I had to get away to connect with nature
but when i wake up every morning, I come here outside and I'm immediately in nature here
I don't have that void anymore, I've just got this instant connection and satisfaction
I'm Andrew Martin and today we're here in our permaculture property in the bay of Plenty, New Zealand
we've got 5 acres and
we've planted hundreds of fruit trees
which you'll see later
So this is our main garden
just close to the house in zone 1
so, yeah, we can say we've got a lot happening here
We've got, you know, lots of kale and
spinach silverbeet,
beetroot,
bok choy,
rhubarb,
zuchinni...
And, how I started this is
Basically a sheet mulch
so I've got some used paper cardboard
some manure
and some food scraps
and then build it up and then just put straw on top
and then just planted straight into it
and since then i just kept adding to the soil
with compost
So, yeah, I studied business
I was involved in finance
and more specifically in stock market
So we used to help people
manage their money
Whether the organisation are worth
we used to manage hundreds of millions of dollars for people.
I think i just did business
because it was one of those things that I thought would lead to something
And sure, I've been successful
in a certain regard
given us the wealth to be able to buy some land
And that sort of stuff.
But I felt myself being drawn into this materialistic world
Because all the people around me
had material possessions and it was all
this wanting and creating of attachment and
wanting, wanting more stuff
It can be contagious,
this consumerism
materialism lifestyle
I wasn't from that background.
I'm from a sort of a conservative sort of upbringing
Then all of a sudden I'm involved with,
you know,
guys that are driving luxury cars
living in an expensive house in the Sydney suburbs
A lot of guys are, you know multimillionaires and...
they were trapped into a system
and they thought an extra, you know,
10 or 20 or 30 million would make them happier.
And i worked out early on the paste that, that is not the case
And i think, a lot of people think that
the more money they have,
the more happy they're going to be
and it just doesn't work...
So, the idea is to
you know, have native plants mixed among fruit trees
so we've got you know, natives here
we got a tamarillo here
we got marno, [...], [...] and [...] natives
We've got a cabage tree here
This is a... uh
a pine nut
So those are really expensive nuts you get in the supermarket
This is one of those that takes about ten years to get any fruit on it or any nuts
So that's a long term project.
And then we've got, over here, we've got a
fig tree.
Which is fruiting quite nicely.
And another carob tree here
And then for the monarch butterflies
We've got a couple of swan plants which
they really enjoy real much, so we'd be lucky to see one
Here he womes now...
There was a lot of little moments of realization
I saw a few documentaries and movies
that were about some of the bigger picture issues
But when you're in the coporate world
And you're so busy with your life and achieving certain things
I'te hard to get off that train
Beth, my wife and I we sort of
had grown
over the corporate lifestyle
and the trap of
having and wanting more...
So we thought "Ok, let's just cut our ties from what we've known" and...
we'd been working for many years
We thought "Ok... let's just
...start a fresh"
So we'd been to New Zealand a number of times previously
And we just thought that's a great place to...
just start, we'll look at alternatives and live a simpler, more sustainable life
And just explore what's out there.
It was then the realization sort of hit home
I started to research more
read, you know, hundreds of articles and watch hundreds of documentaries and sorts of stuff.
Then i started to really understand : "Wow,
We got some serious issues here..."
And no one's really talking about this stuff
and it's quite scary
In here we got our chickens
We've got two breeds
we've got a brown shader which is these ones here
And then over here wev'e got Araucanas
And over here we have little chicks
that have just hatched in the last two days
You can see them down here
Ok the chicken yard here... You can see there's lots of weeds
and little shrubs and what not and...
We've planted some...there was about 10 or 12 feet Java bushes around the edge
To give them some protection. There's a walnut tree down there
But now you now the chickens love it. They can get in here
and hide under here and escape from predators
cause when we first had them, it was cleared
and we did have a problem with
eagles and hawks so we lost a few chickens
Because
that was easy for the hawks to see them, then come in and attack them but
Now we've...hadn't had a problem.
And you wan say there's little hidy house everywher for the chickens here
And they love it in here, they just hide through here and
over here, they even lay eggs in the hidy holes and her's one here
there you go
The first thing
We did is
simplified our life.
So once you simplify your life,
it frees you up to do a lot of other things. So we just thought "Ok,
What can we afford ?" and live within that limit
And that way frees you up a lot more, so...
Down sizing and tiny homes is excellent because it gives people the freedom
to...to make decisions about their lives
And that's sort of what we've done.
Wev'e consciensly made that effort not to live outside our means
And once you do that it's really powerful
so I always wanted a pond
and a lot of permaculture people talk about ponds and averyone has pond and
it's functionnal, it's got some great uses
So the idea is
I built this pond
to feed the beds which are actually under about 2 feet of grass at the moment
so what happened is i thought I thought like I'm gonna... I'll just have a go digging the pond.
And i started digging it out
and i just kept going for a couple of hours
and then after four hours i had a pretty big hole
it's probably a meter and a half deep
And then the second day, I just kept going and dug down
And...within two days about 4 or 5 hours each day,
I had a pond !
And then, I just...
got a liner
and put it in the pond and I couldn't believe my luck
The next day, it belted down rain
and then the pond was full
So in two days, I've gone from having no pond
To a completely full pond, which is awesome.
