Turning Degraded Land Into Forest, Woman Builds Natural Homestead
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- čas přidán 16. 02. 2021
- Through turning degraded land into forest, an inspiring Kenyan woman has created a gorgeous natural homestead. 10 years ago, the land was barren, overgrazed and degraded. Today it's a unique place that blends in beautifully with the forest that surrounds it.
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The beautiful intro song is "Be Still" by the wonderful Joe Holtaway. Listen to the song here: open.spotify.com/track/2IhumV...
To listen to the full album on which the song appears, "More The Love That's Given": open.spotify.com/album/2fpDbj...
All other music is from Epidemic Sound. Using this link you can try it out for free. www.epidemicsound.com/referra... - Jak na to + styl
I'm so happy and grateful that this video is touching people around the world! If you would like to get a full tour of Grete's forest, head over to my Patreon page! It'll give you more insights into forest and also give you more glimpses into Grete's warm personality. Raw footage and interviews from other videos are also on my Patreon site. I'd appreciate your support as I'd like to make these kind of videos more to inspire as many people as possible to choose sustainable ways of living! www.patreon.com/GrowingSmall
i reall like, that people around the world trying to regreen degraded land. Her strategy is interesting. I would like to get more information about the change of the groundwater level. I mean she said, that the used two wells to take out ground water. Does the growing forest above helps regaining groundwater? Since the land doesn't dry out that much anymore due to shade and wind breaking? Or do these trees use up more water? Does maybe the rain better trickle into the soil now?
Another thing what I at least would put into discussion is the collection of water from rain. The first thought would be, it maks a lot of sense. But when you think over and over it, you will get some disdvatages. The worst disadvatage is, that the collected water doesn't add to ground water anymore. So by collecting rain watrer, you would minimize ground water refreshing. Maybe if you use that water to nurture the trees when they are young could level that out?
Them 36 dislike
I am sending you lots of love and i hope the light Will reach your consciousness soon.
A hug of love and light ❣️
“A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit”
Excellent video and the woman was lovely an inspiration to use all!
Well said! Glad the video resonated with you!
With a small 20 acres, I’m 61, and planting quite a few trees on it, and I know that many of them, I will never sit in the shade of, but! I know the generations to follow, will enjoy them, and that’s what is satisfying.
Yes that’s the beauty of planting for the future. They will always think of us as long as they aren’t cut down
I love the lady work
@@GrowingSmall
My name is prem singh
I am starting a moringa and neem
Planting project
She sounds so peaceful. The trees speak to her heart. This is so encouraging; Plant 10 trees correctly and they will grow, instead of 1000 poorly and they die. Great advice! I want to be like her when I grow up.
Thank you Karie for taking the time to comment. I'm so glad the video resonates with you. Spending time with Grete is just wonderful, and her homestead really is as peaceful as she describes. Just the bird songs there are incredible! And most land that surrounds hers is still barren and degraded. If I had a drone, I'd have definitely shown this.
I'm NOT growing up!! I'm only 71.
@@GrowingSmall When you go back to visit her, please have a drone. I'd love to see this!
This is what is happening now with largescale replanting efforts; specifically in China. Both China and Africa have a "Great Green Wall" project to plant a continental-scale wall of forest spanning the edge of the Sahara and Gobi deserts in order to stop or slow the encroaching desert from swallowing more arable land. China had begun its Great Green Wall back in 1978, but there was a huge setback; they planted giant monoculture forests of poplar, and disease eventually spread through huge swaths of the reforested area. A lot of progress was lost. They since have learned from that mistake, and have created some creative methods to re-greening desert soil by utilizing large-mesh biodegradable rope or cellulose earthbags to act as a windbreak for native drought-tolerant grasses, which secure the soil in patches that fill in. They also plant drought-tolerant trees and shrubs. Once the sand is secured by root systems, they're able to build upon that foundation to create an ecosystem. It's all very clever. The Paani Foundation has a lot of interesting videos on utilizing watershed management and permaculture to re-green degraded land here on CZcams.
