Don't apologies for your accomplishment. It is something to be proud of.

I have 120 acres of mountain land in California, a very large excavator and a medium dozer. When building roads up and down this wilderness [well, old mining properties from the 1850's gold rush] I built the road edge drainage wider than normal and built stepped tiny ponds, quite deep, as a step stone down hill. I have water in these clay pits well into summer and the wildlife is quite pleased. Not to mention that nearly each pit has a healthy pine tree growing very lush with the retained moisture. On the fill side, the downhill side, elderberries have grown with great vigor on the northern exposures. Zone 8b, elevation 2800 to 3200 feet Mediterranean climate. Berms and pits make for a much better environment. Of course with time they fill and thus another pass must be made or one reverts to the original slopes... Vernal pools of a sort and a game changer. At the base of this property I have my house with a 150 foot deep well. across the road at the high 120 acres lot, I have a 800 foot deep well. When I compare the bottom of the wells the 800 foot well is bottomed out about 60' below the 150 foot well. but the standing water level in the 800' well is about 300 feet! Hydraulic backpressure. I have a creek that flows millions of cubic feet of water in the rain season, yet no practical way to capture but a drop of it. The wells are all in hard rock and shale and produce perfect water. If you go 1000 feet upstream, the neighbors have nearly no water in their wells. Absolutely a conundrum, the issues of ground water.

@TheNaturalFarmer

Жыл бұрын

Sounds like you know what you're doing and that you've got a little (or big!) slice of paradise. Thanks for reaching out. All the best to you and yours.

@louiseswart1315

Жыл бұрын

I wish I knew where to find the climate zones(by the numbering mentioned above) for South Africa. It will cut down a lot of harvest losses when I can know which cultivars of vegetables and fruits are best for my zone.

@user-pl9wl3cs3t

11 ай бұрын

Make a video! Please.

@williamburke9947

11 ай бұрын

@@louiseswart1315if you have internet access using agricultural planting zones would probably help you. You may need to find a way to enter in your specific coordinates too though if the microclimates vary a lot.

@svnmilesnake

10 ай бұрын

Woah that sounds pretty cool I'd love to see your property. I'm a permaculturist and horse trainer in Ojai CA

Living from rainwater only in the Med it's advisable to also incorporate water use reduction methods such as grey water recycling and dry toilets. That's what we're doing here in NE Spain and even so we're struggling this year with lower than usual rainfall last autumn and this spring.

@TheNaturalFarmer

Жыл бұрын

Yep. It's true

@wildalentejo750

Жыл бұрын

Im in Alentejo-Portugal, not enough rain to collect, this year just rained once with a mere 1.2mm and summer starts in a few weeks.

@TheNaturalFarmer

Жыл бұрын

@@wildalentejo750 I'm sorry to hear this. If a person does not receive rain for a year or even two, then it is basically impossible (and very costly) to try and live via rainwater only. I speak about this with my students regularly. In these extreme cases I advise a well or a city connection to be used during these times (even importing water via truck, if possible). Then when the rains return try and go back to rainwater only. But there is no guarantee, as you know, and that is extremely difficult to deal with. Extremely difficult. I worked with a man in India who had a plot where it didn't rain for 3 years. It was very hard for him to take. Very frustrating. Hang in there my friend. We'll be praying for you.

@estebancorral5151

7 ай бұрын

Why don’t you just say Catalonia? We are not geographical challenged. Use a vermiculture system. Your system is clearly under-developed. The faster you develop humus in your soil, the faster you will create water retention and the faster you will achieve soil resilience.

Here in the Algarve (south Portugal) we are facing a serious dry... It's such a shame looking at the industrial farms with loads of avocado trees or orange trees and GOLF COURSES! They suck all the undergroud water and us small farmers are left with very few bits of water...

@annashealthylifeeverything8583

Жыл бұрын

stop blaming other. it's not avocado trees that are a problem. avocados are very good crop and give a lot of good nutritional food! it's growing methods (industrial agriculture/monoculture etc) and abuse of ground water etc. This blame game is not helpful at all

@VitorMadeira

Жыл бұрын

@@annashealthylifeeverything8583 No point against the food you decide to eat! But please, the Algarve is a regions that lacks LOADS of water and 2023 is being quite a dry year. If you suck all the water that those plants need to succeed, then it will be people's water that will be in danger! Keep eating you lovely avocados but please help us have our much needed human consumption water in the first place!

