Permaculture Garden In The High Desert
Join us on a captivating tour as Lance, a seasoned gardener with over 40 years of experience, unveils the secrets of his lush haven in the heart of Western Colorado. Lance's passion for gardening and seed collecting shines through as he imparts valuable wisdom gleaned from decades of nurturing his slice of paradise.
📌 Connect with Lance:
He can be reached out during his garden talk show at KVNF.org or @ worm@kvnf.org
Lances Show, www.kvnf.org/show/as-the-worm... , Lances Email = worm@kvnf.org
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Stefanos Instagram - / permaculture_stef
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Check out my latest video: Passive Greenhouse Feeds Family of 11 in Utah. kzhead.info/sun/l7SIpqWCmZWejGg/bejne.html
Did he mention how many gallons of water a month he is using in the summer? That kind of information is super helpful for people on well water that may be a limited flow. New wells are too expensive, so the other way we can add is by water catchment, but I am not clear on how much catchment storage would be necessary for a garden like this. Would love any information you have, thanks!
Thanks for letting him talk without you interrupting. So many KZheadrs try to make themselves the dominant person in their videos rather than the people they're interviewing. A great video!
Yes , great interview . Well done. 🤟😎🇦🇺☮️👍
Great Comment and so true!
These old heads need to do a podcast to reach the masses. I've been watching food growing videos for a while and this man cannot pass without sharing his knowledge. Almost like the back to Eden videos I'm glad that a new generation can benefit from Paul's wisdom.
I’d be open to filming Lance some more through out the season, share some of his wealth of knowledge
@@StefanoCreatinithat would be a good idea. Many people could learn from his knowledge and mistakes. If u ask him about both and edit it accordingly, I believe u will be on a winner.
Let's face it, I have a garden of 13 x 13 m, and I have a lot of work to do. With this gentleman, everything is under control, and as I see he do it by himself. How?
He does a garden radio show So that’s the only way to hear him speak 😢
@StefanoCreatini yes, please do film him more! What a treasure and inspiration you've captured and shared. Thank you.
My grandfather died in 2006, the property was lined with fruit trees around its perimeter, lemons and other citruses, white and black mulberries, various varieties of figs, peaches, grape vines, olive trees, some more exotic things like loquats and prickly pears, with a rose and flower bed out the front that my grandmother kept, and an enormous veggie patch lot with trench rows/raised beds he used to grow tomatoes, melons, squash, all kinds of herbs, beans, potatoes, cucumbers, enough to feed 30+ people easy year round. He had a huge chicken coop and multiple sheds, a huge wood fired oven, a green house, an outhouse. All completely wiped, levelled and stripped bare when the new owners moved in - every tree, every plant, every bit of life. Veggie garden turned to a great big lawn, a beautiful Mediterranean style paved alfresco area with citruses, grape vines, passionfruit vines and olive trees completely gone and turned into a raised wooden deck, and the fruit trees along the fence line ripped out and replaced with bog standard ferns and palms from a generic big box store. Why in the world would anyone do this? I get making a place your own, but to shred up every bit of character it had developed as a home for generations of people, with a history and a story told by its every feature, and replace it with a cardboard cutout from a home landscaping magazine is just insane to me. In many ways, it’s anti human, anti life. To replace something so vibrant, so homely, so abundant with something so sterile. Some people are just hellbent against conserving what comes before, it’s not right.
So very true!! Years of work and expenses destroyed for what purpose??
Before I moved to my current location 20 years ago, I sold my smaller property to buy this bigger one. I spent a decade creating an oasis in the desert…..ponds, vining tropicals, it was really beautiful, and a local habitat for over wintering birds, etc. The first thing the new owners did was strip everything green from the property…..filled in the ponds….it just broke my heart. My brother is also that kind of person that thinks land should be bare…that people will then view him as an “orderly” person, and thus he is a more valuable member of the community. I kid you not. Anything green pops up on his lot, he rips it out. My take is people like that have a mental illness.
I hope my nephews do not sell my effort, labour, tears, joys, love. I guess people think this as a lifestyle we chose while we are silently trying to save some values all around the world.
