arid where we live a lot n common with Spain and places in Africa. Building the mulch layer is extremely hard. So you spend years trying to deal with building the organic matter back up. Why you keep roots. But I never keep weird roots. I rather just grow into pasture or covercrop areas. Really are no real weeds but you get what I mean. Better to create a desirable crop mulch blanket in arid areas. We even do a layber of spent mushroom spawn combine with compost in our first double dig. To creat bed layers. Spent mushroom spawn is the greatest cheater garden that and cardboard. Oh and shredded cardboard moldy hay as well. It can cut 10 years off garden development
I disagree with your decision to wade into controversy Danou. It feels like clickbait.
To borrow from Stephen Covey; "Put first things first: Prioritize the most important things and put them first".
My suggestion is stay focused on the permaculture world you are creating. Engaging in controversy is of no benefit to your growth. Those of us who have followed overton from the beginning have our own opinions.
As always you have wise comments. I am starting to regret this video. It is click bait to a certain extend because views and engagement is what we do on youtube. But you are right and it is not the right approach to reach my goal of spreading permaculture into Africa... Quoting convey caught me of guard 😂 well played! I tried to tag you in another comment where someone says what I did was like peeing in my pants. Nice and warm for two minutes and felt good. But it is all going down hill from there.
I did however learn allot of things about Shaun in the comments that I never knew...
@@thefoodforestnamibia I agrree with Steve's comment in general. However, sometimes it's worth addressing some issues and I found your responses in the video well balanced. Nothing to be ashamed of. Last but not least, already Stoics found that feeling regrets make no sense. I also like your "thick skin" attitude to "being offended". Nowadays many people feel offended too easily. "Instead of feeling offended, feel curious" - brilliant! 👍
@@thefoodforestnamibia I spent two days with Covey 25-30 years ago learning to apply his principals' to everyday life. I carried a Covey Daytimer always until I retired. 😉 I think of his work as an expansion of the Golden Rule.
I've never heard 'peeing ones pants' but I have often used 'filling ones diaper' - nice and warm while it lasts.😂
At one point overton had over 300 recommendations to buy a medium sized excavator to dig African smiles [the only technique that has naturally worked for him ] all over the ranch. Instead, he bought a clapped out bulldozer.
I really don't know why he asks for comments because he NEVER listens. I suspect he's working YT as a money making scheme. My observation after about 3 years of watching. 👍 live and learn.
A dutch hoe would speed up your weeding nicely, your spot is really looking lekker, lots of greenery about.
👍