@TheNaturalFarmer

Жыл бұрын

Hi Vitor. It's a valid concern. The only solution I have control over is what I choose or choose not to do on our own land. The rest is decided by local government, etc, which I have no personal control over. But I do have control over how I design my land, and that's what this video is about. All the best to you and yours...

My wife and I have been living off rain water for 2 years. We drink it we bath in it and water our gardens with it. Our neighbors think we're awesome/crazy for doing it. LOL we do filter the water for drinking and cooking

The hardest part of gardening in Australia is watering.most places other than cities rely on rain water tanks and dams

@TheNaturalFarmer

Жыл бұрын

Yes. Australians such as yourself are leaders in this type of work. Thank you for all of your contributions

Love ya John, thanks as always for years of commitment and content. We only use rain water at home and at the farm site, you are right we have recharged under ground aquafirs and now have natural springs. Permaculture for the win

@TheNaturalFarmer

Жыл бұрын

Thanks my friend. Always good to hear from you...

Living in the temperate zone and need your strategies more and more. Appreciate your comment on pumped water not doing the job. Love your work.

Awesome! We are also 100% off grid and get all of our water from rain water catchment in Hawaii. We of course get more water than your area but have had more and more droughts, which just creates even more awareness of water usage and appreciation of the rains when they come. I think it's something we can both be proud of!

Nice design John and good video communication of the principals behind it.

This is a beautiful video, John. Something about it is deeply moving to me. Thank you for the teaching.

We owe it to ourselves to have a garden and figure out the water issue, because there is a HUGE water issue in much of the world. Especially here in Baja Mexico where I live. Capturing rain water is a very good way to do it, so always looking at videos like this to learn how. The one thing I would add to this is reuse your water. Set up two septic tanks, one for the toilets' and one for the shower, and cink water to reuse on the gardens. Then you get to use the same rain water twice. At my home we tried to do this, however on a small scale and not much success. But our garden is small also. I am now looking at buying a ranchito and doing it right this time. In my opinion it is better to over do it (as cost are not that big) than to leave it short.

@franziskani

11 ай бұрын

Search with the term "Planting the Rain" - Permaculture in Arizona

Thanks for posting again John! Your Italian is very good!

Thanks for sharing your knowledge! Rainwater catchment is the way to go if we want to preserve and increase the water in the ground. Where our farm is located, it is not allowed to drill a bore hole more than 28 meter deep. It is even illegal to have bore equipment that goes deeper than the limit set by law. I will finally go back to visit our farm in Thailand this Autumn after 3,5 years. My plan is to start to make swales in and around the food forest we have planted, and to plant more trees. But first I have to see what state the trees are in and replace the dead ones, and take it from there. I also want to plant Lime and Orange trees in between the old Pomelo trees. But in order to do that the water supply has to be up and running. So the swales and pond need to be working together to be able to feed those trees on a regular basis.

@TheNaturalFarmer

Жыл бұрын

Always great to hear from you Svein. I'm happy to hear that things are still alive and well on your plot in Thailand. One step at a time, right?.... All the best my friend.

@estebancorral5151

7 ай бұрын

You are not water wise. All citrus fruits use vasts amounts of water. This water you do not have. A countryman of yours already has coconut palms growing in between swales. In the swales he grows aquatic species which he sells domestic ally. He went to Vietnam and realized that Thailand is missing out on a very lucrative crop which is vanilla. He will go back to Thailand and grow vanilla underneath his coconut palms. I suggested to him that he could also grow pineapples since they could be harvested every day in Thailand. That means there will be money in your pocket every day.

So Glad you made this Video to share your Wisdom with the World!! Thank you! Keep doing more Videos cuz the World Really needs to hear what you have to say! In Hawaii you are called "Kupuna" or Elder who shares their Wisdom to the Younger generation! We appreciate you!

Your videos make us happy dear John. Can’t wait for a new tour on your property 😊. Kind regards, Yiannis from Aegina island, Greece (the pistachio island)

Great video. I've been thinking of doing this in the Sierra mountain foothills where the climate is basically the same there. This really makes me believe I could do it.

@RRaucina

10 ай бұрын

I do similar things here in 8b Mariposa, about 3000' elevation. Built 3 miles of steep road with many small pools and catchment basins

Really enjoyed watching this video. Feeling grateful 🙏

Great view of the land. Lots of greens. I live in the tropic and in my orchard, only use rainwater for everything.

good to see you back

Hello!! I am glad you back thanks 😂

Hi John. Hope all is going well for you and your family. We have been hearing about the high heat over there and trust you’re coping well with all the effort you have put into your place. Kind regards Urban. Queensland Australia

Great stuff as always John. really neat tweaks to the core concepts that you've adapted to your site. So great to see the progression year over year at your property too!