I’m so sorry
There's something missing in people who do that. Hurtful to the world.
Crazy…he’s built his own farm single handedly. Super impressive.
What's crazy is every family should have a garden like this. Being dependent on grocery stores is hazardous to your health.
Probably not single handedly- his mom and him worked it together for years and he mentioned friends coming to pick food. Properties like this get built on a foundation of community, something we've walked away from in the US in favor of living alone on our 'castles' like poor kings, everyone with their own tiny fiefdom that can do nothing but grow grass and dog poop
Plus a dozen Mexicans
Took 40 years of hard work. Not something modern day people are capable of doing. Especially not now with the internet erasing old mouth to mouth knowledge and limiting the content by paywall. That's why i've stopped using internet for other than trolling. If it wasn't for free, i wouldn't pay for it.
Garden. He built a garden.
Many years ago I decided to do the veggies thing, so I dug up the back end of my suburban garden & planted around 15 different veggies and covered the whole thing with a peat layer - that garden produced so much we had a lot of trouble figuring out how to eat it all. It was a wonderful year, but we moved the next year & gardening became something I was going to go back to one day. Now I'm 84 yrs old & living with a very small garden where not too much grows well, so veggies are out, except for a few tomatoes in pots ! What I do remember is the total happiness & pride growing those veggies gave me. You can see that natural joy in this guy & it shows how much we all need that connection ! Thank you for a lovely video & keep growing !
look into no dig gardening :)
You can do amazing things in a small urban garden. Possibilities are endless from grow beds to a mini syntropical forest.
Lance is my friend since the 60’s. He has been growing food, baking bread & been a health nut as long as I’ve known him. He’ll live a long, healthy life.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that this amazing individual has created this extraordinary garden at 6000 feet in Colorado what an absolutely wonderful thing to do.
He’s an inspiration around these parts
This is more important than what nations are at war, what people are being “short changed” or spoken about, this is more important than government and celebrities. God bless this man. Take that athlete energy and work the field for your food and needs. Love it❤.
It would take decades but, if a fraction of all the wasted $$ went into large trees into the areas that are brown on a map they would turn green. For all the climate focus it seems to be overlooked. I'm in Upstate NY maples drop leaves creating rich ground retaining moisture and every other plant grows cooling the ground. In a 50*15' garden composted leaves, woodchips, and chicken coop cleanouts help with heavy clay. Summer bakes like a rock, or wet gums everything up. Organic additions help.moderate it. I'm not a big green world organic this or that person I simply don't want to poison my well water 20 ft from the garden.
Except this directly relates to people who are being "short changed". We could use a Youth Corps in this country as well as guys like this to teach our kids how to be self-sufficient. They need to learn how we all can do more to help each other, our towns, and the country as a whole.
And he was an athlete growing up. Football in high school & volleyball on the beach for years!
Lance is living in paradise!
one he created himself no less. Inspiring stuff.
Ive been working on starting something like this on an acre in the Colorado mountains at 7200 feet elevation but without a well or reliable water source. I’m in year 5 now. I’ve started collecting rainwater and have been adding a lot of woodchips which seems to be helping keep the ground moist and also improves the soil. Trees are finally getting established. I wish I could keep the animals off my plants and trees because they keep eating them back and then the growth has to start over again. I’ve been putting fence up but animals still find a way to get to the trees and eat them. I feel like I’m finally getting somewhere though and eventually want to start a KZhead channel to show what I’m doing here
Yes. The fact that Lance doesn't get any animals or insect pests, which is clearly visible in this video, is astonishing!
Nice. Supposedly 7 years is the time it takes to get properly established.
Start uploading and you will have a subscriber!
You should start one anyway! People would love to see your start.
Document the journey
Pearl millet and other millets are perfect for desert climate. I am from India, and this grain is grown in the Rajasthan state in North west of India. which is a hot desert. but you need to soak the grains before cooking them.
Thank you for sharing that knowledge 🌹
Very impressive, growing one’s own grain on a small scale is probably one of the hardest accomplishments, in the western world almost no one does that, cool🎉
Growing the grain is easy. The harvest is the hard part. Cutting , thrashing, milling but can be done.
