211: Colin Austin on Wicking Beds and Healthy Food

We get to meet a gardening pioneer when Greg talks to Colin Austin who is known world-wide as the man who engineered a simple but highly popular garden bed called a wicking bed. Greg learns why Colin was motivated to create the beds and how the wicking process works. Then they go further to talk about why healthy food is so important to him and his family.

197: Perrine Herve-Gruyer on Miraculous Abundance

Greg gets a chance to talk to Perrine, a delightful French organic farmer and permaculture enthusiast and hear how she transformed her life by ditching her career as a lawyer to start a self-sufficient, organic farm without any gasoline driven engines at all.  Now, she and her husband are examples to others on how to successfully farm the old-fashioned way.

183: Shawn Jadrnicek on The Bio-Integrated Farm

Maximizing functions from landscape elements to save time, energy and money. Greg meets Shawn who explains a key permaculture concept of having multiple functions from one element. Shawn tells how he has designed many projects focusing on elements that have at least seven functions each. With his experience, he has brought together several examples in his new book and so he shares some ideas in this interview.

182: Matthew Shepherd on Planting to Feed Bees

Expanding the habitat of an essential pollinator through garden choices. Greg chats with Matthew of the Xerces Society to learn more about their latest book titled 100 Plants to Feed the Bees, as well as some of the projects the Society has been working on.  Matthew’s story of how he got to work for the Xerces Society is a little world tour and then he helps explain more about different bees and what they need.

174: Shaun Keesee on Bio-intensive Farming

Greg talks to a newer farmer, Shaun Keesee, who is having some success using biointensive farming techniques. Shaun shares how he reclaimed the land his family was leasing out to a hay farmer and starting growing crops to sell to markets and restaurants. He is applying the skills he has learned through his reading, internet and agriculture courses at his local college.