I'm in Arizona right now so this info is super useful. Congratulations on living in Sicily ❤

It's great to see you again Johm... and to see all of your hard work bearing fruit (and nuts0. Best to you and your girls! Arrivederci!

DANKE für die Verbreitung solch wertvoller Kenntnisse ❤

Also live in Mediterranean and Very few vids on Mediterranean permaculture/farming . Thanks for the video have been waiting months to hear from you!

@cleonawallace376

Жыл бұрын

I was just going to say the same thing! I am based in Umbria, Italy.

@TheNaturalFarmer

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for your comment. Yes. Sometimes it takes me months to add another video. That's just my rhythm. But I hope you enjoyed this one. All the best...

Always happy to see you.

Thank you John.

Your pride in what you've done is entirely justifiable. What a wonderful farm - and video. (subscribed)

Your food forest there looks amazing in such a short span of time. We have quite similar climate here in Wellington, Western Cape, South Africa. We are also harvesting rain water for our backyard garden, and are gleaning knowledge everywhere to curb our water usage while growing as much as possible of our food ourselves. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us.

@TheNaturalFarmer

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for reaching our Louise. Your kind words are very much appreciated, I can assure you. All the best and have a safe an happy Winter...

Living with nature instead of against it is so much more satisfying. I wish all of humanity could enjoy such bounty. Sustainable is the way.

Always beneficial and encouraging thank you John

Well done…… nice smile on my face when I heard you speak in Italian…. 👏 👏 👏

Thanks for posting the video. I’ll try to watch them whenever you do. You look like you’re doing well. God bless!

juggernaut you have been a huge inspiration to me. I live in southern California very similar climate as Sicily near me. Water is crucial here, i have been collecting rain water this year next year i will be water self sufficient. I appreciate 🙏 you

@TheNaturalFarmer

Жыл бұрын

Thank you for your kind comment. It sounds like you're making great progress. It's definitely a journey worth taking. All the best to you and yours... John

So much wisdom and love in your videos. Very inspirational.

John, be more frequent in making videos. We love to hear from you. Good luck.

@TheNaturalFarmer

Жыл бұрын

Haha. Thanks for your comment. Always appreciated. The videos come when they come. That's all I can say. All the best to you and yours...

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this truly important subject. More people will be able to get a grasp on what we have forgotten...

Thank you for sharing your experience!

Great to see posts from you again . I live in Uk , my problem is too much water , drainage and flow.

Ciao John, sempre interessanti i tuoi video. Grazie

Lovely to see you again. We are still living and from our stored rain water, its the best. Feels good indeed! Bravo on your Italian!

It s a great pleasure to see you again! keep up the amazing work you are doing there and I really hope the bureaucratic system in Italy does not get the best of you. Thank you for your wisdom. Looking forward to the next video.

I really appreciate you taking the time to speak on where these techniques came from and how they were shared through migration and sharing amongst peoples. Many times permaculture practicing folks leave these parts out, but understanding of these roots helps provide a deeper understanding different methods and lineages of practice that often just get thrown under an umbrella of “permaculture.” Looking more into the Arab and North African rain harvesting techniques such as the Gebbia you mentioned helped expand and deepen an understanding based on your awesome examples demonstrated and explained here, and showed connections between cultures I hadn’t previously heard of! Also the cherry on top for me was placing the rainfall amounts in comparison to other well known natural farmers and demonstrating how you are adjusting to your specific corner of the world. 🎉

Hello, John! It is so good to see you again. I have missed your videos. Each one is a gem and well worth the time it takes to watch. You've inspired me again. I'm still here in the central, gulf coast of Florida where the climate is described as humid, but the reality is that we have quite a long dry season from fall through the end of spring. Following your sound teaching, we have been working for years now to turn our sandy, sugar-sand soil into fertile soil, and the methods you teach have been working well. I made a poster based on your video to remind and inspire us about what we are doing. We (mostly my son) have spread countless truckloads of mulch across our property, and planted cover crops, etc. Now, this reminds me that even though we have a reliable well, we really should be harvesting what rainwater we do get. I have been concerned about the salination of the soil from the well water. Back to the drawing board.

@TheNaturalFarmer

Жыл бұрын

Thank you for your message Kimberly. Florida is sub-tropical and at much less risk of soil salinity. The organic material that is being added greatly reduces this risk as well. So no worries. It sounds like you're on the right track. But just remember, trees eat trees and plants eat plants. If you want to grow trees, be sure to add lots of woody material as well. All the best...