That's amazing! We should all live our lives this way. Self-sufficiency defeats the powers that be who want to control us.
😁a garden talk show called “As The Worm Turns” 😆 Lance is a treasure ⭐️
It would be nice to know more about his well and water use.
I watched the whole video waiting for this explanation lol, permaculture in the desert implies a video that at the least touches on the topic. He did say he drilled a well, but he doesn't explain his watering practices
@@nata6025 yeah, it doesnt look like permaculture. he has so much green grass on a desert, he must spend water like crazy
The lawn is yarrow so it may not need as much water as grass. He did mention it had been 2 weeks since he watered his corn.
This was the comment I was looking for. Can’t really say it is permaculture if you irrigate. All his crops looked spaced very close together as well.
@@SkyDavis100 theres nothing wrong with irrigating in permaculture. Look at Geoff Lawton in the dead sea valley. Iys about how the water is used, which there is no detail to comment on.
Wish he had talked about irrigation
it’s definitely using diesel pumps for groundwater lol
Of all the videos like this I've seen this is probably one of, if not the, best. 40 years of hard work.
THIS is gold! Love to see and hear the wisdom of the self-sufficient people.
This is exactly how we grew up back in Romania❤
I love how he just casually mentions growing one of the gnarliest psychedelics in existence at the beginning.
Well done. We had a family relative who had a permaculture garden for years. He died unexpectedly and the new owners removed it all. Have plans in place to avoid this situation. All the best.
that's why some people lose hope in humanity.
My grandfather died in 2006, the property was lined with fruit trees around its perimeter, lemons and other citruses, white and black mulberries, various varieties of figs, peaches, grape vines, olive trees, some more exotic things like loquats and prickly pears, with a rose and flower bed out the front that my grandmother kept, and an enormous veggie patch lot with trench rows/raised beds he used to grow tomatoes, melons, squash, all kinds of herbs, beans, potatoes, cucumbers, enough to feed 30+ people easy year round. He had a huge chicken coop and multiple sheds, a huge wood fired oven, a green house, an outhouse. All completely wiped, levelled and stripped bare when the new owners moved in - every tree, every plant, every bit of life. Veggie garden turned to a great big lawn, a beautiful Mediterranean style paved alfresco area with citruses, grape vines, passionfruit vines and olive trees completely gone and turned into a raised wooden deck, and the fruit trees along the fence line ripped out and replaced with bog standard ferns and palms from a generic big box store. Why in the world would anyone do this? I get making a place your own, but to shred up every bit of character it had developed as a home for generations of people, with a history and a story told by its every feature, and replace it with a cardboard cutout from a home landscaping magazine is just insane to me. In many ways, it’s anti human, anti life. To replace something so vibrant, so homely, so abundant with something so sterile. Some people are just hellbent against conserving what comes before, it’s not right.
@@Azzury. that reminds me of communist china when they started that whole schtick, they destroyed every temple or holy site or shrine they could find, they wanted to destroy anything old, anything that wasn't modern, that wasn't in their new vision of what the world should look like.
@@Azzury. Please post your comment again in the main comments thread so more people can get to read it if you haven't already. Sorry to hear what happened to that property
@@shayson1357 why? they bought the property they can do what they want w/it... Why didn't the family relative buy the property him/herself and save it? But no... So plz, stop with this "lost hope in humanity" bs.
The knowledge and experience this man has is truly impressive. Anyone who strives to be self-sufficient should definitely study and follow this man. Thank you for sharing this video.
I hope this movement of permaculture and growing nature is going to manifest massively. We need it. Great content, thank you and Lance !
Thanks! hope so too. I've been doing permaculture in different capacities for the last ten years. Just bought a 36 acre farm in Western Colorado to do permaculture.
What no plastic mulch? so nice to see someone that knows how to grow, and so rare today🐸❤️thank you
and he’s doing it all by himself Impressive!
What an excellent video. Just a clear portrait of a person and his passion without a bunch of self promotion. Thank you!
Hey, Lance! I was a beach bum in SC back in the day, too. I think you are a few years ahead of me - I didn't see you in my yearbook. I still live in the area. What an inspiration to restart my garden that I let go fallow a few years ago.