Apart from working on the garden, that takes a good part of my day
I also for a few blogs and have written a few books
and...
i also consult with business local government and community groups
on helping raise awarness around some of the big picture issues
So I do what they call as a vulnerability assessment
So once i analyse the data and identify gaps, then i come up with recommendations
For councils to move to a more sustainable model.
I'm fortunate... I'm in a position to be able to do this
A lot of people who don't have the luxury of being able to have time to...
research and...come up with ideas and solutions so...
That's what i'm trying to achieve
I saw a documentary
back in 2007 called A Crude awakening that was talking about the oil shock and
resource depletion on peak oil
And that really got me interested in the whole energy side of things
I read lots of books on energy and watched lots of documentaries and lots of articles
And it just seemed that permaculture kept popping up
as a solution.
Then I started to research permaculture and realized that
It was an integrated approach to how we're living
So at the moment, our current society...
It's a fragmented approach to living
So everything's compartimentalised or separated
whereas permaculture is a holistic approach to how we're living.
It integrates food,
environment
with your lifestyle
and taking care of, you know, people,
the planet
the natural resources
So I really...
That really...
hit home and I just really thought that was...
that was one of the solutions for moving forward
Over here we've got some grapes
and we've had these in for about a year and a half
and this is our first
decent yield of grapes as you can see here
and what we do
so we let the next door neighbour graze our front two pattics
and in return, I can go over to her place and I get some pine needles
which the blueberries love cause they love acidic soil so
I just sprinkle the blueb...
the pine needles around the blueberries so it helps mulch them
and help give them nutrients and
it also keep the weeds down.
So what i'm trying to... I do mow and i don't like it
but I just try to mow the paths also
Um... side the paths
So what we do is we leave all the...
all the weeds and the ground cover, there cause it...
You know, i hate to waste the resource
But what I like to do is just walk up when I'm out
in the garden and just pick a bit of
weed and just dropped around there
it gives it a... I gives a bit of a top up
and a bit of a feed
and then, you know, it just protects it from the
From evaporation and
you know, it's just consant soil building
So... a lot of people come over to our property and have a look around
they go "what about all your fruit trees ?"
"Do you get pests and stuff, like bird that eat them ?"
I say yeah sure
But we don't mind that you know
we were not here first and
you know we're a part of nature and
you know
We've had...we have comments from other people that live around near us
On the farms
and they say
they can't believe how much wildlife and birdlife is here
and their properties
just, you know,
a few hundred meters away
have almost no wildlife or birdlife
so
you know
we're attracting
birdlife and wildlife
Through just letting nature be as opposed to wanting to control it.
Start growing food that's where alot of this...
these initiatives start.
Food is central to the way we live
our health,
and our whole ecosystem and environment
so if we can start doing
something small like
even if you
If you just live in the suburbia and you got a small block
you can start growing food
Even if you're in an apartment you can
you know
windowsills, pots whatever
you can start, and that's the first step
once you engage with growing and experiencing nature
Then things start to happen to you and it's like a
like a flower
it starts, you know growing, getting bigger and then that leads to something else.
So
get out there and explore because there are options
We just have to have the
capacity to realize that
we're not stuck
and we can change
and just... just do it !
I love Andrew's story because it contradicts a belief that underpins our society :
that only large amounts of money
and having expensive material posessions
are what lead to happiness.
We've been fad this lie by businesses and governments
in order to make profit
and to perpetuate the growth economy
that's contributing to the destruction of the earth
By each one of us refusing to believe this story our society tells us
Together we can create aworld where the deep satisfaction we all desire
comes from our connexion with community and nature
rather than from material posessions
in the face of the crisis the world is facing today
a new way of being is emerging
where we're connected to nature
and exist in harmony with all other forms of life
and it's up to us to pioneer the transition
to this deeply satisfying, nourishing
and truly sustainable way of life
I definitely feel happier
and less stressed.
When you work in a coporate world, it's very competitive
and I'll tell you, there's not much competition out here
appart from
a few weeds
Which i get
upset with. But now I've learnt to let go
and now I eat some of the weeds
I definitely feel better and
I feel more flexible
I don't have any actual pains anymore
And I just feel more connected and
more lively.
I eat much healthy now
I don't eat any processed foods
We have lot of vegetarian meals
and it's all fresh, organic produced
So we also live a less consumerist lifestyle
So we don't
need as much stuff
So I haven't got this constant craving for more and more things
to make me feel
satisfied or happy
This lifestyle working on the land and...
doing permaculture
It feels more rewarding
and like I'm putting something back
with a lot of...
current society it's take take take
And with this sort of lifestyle I feel like this is long term
I'm putting something back.
So... ther you have it.
We have homegrown salad
fruit salad, grain salad and some eggs
and I can't believe still
that
I don't have to go to the supermarket.
We've grown all this ourselves
in just 3 years.
I'm still amazed.
So anyone can do it
So hope you'll enjoy the first of many films in this series
and this project wouldn't be happening at all if it wasn't
for the generous support of our crowdfunding backers.
So thanks so much to everyone who donated.
And I want to say a special thank you to the simplicity institute,
friends tiny houses,
Michael Albertson,
Lou Ridsdale,
and Quentin Wilson.
If you wanna find out more about the project,
you can click here and it will take you throught to our website
Or if you wanna watch another film about a permaculture farm,
you can click here.
So thanks for watching guys and I'll see you all in the next film.