518: David Holmgren on Downshifting to a Resilient Future. Part 3
Balancing the larger world context with local, practical, and creative solutions.
In This Podcast:
In the final part of our interview with David Holmgren, the co-founder of permaculture talks soil, owning your mistakes, and balancing food production in limited spaces. He also shares what it’s like to live a voluntarily simplistic life, and how children absorb knowledge just by being around parents in agriculture. Listen in for some of his failures and successes, as well as what drives him and his advice for others.
We are very excited to have the co-founder of permaculture on the show today. When I got David on the call I just let him talk and it turned into a 90-minute chat, so we decided to split it into three shows. This is part 3 and if you enjoy our content please consider supporting the podcast at UrbanFarmPodcast.org.
–Greg Peterson
Our Guest:
Since developing permaculture with Bill Mollison in the mid-1970s, David’s local and global influence has gone beyond permaculture networks. He is a public intellectual working outside of academia, government or corporate support. His depth of thinking, design practice and teaching has been continually informed by practical experience through a lifetime of household self-reliance, voluntary simplicity, and innovative action. He has received many awards including an honorary Ph.D. from Central Queensland University.
He has written 8 books about permaculture & related topics, been a part of at least 5 other books, written multiple articles, given numerous presentations, has over 40 years of practical experience, he is an authority on the permaculture concept and how to make it work and basically – he is the guy who penned it!
Listen in and learn about:
- Soil development and how to fix a decade of mistakes
- Understanding soil tests to properly amend the soil for long term
- Owning your mistakes and fixing them instead of walking away
- Balancing food production in limited spaces
- How children absorb gardening knowledge even if they don’t actively participate in your garden
- Voluntary simplicity and how to live your life with this concept
As well as:
His failure – Mistakes with building his soil that only showed up over several years and required adjustments.
His success – His son and his self-taught agriculture work in the dairy system.
His drive – Creating the world he wants to live in.
His advice – Connect to your sources of sustenance.
Books written by David:
“Permaculture One: A Perennial Agriculture System for Human Settlements”
“Permaculture: Principles and Pathways beyond Sustainability”
“Permaculture in the Bush. The Design and Development of a Homestead on the Far South Coast of Nsw”
“The Flywire House : A Case Study in Design Against Bushfire”
David’s Book recommendations*:
How to reach David:
Website: www.holmgren.com.au, www.retrosuburbia.com, and permacultureprinciples.com
Facebook: @RetroSuburbia
IF YOU MISSED THE EARLIER EPISODES:
Part 1 of 3, is available HERE. Part 2 of 3 is available HERE.
UrbanFarm.org/homlgren3
*Disclosure:
Some of the links in our podcast show notes and blog posts are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase, we will earn a nominal commission at no cost to you. We offer links to items recommended by our podcast guests and guest writers as a service to our audience and these items are not selected because of the commission we receive from your purchases. We know the decision is yours, and whether you decide to buy something is completely up to you.
