A Growing Season

Geoff Lawton's Urban Permaculture - Designing the Urban Garden

For 30 years, Oceana County Michigan has been the Asparagus Capital of the World. Now its spear-struck residents and family farms take on the U.S. War on Drugs, Free Trade and a Fast Food Nation, all to save their beloved roots.

In March 2023, despite a flush of police raids and arrests in the struggle against Cop City in Atlanta, the Weelaunee Food Autonomy Festival gathered people for four days of learning and working in the forest. The observational film follows along as participants in the festival plant hundreds of fig, pawpaw, and persimmon saplings, give away fruit trees to neighbors of the forest, graft edible pears onto invasive trees, learn to mix herbal medicines, and restore an area of forest that had been recently disturbed by illegal demolition work.

Created over 75 years and three generations, Les Quatre Vents stands as an enchanted place of beauty and surprise, a horticultural masterpiece of the 21st century. See how Frank Cabot gave birth to one of the greatest gardens in the world.

Permaculture teacher Geoff Lawton designs and builds a dam and water harvesting system on a farm.

Geoff Lawton takes you into the world of Permaculture and explains the basic concepts for beginners.

Part of a travelogue series, this films visits to Derry, the Giant’s Causeway, Carrick-a-Rede, Mount Stewart and Belfast.

Permaculture teacher Geoff Lawton enters the intensive small space gardens in the city and looks at the way Permaculture can be used to create sustainable abundance.

We’ve all seen environmental problems highlighted everyday on the media. Now comes the solution. From the man who said, “You can solve all the world’s problems in a garden” comes Geoff Lawton’s Permaculture Soils DVD. 137 minutes of Permaculture soil creation strategies that really work! Even if you have never built a garden or got your hands dirty before, you will learn the secrets of real soil creation – partnering with the life in the Soil! Geoff will take you through every step of the process and explain in detail how to do it yourself. From Compost creation to larger Kitchen Gardens and then to broad acre farming – this is the future of biological agriculture.

Hart's Forest Gardening introduces a way of working alongside nature- an approach that results in great productivity with minimal maintenance, and a method for transforming even a small cottage garden into a diverse and inviting habitat for songbirds, butterflies, and other wildlife. Based on the model of a natural woodland, a forest garden incorporates a wide variety of useful plants, including fruit and nut trees, perennial herbs, and vegetables. Robert Hart blends history, philosophy, anthropology, and seasonal gardening wisdom, which together comprise a remarkable testament to the pleasures of "hands-off" as well as hands-on gardening. Practical features include: Design guidelines for creating your own perennial food-producing garden Lists of recommended plants and varieties, An explanation of how plants in different levels or "stories" -from ground covers to full-sized trees-coexist and interact in a healthy and productive landscape.

In this film, 24 LGBTQIA2* gardeners show their gardens and explain how their queerness affects the design of the spaces. They also speak about how they are queering ecology, as well as the natural-cultural relationship. Ella von der Haide has been visiting community gardens in North America for several years with her camera. It is the 6th film in her documentary series Another world is plantable! about community gardens, and their social-ecological activism worldwide.