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Incredible 1.5-Acre Permaculture / Syntropic Food Forest with Over 250 Plant Species



Syntropic farming is a new and ancient permaculture practice that can be implemented in any region, in any climate, in limitless ways – even in your own back yard. For over a decade the Lotz-Keegan family have been implementing permaculture practices to regenerate a degraded hillside into an abundant food forest of native and exotic trees that feed their family, their community, the wildlife, the soil, and their souls.

Combining the practices of syntropic agroforestry with the principles of permaculture and their own deeply thoughtful approach to land regeneration, food growing, and lifestyle, this family is partnering with nature to create a humming diversity on the land and a positive story about the role of humans in an eco-system.

We came away from our shoot with so much invaluable information about the why and how of syntropic farming as it’s practised at PermaDynamics. For this reason we’ve made the full interview with Klaus Lotz available on our website, and all 10 full-length interviews, some of which we couldn’t include in the film, available on our Patreon page. Also if you’re keen to dig deeper into this style of growing food and regenerating soil, check out PermaDynamics’ own videos available on their Patreon page.

Get access to all 10 full-length interviews: https://happenfilms.com/patreon
Check out PermaDynamics on Patreon: https://patreon.com/PermaDynamicsNZ
The full interview with Klaus Lotz: https://happenfilms.com/film/klaus-lotz-syntropic-farming

** Find out more about PermaDynamics at these links **
Website: http://www.permadynamics.net
Instagram: https://instagram.com/permadynamics
Facebook: https://facebook.com/PermaDynamics.nz
Patreon: https://patreon.com/PermaDynamicsNZ for weekly permaculture videos, live Q&A and mentorship.

** Find out more about Happen Films **
If you’re interested in supporting us to make more films, find us on Patreon: https://happenfilms.com/patreon

For more info about Happen Films, check out our website: https://happenfilms.com. We make short films and feature films, all with a permaculture, resilience, sustainability focus. Don’t forget to subscribe here on YouTube!

Find us on social media
Instagram: https://instagram.com/happenfilms
Facebook: https://facebook.com/happenfilms
Twitter: https://twitter.com/happenfilms

** Film credits **
Directed and written by Jordan Osmond & Antoinette Wilson
Produced by Antoinette Wilson
Cinematography and editing by Jordan Osmond
Story feedback and suggestions from Nick Tucker
Additional drone footage by Byron Birss (https://instagram.com/byron.in.new.zealand)
1990 photo by Malcolm Rands

** Thanks! **
To our wonderful supporters on Patreon, who helped make this film happen:
Kimberly Levesque, Matthew Zimmer, Rahul Banerjee, Jonathan Wise, Georjette Mercer, Mary Conlan, Kate Hall, V.J. Raghavan, Pierre Blom, Cicely Jette Stewart, Brett Davidson, Tony Schaufelberger, Namaste Foundation, Sankar Madhavan, Sue Campbell, Melissa Tripodi, Filip Zeman, Greg and Rachel Hart, Brian Newton, Susan Hunsberger, Kirti Patel, Kelly Milikins, Nathan Kitchen, Geoffrey Torkington, Alex Muir, Tiitus Laine, Rex and Jo, Jess O’Shea, Moana Kiff, William B. Everett, Ron Hastie, David, Lauren, Carolyn Gillum.

** Subtitles and closed captions **
In the past, many people have generously taken time to translate our films here on YouTube. The Community Contributions function no longer exits, but if you’d like to contribute a translation please contact us. Making the film available in your language and to your community would mean the world to us!

Chapters
00:00 – Intro to Syntropic Farming
2:36 – 17-Year-Old Food Forest
7:48 – Market Garden and Orchard
12:20 – Native and Exotic Plants
14:45 – Annuals in the Food Forest
17:29 – Tropical Hothouse
19:17 – 3-Month-Old Food Forest

32 Comments

  1. Happen Films

    We hope you enjoy the film! We came away from the shoot with so much valuable content that we couldn't include in the final film. So we decided to put all 10 full-length interviews up on our Patreon page! We've also made the full interview with Klaus Lotz available for free on our website. PermaDynamics themselves also have a bunch of great videos on their Patreon for those of you who want to dive deeper into syntropic farming.
    Get access to all 10 full-length interviews: https://happenfilms.com/patreon
    PermaDynamics on Patreon: https://patreon.com/PermaDynamicsNZ
    The full interview with Klaus Lotz: https://happenfilms.com/film/klaus-lotz-syntropic-farming

  6. Misskita

    My partner and I live close to large natural forests on Vancouver Island in Western Canada. We are slowly turning our city lot sized property into a food forest. We love integrating native trees, berry bushes, herbs, and greens with our cultivated fruit and nut trees, flowers, berries, and vegetable beds. The natural ‘weeds’ are left to grow and then chopped and dropped to nourish the soil. It is such an exciting and satisfying way to work with the land. We definitely feel like we are land helpers and not just ‘farmers’. Thank you for the great inspirational videos.

  10. Myo Aung Kyaw

    Very inspiring for me to think of more diversity and the nature. I have a 2 ha land in Myanmar. I will try to follow this idea and the law of the nature. Thanks.

  12. Karl Karsnark

    take a shot every time they say "Syntropic". How many Hipster buzzwords did they actually cram into this anyway?

  15. William May

    What I find interesting is this was done on 1.5 acres. That's the same size as Al Gore's East Mountain Drive property in Santa Barbara/Montecito, CA. Looking at both, I think the world is paying attention to the wrong environmentalist.

  17. Paul King

    Great work guy's!!!Such a great story, lovely family dynamic and a beautifully sympathetic system of planting. All the success.

  20. Yoeyes Wideshut

    Seek the Lord (Jesus) today while He may be found. Tomorrow might be too late. Repent of your sins and trust only in Him. Read your bible (not the mormons/jehovahs witness') daily. Ask Elohim to reveal Himself to you. Test all spirits (1 John 4:1-6). Pray without ceasing. Everything will come to an end. Dont fear and dont go for the 6/6/6. God will provide for you. Choose life, not eternity in Hell. Be aware of the music u listen to. Stop Watch mainstream tv and listen with discernment. Repent of your idolatry. The Christian life isnt about your 'best life now' and 'I deserve good', you're no good! You're a sinner just like I am. Kneel down to Yeshua only. Dont fear, dont worry. Some 'christians' are wolves. Pray for discernment. Stop (sexual) immorality. Hate sin. Love Elohim with all your mind, heart, soul, strength. Glorify Him alone. Seek Christians for fellowship. Read your bible like the living Word of God. Out of the matrix. Love of money if the root to all evil. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Pray always. People will forsake you, family too. Dont mind to much. Love on them. Show love to your ennemies. God may deliver them. Make sure your name is written in the book of life. Eternity is long, endless. U dont want to be burning in Hell. Tic tac tic tac..

  26. atex 617

    "We always make mistakes we just try to make better and better mistakes" that's a great mind set to have

  29. Dale Trotman

    Have you guys ever hear about Tobago my Gmom And Dad had lands that was planted to sell and to live I had grow up on that but move to Trinidad and and had work in oil & gas but had left that 8 yrs now am back into it again but not full time but there are Barbours who do this full time. It called paramin

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