@TheNaturalFarmer

9 ай бұрын

By the way, could you send me a copy of the poster you made? Send it to admin@johnkaisner.com Thanks again!

Its good to hear from you again. For some reason, I had not received notices of posts several years ago. The garden looks so lush.

Incredible video on rainwater harvesting in Mediterranean permaculture! 👌🏼

Dang YT algorithms, just stumbled across this one.... Glad to see you making another video, and your farm is coming along great. It looks awesome!!!!! Keep up the good work!!!

Great to see you back. I love your simple but valuable videos😁

Always enjoy and learn from your videos, I have been following you since you were in India.Thank you for your time

I started following you few years ago, everyone of your video is a pleasure, an inspiration and a source of informations. Congrats on your work and on your Italian.

Thank you for sharing your sicilian venture. It looks just great. Congratulations. A hug from Montijo, Portugal. You are invited to meet our little community urban farm managed according to permacultural principles.

Thank you for sharing this!

Thanks for having great audio.

Oh My!!!!! So glad I found your channel. I am in the Campania region and will be moving onto my homestead in the next month or so. I have always said that we need to get back to the basics; rainwater harvesting and get back to nature. This is right in line with what I plan to do and thanks for identifying and verifying the agriculture zone....wasn't quite sure if I had it correct. Peace and blessings

Ciao John, complimenti per il tuo video. Continuerò a seguirti per trarre il meglio da te. Dalla Sicilia ❤

Praise the creator for his amazing creation. Hallelujah!!!!!!!

3:52 that is a breathtaking view

Thank you. You have inspired me to utilize my rain collection system better. Also to add to it so as to harvest more water from the roof. I can upcycle a few more 55 gal barrels to store rain. My food forest only needs young tree irrigation during the severe heat waves. But the organic garden, though heavily mulched, still relies on village well water. In fact, we're facing at least 8 days ahead of 100 degree sun days and hot nights. Yikes.

Grazie John, i returned home (Puglia) from France after 30 years and I share your passion and your convictions. I start a new adventure on a magnificent sloping terrain, similar to yours and immersed in nature. Your videos will be very useful as well as very pleasant to watch. Thanks for share.

Been watching your videos for a while now, beautiful work!!

Great video, thanks, we have lived on rainwater only for 35 years.

Beautiful knowledge and I am very grateful for you sharing.

Nice video. Thank you very much. I saw your trees and your land when you just bought it. It is huge surprise now! With no city water! You are hero! Great. Greetings from Czech Republic....

Thank you for great explanation!

Wonderful perspective and content!

Living with nature. It's a skill. Superb sharing. Thank you.

I just found your channel and I love this. I live in Upstate South Carolina in rainforest. I’m excited to harvest water naturally. Thank you.

Don't ever be sorry for being proud of something you have created. Its an awesome thing bringing life back to land and you should be very proud ☺

Great video Jhon. Just what i need to show my mom why we need to try permaculture.

Thank you so much for sharing. I like watching your videos, because I'm in a Mediterranean climate in Western Australia. Keep up the great work!

Love your content John, have applied permaculture on our acres in France, but have yet to establish ponds and full rainwater system - inspired!

Thank you for 'being' John. We need the info that you gave and your video was short, to the point and easy to understand. Now I will subscribe - because your ideas are the same as ours.

Thank you John 😀. As always your videos are inspiring to many of us who aspire to follow your lead into more and more permaculture effort on our land ❤😀❤️😀

@TheNaturalFarmer

Жыл бұрын

Thank you for your kind comment. Nature is a great teacher. Happy to be open to learning the lessons. All the best...

I hope one day you get to do a TED Talk because some of the work you have done and the insights you have gained are incredible.

Thank you 🙏😊

Hi from Australia. Your channel popped up and I am now looking forward to working back through your videos. Where I am we have approx 520 mm annual rainfall, often dry from Nov - April, so I am interested in ways of improving water management. Such an important resource. I feel for all the folks out there who are getting less rain than they are used to. It seems that some places have been really baking this summer. We are all going to have to adapt.

I can't wait to see the changes in your land! I bet your neighbors are green with envy!

@columlynch4229

Жыл бұрын

More like brown with envy. Cheers from Ireland, the wettest country in Europe. 😂👍

Lovely, thank you.

Grazie mille, ottimo video! Much love

I live in Tennessee USA, we get very heavy rains here. I have installed perforated pipes leading from our roof downspouts, out into my garden and one into a fishpond. I have three 100 gallon rainbarrels and hope to install a larger water catchment system in the future. One issue I deal with is tree pollen; it makes the water fetid in Springtime. Thanks for the video! India is making strides towards water retention, very good to see.