W0
Never occurred to me that metal trellises might get too hot for the plants that climb on them.
Yeah but he is in the desert! 😅😅 Also i think he said just that vinegrapes don't like It, not that Won't grow over it
Same, I learn so much fr fr
It has occurred to me since the Mediterranean region gets a lot of sun and heat. I've never seen metal trellises there, and if there are any, they're smarter if they are replaced with wood.
Cant believe folks buy those galvanized troughs for plants, they will cook and freeze anything near them depending on the weather
that and leeching potentially toxic heavy metals into the soil to boot
Stephano thank you thank you for bringing this man and his wonderful 3 quarters of an acre property!!! He worked his whole life to have his little slice of heaven ☰ heaven ☰ ⚚ here on earth 🌎!!! Love peace and blessings be upon you and his homes my beautiful and wonderful spiritual brothers and sisters out there!!!❤
Brilliant!! This dear man's knowledge needs to be recorded.
There is nothing better than seeing the fruits of the garden and sharing experiences. Very good video, I like it very much.
This is a wonderful interview. Lance is such a role model. I appreciate what he said about what it is that makes him tick, and how that translates to a productive farm. I'll watch this again for inspiration. The one thing missing was a tour of his kitchen and how he turns these plants into food. Maybe another interview for that.
You know a good garden when it stirs your appetite just walking through.
Wow, he looks like he is in great health. This truly is inspiring, and kudos to his commitment.
this give me hope as look around the area it is dry and dead and look what this man has achieved a lush place that provides and heals!!! simply incredible!!
Check out the JADAM method….Korean Natural Farming. Many vids on YT, books on Amazon. Nothing is “dead”, you just don’t know how to utilize nature to help you grow successfully. Rome wasn’t built in a day. 😊. Start now…..time flies…and you will look back fondly that you had the courage to try. ❤
thats the natural biome of a high desert though. i agree its a bit desolate but those plants are adapted to the lack of rain.
@@TrevorTrove Indeed, Oasis's like this often make me wonder, where do they get all that water from?
all you need is a well, a diesel pump, and a dream!
A most interesting gentleman still enthusiastically creating. Fascinating to watch and to listen to.
We are also in Colorado, not too far from Hutchkis but much higher 8700 feet in Lake City. Im trying to create a garden like this here as well. We have no soil even no clay, just rocks but in three years with hugelkulture beds I was able to produce lots if soil from scratch,so this problem is solved. I need to close it in from deer, posts are in already, and I believe that I'll be able to grow lots of food and decorative plants.
Good luck at that elevation!
@@Starfish2145 , I sure will need that as well.
We are in colorado also and we sink plant holes and areas so they hold water. Above ground just dries out too much.
@@kathyreese4052 every area needs it's own solution. River rocks that we have don't hold water at all. Do you have mostly clay?
What a success story. An amazing gardening feat. I live in Australia on the east coast,and struggle with heat and humidity in the summer. Clay soil as well. Lots of insects that want to ruin my citrus trees, tomato's and so on. We have a bee problem now, not as many. I'm keeping this video as a guide, it's inspirational.
você faz videos para seu canal ?
@silviateixeira1997 I only commented on the video of permaculture garden in the high desert. I don't have a channel.
entendi, seria legal você fazer um canal.
❤
start making compost right on top of that soil, food scraps, leaves, cut grass, small branches will make a good fertile layer with years
This man is worth solid gold.🎉❤
Life goals... we've been at it almost 10 years. Looking forward to learning and expanding more over the next few decades. Thanks for sharing this beautiful tour. I would love to hear hours more from him.
I wish you had talked about how it is irrigated.
Do you miss the San Clemente sunsets, Lance? Your permaculture oasis is truly impressive. I am in my second year of vegetable gardening in San Clemente, and I have so much to learn. Our yard is basically neglected construction grade dirt over hard packed clay, but I see improvements in the soil and more insects and life all the time. Hearing how you built your garden in the middle of the desert is inspiring. Thank you for sharing your passion and experience with us.