This is a video about the Paani Foundation that was made to be viewed at a film festival in India, so it's very polished, but it shows the impressive work the Paani Foundation is doing to help improve struggling rural communities by giving them the knowledge and incentive to fix their own problems.
czcams.com/video/lwFzrt6fP9s/video.html
China did it with the re-greening of the Leoss Planteau.
regenerationinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Milly.jpg
Ethopia did it as well.
czcams.com/video/AIlyz2-cixs/video.html
Peter Andrews did it in Australia.
czcams.com/video/uraGuQ7wS_A/video.html
Allan Savory did it in Africa.
czcams.com/video/vpTHi7O66pI/video.html
@@marshy1950 …you’re only a pup. ☺️
I love watching CZcams videos like this. It is very calming and relaxing. This gets me very motivated to what I want to do. I always try to say be with nature. Nature always talks to me in ways I can’t explain. I have 25 acres in USA that I’m slowly going back to what it should be. I live in the oak savanna region in the Midwest. So I’m going to sow plants and raise animals that will be working with nature and not against nature like she did. I started with 2 acres and working my way up to 25 acres the next couple of years. I have a vision what I need to do. Thanks for the video!
Good Luck!
Great to hear, wishing you all the best for your endeavours!
Please keep us updated!🙏
God bless you, sir.
Make a permaculture food forest!
“walking thru a forest enhances your life, calms you down”. Amen!
This woman, her thoughts and life - so wonderful. Thank you for posting.
Her comment about spider on her porch 🕷️ means so much to me because I feel the same way about them. They are definitely one of my favorite animals.
This is a gorgeous story. What a beautiful woman. The story of the spider.
This lady inspired me over 10 years ago when I read about her in a Kenyan magazine. I now have many trees in an arid part of Kenya. Then she relied on water pans to water the trees. Thank you
Love this! So glad you are also growing trees in arid areas!
"without good soil we cannot, basically, move forward". It all comes down to good soil.
Glad you picked up on this. Not enough people realize how vitally important good soil really is for everything (including ourselves of course). There's too much concrete jungle and monoculture farming...All that will have to change for an ecological civilization that deserves its name.
I’ve just bought an old farm 4.5acres, I was thinking of putting a little house and turn into a food Forrest.
This video is truly fantastic and a life long dream
Much love to all who regenerate their land for generations to come ❤️
This lady has the sweetest ,calmest voice .
Wonderful woman. Wonderful place. "If you feel something needs to be planted, do it" I felt that.
Thank you for taking the time to comment, I really appreciate it as a small video creator! And keep on planting!
Beautiful garden, lovely lady... thank you for sharing... greetings from Australia...
Thanks beautiful! God bless you! You remind me of my saintly mom!
This was a great short film. I love what she's done with her land. This is motivating.
Thank you for commenting, couldn't agree more with you - her story and what she's done with the land is just incredible. Glad you're motivated to do good, too!
I live in Karachi Pakistan I like your comments
@@GrowingSmall I live in Karachi Pakistan I follow your channel CZcams
Wonderful lady doing her bit for nature and a better environment👏👏👏🙏🙏🙏
this woman has a TON of wisdom to share!
Love from South Africa. Imagine if our politicians could do things like this!
Why wait for politicians who supposedly represent the body politic? Do it yourself.
They busy topping up their bank balance
Which part of south africa you from
I have afriend who is like you.
I'm imagining a day my politicians allow me to do this.
As soon as I heard her accent I was like "she's from somewhere in africa" so glad more stories from our continent are being shared because we have so many! ❤❤
Everyone I've met from subSaharan Africa loves to grow things. Nothing lights them up like the earth. God bless Grete.
Beautiful soul. What a lovely lady and what she has done the that bit of land, wonderful.
That’s for the video.
Thank you so much!
This is beautiful. This is what humanity was meant for. To grow, nurture, and improve. To tend, prune, and guide.
She is such a special person...and lovely short film that shows her tenderness and strength💕
Thank you!