This is brilliant. I am so excited to be diving into this hobby eventually. Im thinking years ahead, to be honest, but its something I know I wanna transition to in time. But you just need to know that it has to be you, since no one else is going to provide these niche perspectives and drive this blossoming concept. I truly think that the growing desire to leave the big city and the rat race to live a simpler, and more sustainable life like this is a trend that is here to stay. But you need to keep up the support so that people who are on the fence about it can be welcomed into it, and that its doable and practical in a quality of life POV.

Stunning. ❤

Hello John, just wanna say, do be proud of what you did. And though you don't know me, nor do I you, I'M PROUD OF YOU! I'm starting my own FoodForest adventure right now in the Tropics (about 6 acres) and my family kept asking me about installing city water or underground water pump but I decided not to, for the reasons you mentioned. Watching your video helped boost my confident with that decision. If you can do that in the Mediterranean, there's no reason we can't do that in the Tropics! Thank you! 😊

@TheNaturalFarmer

Жыл бұрын

That was a very kind comment you just left me. Thank you very much. To span our 4-5 months of Summer dry here in Sicily I have calculated that each sapling (baby tree) requires 300 liters of water. Now that figure should be much less where you are, but hopefully this gives you a ballpark estimate to start from. And as Bill Mollison always suggested, start small, stabilize the system and get success, then expand... All the best to you and yours. It sounds like you are all setting out for a great and rewarding adventure!

Love the Indian classical music you included in the video

Great video, great teacher and a wonderful holding. Also inspiring to see so many in the comments with similar projects underway. After struggling with unreliable shallow wells here in Serbia, and seeing the 'race to the bottom' with deeper and deeper wells I decided to build a cistern and collect rainwater which is still plentiful here but increasingly unreliable in the summer. We run our house off it and will soon be filtering all the grey water we produce as well. There's still work to do to make the water potable, but with a composting toilet it's enough for a frugal family.

Inspiring 👍

You set out to use rainwater only, and accomplished your goal. Well done. We live in Great Lakes region of US, and although it is "temperate" by definition, in our little part of the region, most summers in the last few years have been extremely dry. This year has been different, for which we are grateful: we have been receiving good "farmer's rain" a couple times a week this summer thus far. That being said, we are still looking for a way to capture the rains we do get. We have a series of catchment swales, a rain garden, we do have a frog pond, and very much want to harvest the water from the roofs of our structures. Large, clean containers are difficult to source in our area, and if you can find a clean one, it's very, very expensive. But we persevere. Best wishes to you for continued success.

I love your philosophy of the land 🥰

Great video (as usual). I would like to learn more about CEC 2:10 Irrigation water is filled with nutrients and clay particles which greatly increase Cation Exchange Capacity

This is very valuable information. Thank you and bless you, love from South Afrika

Wonderful project well done!

Fantastic information 😊😊😊

In Cyprus even though we don't use some of the techniques of the past and even though there has been a lot of focus on pumping watering and even problems with salt water in some areas, quite a few people still use rain harvesting structures, and the most important is that the government had built many reservoirs that collect water and either feed back to the land slowly or they provide many of the farmers with water, they also create hotspots of biodiversity. A great problem we face is the building sprawl and especially in some areas through the much use of concrete and asphalt without any thought about the water not sipping in the land or being slowed down by vegetation, create hazardous and harmful situations for humans and the environment. Thank you for your work and I hope people like you could also help other areas in the Mediterranean, especially those who have subsisted through rainwater and now depend on desalination plants because their techniques (some Aegean Islands and maybe other small islands). One other technique that is very useful in steep areas especially is the building and maintenance of dry stone. Thank you again, you 've earned a new subscriber.

Amazing!! I want to do exactly that in catalunya and I wasn’t sure if it was possible because of the ridiculous small amount of rain water we have.. but I guess we have the same amount as in sicilly so this video is very encouraging and inspiring 🍀💚 thank you!!!

Dude that is amazing what you are doing by informing, educating and letting people know what there’s a better way to live in harmony with our environment don’t stop keep up the good fight and peace be with you!

Amazing and inspiring video John! Thanks a lot for sharing this!! I'm in Mallorca in a similar climate. One question: did you seal the ponds in a natural way? And if so, can you elaborate a bit on how you did this?

Amazing what you have achieved, congratulations!

Just GREAT! 👏🙂