Sepp Holzer - Genius

I've seen some of his youtube videos and this guy is seriously brilliant!
I've just pre-ordered his new book that's out in March and I have no one to be excited about it with me.

Please be excited about it with me!

What are some methods that Sepp uses that differ from Bill Mollison?

Can he really make ponds without using pond liner? If so, HOW!?

Hope you're excited as I am!

I'm excited for you - Yippee!

Sepp uses heavy machinery in his large scale permaculture schemes.  With a front end loader he digs the pond and with it he (not 'he' but a loader operator) packs the pond bed.  Sepp has also used pigs for this packing process - hopefully the book will explain that.  Seems like you could rent a electric hand packer (proper term?) and do the job yourself.

Sepp and Bill go about things differently, but their goals of putting things into motion that will work for them are the same.

Enjoy your coming book ♥

i have no liner in my pond here in Michigan..we also used a backhoe for ours..no pigs though.

I also have preordered his book and am excited to read it..saw his beautiful place VIA video a couple of years ago and it was intriguing..

I made a teeny tiny Sepp Holzer'esque pond... it is 2' square and is part drainage area.  His idea of tamping the ground like pigs worked, and I plan to make more of them.  Lemme run out and take a photo.

Oh, and oddly, I got the idea from the industrial giant, "Knife River Materials" to make a series of tiny ponds like this as part of my run off.

bbs

Baby Pond, tamping method, no liner.  I just got the idea from listening to Paul's recording of Sepp. 

I am designing a course of these as drainage along roadside in order to encourage more frogs.  More frogs = Less Slugs.

Mekka Pakanohida wrote:
I made a teeny tiny Sepp Holzer'esque pond... it is 2' square and is part drainage area.  His idea of tamping the ground like pigs worked, and I plan to make more of them.  Lemme run out and take a photo.

Oh, and oddly, I got the idea from the industrial giant, "Knife River Materials" to make a series of tiny ponds like this as part of my run off.

bbs

When you post the photo  can you also tell exactly how you used the pigs?  Very exciting....

jaggednib wrote:


Can he really make ponds without using pond liner? If so, HOW!?

Pond liner hasn't been around for too many years. I've done a lot of reading on pond building and more recently on dew ponds. It seems that through the years, livestock in all shapes and sizes has been utilized to break down the soil texture for ponds.

My understanding is that in normal soil the particles are of different sizes, which allows for both air and water to pass through. ONE of the differences between sandy loam and clay is the particle size. By confining the livestock, or driving them around and a round in a very small area, their hooves break down the particles and compact them. When Sepp uses heavy equipment, he is doing the same thing. It pulverizes the particles and compacts them into a (hopefully) impermeable pond floor.

I've read quite a few stories of folk with leaky ponds, who drain them, tightly fence the pond in, then distribute pig (or other livestock food) over the entire surface area and then bring the livestock in.

My soil textures vary a great deal, but it seems like most of the areas I would like to put ponds into are very sandy (could that be why the areas are dry in the first place?  ), so I would probably have to bring in clay or bentonite.


I would like to know more about Sepp's water recirculating system. How does he get it from the bottom of his property to the top?

Thanks for clarifying, Feral!

Also, thanks for grabbing a shot of your tiny pond, Mekka Pakanohida, keep us updated on how the other one's turn out!

Mekka what an adorable little pond..

our area was 2 to 3' of topsoil over sand over clay..the sand was dug out to add to our drainfield, the topsoil was dug out the bank the sides of our drainfield to slope it gently to our ground level area, 4' raised field see my blog for info, and then we were left with the original pond back in 2002, since we have had backhoes out here diggng 3 times..one time just to find out how deep our clay was..dug a 10' deep hole and did not run out of clay..second time was to enlarge the north end, and third time was to deepen the entire pond except a lower boggy area that will be left that way..

last dig was last summer and we still have a lot of clay piles that must be moved..hopefullythis year..to finish off the surround..

also, just found out that our neighbor wants to leave his backhoe up here this summer and they have asked if they can build a couple of ponds in our back woods wetlands area to help drain their land and ours..so I'm hoping to have a few more ponds in the next few years.