@susanfoy4794 I highly recommend you go to one of your nearby golf courses and speak to grounds keeping, you could net yourself quite a bit of seed free grass clippings. I say golf course because the grass is kept clipped and from going to seed unlike residential grass. Free compost.
@@christopherproffitt3943 Golf course waste grass is a no no no and never use for compost they use a shit ton of chemicals.
The sun sets in the Rockies as well, rises too.
Love the little town of hodgekiss. Great job sir.
Hi Lance! Nothing has changed. You are still making your own bread & growing your own food. You are even more of a wealth of information. Loved making Sour Dough Bread with you & watching MASH together. I still call the end piece of the bread! Love you! Mona
Thank you to you both!
WOW, Thanks. L just saw a great waw to add to my property. WIND break. Here in New Mexico we do have strong winds and it is hard to grow with the high windy days. Thanks Ill start planting for a wind break. love what you have done. Stay safe. Semper Fi.
He is living the life
Wow, what a paradise! It goes to show what bounty the earth provides with work and know-how.
That was great such amazing farm he has thanks for interviewing
Thank you for helping people
I’m in the high desert of southern ca on 10 acres and have been starting my own garden. This gives me so much hope for what I have to come. Love this video, thank you for sharing!
I love his perspective and approach so much
Anyone else notice how healthy he looks from growing his own food?
Very nice garden. I live in the Central Oregon Cascades. Our soils are very sandy and hold very little water and nutrients. The other challenges I see is the extremes daily temperature swings and short warm growing season. We have 30 to 40 degree F daily temperature swings and can have temperatures drop to 30's any month of the growing season. If things were too easily it would not be so much fun. . I love the yarrow lawn (ground cover).
Wonderful work in the high desert. Happier and healthier whenever I can get some more info on regenerating soil for gardening above 6000 feet.
Wow! This is the kind of stuff. I love to watch.
Love this guy. Perfect length film as well. Thanks!
These guys are master's and we could all learn something from this group.
...barb fence around his property, green in the middle of a desert. Nothing about this is "natural". If you call him a master you might as well call all those vineyard owners in CA desert masters as well.
Wow what a beautiful and productive garden! You can see the amount of knowledge and care put into this garden very inspirational
Great story. Just one addition. The yarrow plant isn't only a good lawn. There is more. It is a great healing plant-Traditionally, it was used in 3 ways: Applied to the skin for wounds and minor bleeding. Taken by mouth to reduce inflammation, especially in the digestive tract. Taken as a sedative to relieve anxiety or insomnia.Also, tea of Yarrow helps with digestive problems,bloating,gases,regulate gallbladder, cramps and pain in the stomach. How to prepare tea...one tsp dry lives and flowers put in 200 ml boiling water, cover and leave for 10 min.Drink 3 times daily before meal.
Wish I could find someone like this in my area to befriend and learn from their experience. I want something like this and am working towards it, albeit with many mistakes along the way. Would be nice to have guidance. There are nuances like him saying not to use metal for vining plants that I did not know, but makes perfect sense. Love this stuff.
What area do you live in? I'm in the high desert of Idaho.
Search for “permaculture near me” to start. If you can find a good nursery, you can probably ask them about groups in the area. If nothing else, “garden club near me” might get you in contact with people who know someone who does this.
Wow such a great example of how beautiful our deserts could look!
THEY ALREADY LOOK BEAUTIFUL.
@@actontreadway1168yes they are already beautiful and if every desert acre was cultivated in this manner the wells would dry up quickly
God bless this man, everyone can be a farmer, and grow our own food, we just need a calling to actually gets our hands dirty.
Amazing! And someone told me I couldn't grow a garden in the high desert and here is proof that a highly diverse productive garden can be had on only a spot of land. Add a greenhouse and more is possible...Oranges! Greens! Tomatoes!
Thanks for this lovely video. I had a farm for 22 years after I retired. It was an expression of love and exquisite labor. A wonderful experience.
Bio char would, reduce watering, also keep the the soil growing. I'm in southwestern Colorado too, this was awesome 💯😎
Exemplary and a great luxury with peacefully content lifestyle. All desert areas in the world must be used as this exemple.
Living the dream of many... Brilliant!!!
