Permakultur - Landwirtschaft im Einklang mit der Natur Page #2

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Next to the fruit trees you'll

find the digitalis purpurea.

This colourful chaos has a purpose.

In a plant family the plants provide

each other with the support they need.

Humidity, oxygen and nutrients.

What's extracted by one

plant is taken in by another.

That's how farmer Holzer

saves himself a lot of work.

The plants fertilize and

provide moisture for each other.

If you have the proper vegetation,

doesn't matter whether it's

fruit trees or vegetables,

you can see that the plants

regulate themselves wonderfully.

You need plants with deep,

middle and flat roots.

Deep rooted plants bring up humidity and

nutrients from three to four metres depth

and sweat it out on top.

They give shape to the

ones with flat roots.

So they won't dry out.

That's the exchange,

one plant helps the other.

You don't need to worry

about it being too dry

or too wet if you work

with the earth properly.

You have to listen and observe,

that's the most important thing.

Unlike most farmers,

Holzer likes stones.

They can be found all over his

terraces and bring their own benefits.

Underneath there is

humidity which is useful

to the surrounding plants when it's dry.

This edible mushroom enjoys the humid

and warm enviroment of the stones.

Stones store the sun's heat acting as a

central heating for neighbouring plants.

Take this rocky cliff,

it generates it's own microclimate

which makes it possible for

the very sensitive plants

to thrive at higher altitudes.

At thirteen hundred metres you'll find

plants you would never expect up here.

Pumpkins on rocky ground.

Sepp Holzer calls these

rocky niches, heat traps.

He experiments with

plants that love warmth.

Grapes on the mountain side.

Thanks to the stones.

Weeds or parasites,

Holzer makes no distinction.

Every plant and insect

has an useful function.

The Krameterhof is an organic

farm, completely free of chemicals.

Holzer uses no

fertilizers or pesticides.

A harmonious balance plant

community is the key to success.

Their diversity prevents

anyone plant dominating.

Even so called weeds fulfil useful

roles in the plant community.

Here is a plant Holzer

appreciates, cow parsnip.

Here we can see an important

principle of permaculture.

Every species fulfils

several useful functions.

She's useful in so many ways.

Up to three metres high it

provides a lot of biomass.

The huge blossoms provide nectar for the

bees, and the bees bring Holzer honey.

He harvests the long

stems when they're dry.

They can be used to collect ants eggs which

he feeds to his fish or sells to pet-shops.

The dry stems are good for firewood too.

It even makes a possible

Australian didgeridoo.

Animals too have a role in permaculture.

Holzer has observed the lifestyle

of field mice, rabbits and deer.

He plants their favourite lettuce and

herbs, so they leave his crops alone.

As this teeth marks show,

the distraction works.

Why eat corn when you can have salad.

The field mice thank him for it by

loosening the soil and propagating

his plants everywhere by spreading

the roots all over the place.

Why shouldn't pigs leave like dogs

(???) too. They can with permaculture.

Holzer's (???) pigs enjoy life up here.

They live outside all year

round saving him a lot of work.

Constantly looking for food.

They loosen the soil between

the fruit trees and raised beds

and prevent the earth

from getting too compacted.

After they done their

work in one orchard they

let to the next, they

just keep on digging.

Farmer Holzer funnily calls

his pigs:
his best farm workers.

The permaculture farmer loves

experimenting with new methods,

always pushing back the

boundaries of the possible.

Even rooting tree trunks

have a role to play.

It's here Sepp sows mushrooms spores.

In a few months he will harvest

shiitake mushrooms right here.

Holzer used to being told that

he's attempting the impossible,

but he knows that he can

harvest his own chantrells

in places conventional

farmers wouldn't dream of.

Water gives life and Holzer is well aware

of his importance to a healthy ecosystem.

When he took over the

Krameterhof he decided

to buy all the wells on the nearby land.

Over the thirty years of his custodianship

he has put the water to good use.

He has established more than

seventy ponds and water gardens

with the surface area of

more than three hectares.

Ponds, ditches and pipes.

Holzer uses his extensive

water resources in various ways.

The hydropower feeds

his own power generator

producing enough electricity

for the whole farm.

The ponds and the wetlands

are tingling with life.

A huge number of fish, frogs, water

plants and insects are homed here.

Holzer designs his ponds

like natural habitats,

with tree roots and flat zones.

Here the young fish can find

shelter from their natural predators.

Most predators and prey

are naturally sustained

without Holzer having to feed them.

The fish like to use the

flat zone to spawning grounds.

Even exotic fish such as the Japanese

koi can live in these altitudes.

The water temperature in

Holzer's ponds is unusually warm.

Thanks again to the rocks,

which he places in every pond.

Heated by the sun they slowly

release warmth back into the water.

Running warm water, the

water plants love it.

The climate up here is strongly

influenced by the ponds.

The sun reflects of the water

surface on to the hill side.

A unique microclimate is created.

The heat trap is turned on again.

Just right for the cherries.

The raised beds also have

their own microclimate.

They are designed to keep the

prevailing wind off the crops,

therefore retaining warmth and humidity.

Covered by bug wee blossoms

the raised beds are hardly

recognizable in summer.

Holzer plants old

resilient potato varieties.

The seeds are very hard to find.

He also grows new crops spread

potatoes with exotic colours.

Propagating potatoes from seeds is

virtually unknown on farmers these days.

These are the seeds of potatoes,

they're used for generative propagation.

For creating new varieties,

two types of potato plant

are pollinated by insects,

and then crossed.

By selecting the varieties to be pollinated

I can create the most exotic colours.

These are truffle potatoes.

I have different ones: completely violet,

dark-blue, black and these have white edges.

A cross between two

vegetables:
courgette and pumpkin.

Black maize, an old robust variety,

once a staple of native Americans.

And this colourful plant

is edible, wild spinach.

Summer turns into autumn

on the Krameterhof.

The Russian corn is

right for harvesting.

Thirty years ago it's

started with one kilo of corn.

Today the Russian corn

grows all over Holzer's farm.

In the forest, on each

hill, even along the ponds.

This plant family includes many

different vegetables such as:

lettuce and this blossoming chicory.

Each supports the corn in his own way,

like for example serving

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