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Geoff Lawton's "Creating a Perfect Permaculture Fish Pond with Cows" now live!

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posted 11 years ago

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This video shows you the development of a fish pond over time, describing the use of animals to clear the land, showing a succession of elements in the system and the use of appropriate technology. Definitely one of my favorites so far! There are so many clever interactions between elements and functions. Geoff "works with nature" as he uses the natural proclivities of animals and plants to his advantage. And he obtains a protein yield from this pond that is 30 times what could be produced on the same amount of land! Great video.

Here's the short version:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR79rvH2-0o [/youtube]

Subtropical desert (Köppen: BWh)
Elevation: 1090 ft Annual rainfall: 7"

Jennifer Wadsworth

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paul wheaton wrote: I really like the floating island, but I would like to figure out a way to do without plastic.

(from Paul's Daily-ish email on 1/24/14)

I think you could rig up something very similar with very flexible young boughs. Or, I have used steel electrical conduit for a similar function.

Also for the shade cloth that he uses for the base of the island, you could use fine screening, or perhaps lash a bunch of loofas together. Or a combo. Of course, you may have to repair natural elements over time as they start to degrade. However, at some point the island will have enough root mass that it should hold itself together without other support.

Subtropical desert (Köppen: BWh)
Elevation: 1090 ft Annual rainfall: 7"

Roxanne Sterling-Astor

pollinator

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Location: Cave Junction, Oregon

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posted 11 years ago

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Lashed together logs float really well, with a clay layer below soil icing.. I'd bet money in Vegas it would hold all that soil and plants..tied to a rope at the 'shore' so it could be pulled in for harvest, and one on opposite 'bank' to bring/keep in back out to the deeper water. I like to think it may keep deer, rabbits and raccoons out. Tiny floating rafts from twigs to add other aquatic plants, could be allowed to float freely and attach to banks, I did a bunch of sweet violets for a small pond in that way none of the little rafts were any bigger than 5"x5" and so cute when they bloomed. I just used jute string for those and they fell apart in about 9 months, but they were well established at the banks by then. Now..I wonder if our local crawfish would be happy if living in a pond and not the moving water where they live naturally. Anyway, I do not think you need plastic at all to do a raft.

AKA Wilde Hilde
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"Ensnar'd in flowers, I fall in the grass."-Marvell

Randy Alexander

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posted 11 years ago

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I have a great area that needs a pond to reduce flow speed of water and slow down erosion. However, it will mostly berun off from the neighbors conventional fields. Any thoughts? Comments?

Sean Henry

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Location: Independence, KY Zone 6A

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To build a floating island you could build a raft from reeds or bamboo. Tie it together with twine and use a few layers of netting for the center so it would be a square with a net center that the plants would go on.

A method for building the raft could be more of building two small boats like seen in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reed_boat .

Check out the journey on creating a forest garden and living in an urban homestead at My Ky Homestead it's a work in progress.

Lorenzo Costa

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Location: Italy, Siena, Gaiole in Chianti zone 9

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posted 11 years ago

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in turkey near bingol there is a village named hazersah where there is a lake with a natural island that is made up of plants I can't find greta explanations of which palnts but is interesting to see. otherwise there are the floating islands of lake titicaca. http://www.pinterest.com/pin/359584351469033480/

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Roxanne Sterling-Astor

pollinator

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Location: Cave Junction, Oregon

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Here is a big one... I would never have it so neat, lol
powell river blog

AKA Wilde Hilde
S.Oregon High Mountain Valley 8b
"Ensnar'd in flowers, I fall in the grass."-Marvell

Terry Jenkins

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Regarding floating islands: I just read a story yesterday about the huge volcano explosion (in Indonesia?) that caused the "year without a summer" in 1816. It blew lots of big chunks of pumice out onto the sea, which mixed with tree trunks washed to sea by the ensuing tsunamis to form huge floating islands up to 3 miles wide. One landed in India many months later. So, perhaps some pumice to float your island? Some landscape materials companies sell pumice rocks and boulders. Just an idea...

R Scott

pollinator

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Location: Kansas Zone 6a

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Jennifer Wadsworth wrote:

paul wheaton wrote: I really like the floating island, but I would like to figure out a way to do without plastic.

(from Paul's Daily-ish email on 1/24/14)

I think you could rig up something very similar with very flexible young boughs. Or, I have used steel electrical conduit for a similar function.

Also for the shade cloth that he uses for the base of the island, you could use fine screening, or perhaps lash a bunch of loofas together. Or a combo. Of course, you may have to repair natural elements over time as they start to degrade. However, at some point the island will have enough root mass that it should hold itself together without other support.

He said he used mainly bamboo. Burlap could replace the shade cloth/weed barrier.

I can tell you that cedar log bundles will sink, so I am not sure what the local appropriate solution is here.

I don't have an issue re-purposing plastic out of the waste stream for such a purpose, but not going to spend money to do it.

"You must be the change you want to see in the world." "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." --Mahatma Gandhi
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"Family farms work when the whole family works the farm." -- Adam Klaus

Jennifer Wadsworth

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Location: Phoenix, AZ (9b)

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I like the pumice idea too - I remember as a kid in the Greek islands (Santorini, maybe), a bunch of pretty good sized pumice stones were floating in a small bay. Some local kids showed me how to collect them in a net float on. Fortunately most were smoothed by the surf otherwise some pumice can be kind of jaggedy. Good times!

Subtropical desert (Köppen: BWh)
Elevation: 1090 ft Annual rainfall: 7"

Adam Klaus

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Location: Appalachian Rainforest of NC, 2200' elevation, 85" precip, Zn 7

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great video, very much enjoy seeing the pond done permaculturally. I have been fantasizing about a floating island for some time now, maybe this thread is the final bit of motivation that I need. A floating islands seems like such a great way to grow summer salad greens. I also like the bit with the solar lights on the floating raft for insect attraction. Lots of good stuff here, and certainly a treat to look at such a lush green pond when mine is frozen over and covered with snow.

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Garry Hoddinott

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posted 11 years ago

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Floating an idea

Sturgeon bladder is extracted, cleaned, dried, crystalised and used to restore old parchment. Specifically to adhere ink that is detaching from the page.

Perhaps this most natural of materials, humanely harvested, can replace natural latex which we all know is forest farmed, in destructive monocultures. Hand knitted fine jute bags with such a coating have excellent floatation properties, and would form a good base for floating gardens.

Further, local Thai rubber tree - latex - workers could be inveigled to knit and coat the bags. Ever since the nasty government here in Thailand raised the minimum wage from $3 to $10 a day - last year, there has been a huge rise in under employment, and certainly we in the permaculture community could afford the $5 - $10 per coated sack.

Just a thought

Seth Robertson

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posted 9 years ago

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A guy in Cancun made an entire floating island made of plastic bottles in recycled fruit mesh bags tied to broken pallets with sand and dirt on top then planted with Mangroves. He built a house on it with dirt and trash and has fruit trees galore. Pretty awesome I thought. He's got several YouTube videos. I had thought this would work on a smaller scale in a pond or river.

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turnkey permaculture paradise for zero monies

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