The best video i watched this year it is just what i wish for unfortunatly i have no money to buy a peice of land but watching this warm my heart nothing feels better than planting
Thanks! Have faith. Lance started with humble beginnings, everything worth something takes time. Many land owners want someone to take care of their land and grow food. Build the skill first, and then land will come.
Stef's reply is spot on...Look to build your skill sets in agricultural or horticultural settings by completing a few internships, apprenticeships, etc...then assemble or join a solid team, community of agrarians, heck even check out trad.farming in another country. And yes, the land will come. Or, what's happened for me is other farmers & gardeners in your local community seek out YOUR help, advice, and consult your experiences based on word that has travelled to them about you. No need to own your own thing, property, etc... when land owners have you reside on "their land" in exchange for working the gardens or farm; finally admitting that no one can truly do it on their own!
Wow! Such an amazing garden! Thanks for this inspiring video!
Just imagine how wonderful his homegrown food must taste!
Just fantastic! You are my hero sir, self sufficiency at it's finest. I would love to be able to do this myself, as a non-vegetarian it would take a few more acres to cover some livestock as well, but people like you are showing how the rest of us should be doing it! All the best to you and yours!
Wow what a blessed garden
My dried blue corn has been hanging for 3 years and still sprouting readily for a new crop and popcorn. Amazing plant. Nice garden!
More people like Lance and the world will become heaven💯
100%, just need 10% of the world to be producers for all to live in utter abundance
Such knowledge from practice! I hope locals and their children can tour and learn from this gentleman!
They do, he does annual gardening classes
Wow, so impressive !! The soil also looks very good. Thank you for sharing 👍
Fantastic presentation. Thank you.
Absolutely incredible garden! I love this! And, that yarrow lawn; amazing!!
Thank you Lance, I love it!!! Starting my journey as well and good to be guided and inspired by some of your wisdom and experience here. Truly grateful.
Very nice, but what does he use as his water source? Genuinely curious.
Well and rain water.
He said they put in a well
❤ what a beautiful soul 💖. We can learn a lot from this
God Bless You!!! Dang I wish I could come help you work and learn from you! Enjoy this coming season! 🙏🏼❤️🙏🏼❤️🙏🏼
I want to do this with my high desert ranch , in Texas.... This is PERFECTION! 👏 👏 ✌️🤠
The yarrow is a wonderful tip! I wondered if I should let mine self seed and this answers the question! Lilac and yarrow both survive beautifully here in colorado!
Check out permaculture blogs. Very interesting. 😊
I hate yarrow. Because it spreads by runners AND seed, it gets into all the growing areas so densely, it strangles everything else
ow! All with one well and occasional rain! Beautiful and certainly shows what one can do creating a micro-climate somewhere! Thanks for sharing! And I love the Yarrow lawn idea!
Fantastic! A wealth of information.
I would love love love to do something like this, an oasis for the animals, bees and birds (and people) but being 57 and living on the East coast it's obviously not feasible so I'll cheer you on from the sidelines. ❤🌳🌱🌿
Please don’t use age or local as an excuse. All things are possible with effort. I am 80, single woman farmer living on-off grid now 40 years…..I still do all the stuff I did when I was 30. Even a small effort will reward you. ❤
You can do some of that whenever you are!
Totally awesome! This is a dream of mine and I am so happy someone is living it.!
Im with others on this one , this guy has some awesome knowledge to pass on to the next generation . Im not that sure he knows how good he is ? Great work Lance.
What an inspiration!!
Just breathtaking 😍 you live in paradise ✨️
I live in Colorado and that is amazing!
Lance is a legend in the North Fork Valley. His seed collection is priceless
From inside the garden, it looks as if one could be in England (on a sunny day!). Really verdant. I bet that carpet of yarrow would be nice to walk on, barefoot.
These are the old heads we need in the government. This man's a national treasure.❤
Wow! Pretty amazing garden and a very interesting gardener.
this man is living my dream
Good stuff, neighbor! Lance is an artist. I saw six seeds I NEED!
Awesome garden!
This was great!
So Cool, really enjoyed this!
Beautiful 🌱