“If you grow good soil, everything else falls into place. You grow good plants, you grow good animals, you grow good people.” Permaculturist Brian Kerkvliet shows how he gently shapes soil to form ponds which overflow into connected swales (ditches on contour). They slow and retain water while distributing nutrients through the whole landscape. On the mound of soft earth dug out from one swale, he planted mostly edible cover crops, berry bushes and 25 fruit tree species in only three days. “We don’t till [the soil],” he says. “The worms till. The moles till. We find the niche where each element works the best.” Episode 267. [inspirationfarm.com]
Shaping Water and Soil at Inspiration Farm
By Janaia Donaldson, originally published by Peak Moment Television
June 18, 2014

Janaia Donaldson
Janaia Donaldson is the host and producer of Peak Moment TV conversations showcasing grass roots entrepreneurs pioneering locally reliant, resilient communities during these challenging times of energy and resource decline, ecological limits, and economic turbulence. We tour North America in our mobile studio, taping on location. Peak Moment Conversations are online at www.peakmoment.tv/
Tags: building resilient food systems, permaculture, soil science
Related Articles
To the lifehouse?
By Chris Smaje, Small Farm Future
As I see it, people generally seek peace, health and prosperity where they can. They care less whether those things are to be found in the city or the country. It’s the things themselves that matter.
February 13, 2025
Planting Seeds
By Zia Gallina, The Subversive Farmer
And so, I plant. I keep pounding the ground, accompanied by several jars of saved seeds… I am lifted from my lethargy by the promise of arugula, endive, radicchio, lettuce, chicory… and resilience.
February 12, 2025
Eating oil
By Gunnar Rundgren, Garden Earth
Increasing energy prices will also realign the balance between the urban and the rural to some degree and will most certainly pose a big challenge to megacities of thirty million people in areas without food production.
February 11, 2025