This story doesn't deserve dislikes 🤦 Well done granny, thank you 🌱🌳 My biggest salute 👌
Beautiful. Air, water, and soil is life. And clean air water and soil is healthy life. She is very wise lady. We need more people like she on the earth.
Thank you!
Rightly expressed "to feel part of nature is not so difficult"❤ power to more such individuals on the planet!
I seriously love watching these sort of videos,
YES!! Good soil + fabulous plants. I have found on of the quickest ways to improve soil is to dig a trench knee-deep putting the soil to one side then fill the trench over a few weeks with all your kitchen and organic household waste, layered with soil. On the bottom put the largest pieces of wood and plant material that you have been collecting. If you can acquire some old well rotted manure layer this on the soil as you reach the top. Leave the trench/ bed for about a week or two to settle and put all you waste water onto it. If the season is right (spring) plant beans ans as soon as you have harvested you first crop dig them in well then proceed to plant what ever you desire. Be rewarded with a beautiful lush garden.
People like her are true inspiration to forthcoming generations . Very valuble suggestions from legendary person like her. Great work by her 👍 👏
I plant my trees as pencils sticks size specimens by putting a spade in and wiggling then adding only a tiny amount of compost inside the crack this way the trees roots out looking for nutrients digging soil and adding compost can lead to a smaller root ball
Also makes sense, sounds like a time saving way of planting which is a plus as well!
Watching this from Latvia 🇱🇻 it's -24 degree Celsius and looking outside, my garden is under a thick layer of snow and i have gardening envy as it is already but to see such abundance and inspiration and beauty it warms the heart. Thank you for sharing this 💗
Thank you and greetings to Latvia. Unbelievable how cold it is over there! I'm so happy the film resonates with you. Enjoy the coming garden season once spring is in the air!
Same here in Canada. It's my dream to grow a garden like this with fruit trees and veggies
Best wishes from the wirral ,where the mersey forest grows...well done...brrrrr..
@@eamonnclabby7067 Where’s that? Scotland?
A beautiful example of nature's resilience and with the right methods can be achieved globally imagine the beauty, Big love mother nature (wonder woman) your amazing!. xx
Wow, thank you! Thank you so much for taking the time to comment, it means a lot to me that the film resonated with you and that you're also dreaming of a world in which Mother Earth is taken care of and healthy.
Her voice is so calm and serene. Reminds of the best teacher you had during your childhood - who inspired you to do good. Respect from India to this lady.
Wisdom comes of age, Thank you for sharing. God Bless!
THIS CALLS TO ME! 😭 I'm still stuck in my city life trying to figure out how to do this for myself and my family. I'm going to be more careful in my planning this time. I'm saving up and looking for where I can go to buy my own place and get started. Starting from the bottom, but making progress.
I,m sure you will find a way....
You can also start by researching where you'd be happiest. What kind of trees you will love best, and will do best in helping support your family going forward. Decide on how many years you can afford to work without a return, before the trees can fully-establish themselves. Make sure to study and ask questions where possible from the locals about water, how much they get, if they get any, and where it's coming from. Those are all essential if you want to actually succeed at reclaiming soil and land.
People who love plants and nature love humanity 💞
Magic hands! She accomplished her purpose. One of the richest person on the world.
Glad I popped here. Starting a food forest this season and very happy to take a few lessons from here🤩
Excellent ! Congratulations for this great achievement with a lot of effort and determination. I just bought a 100,000 square foot lot with fir trees, white pines and maples. And I plant white pines from seeds, and Oaks, I also aim to surround my land well with trees too, to clean it, cut dead trees, collect dead leaves .. thank you for your video!😉🦌🦉🌲🌳🌳
Beautiful woman and story! This is the exact thing I have been telling many many people, to plant trees and bring back degraded lands here and abroad. Thanks for sharing!
Planting trees is just so powerful. I'm glad you liked the video, thanks for commenting!
@@GrowingSmall I myself collect wild herbs and medicinal plants and mushrooms, I hope to plant a few native trees and plants here come spring that are not so common these days. It would be nice to stroll in her forest, it was a big undertaking, but I am glad she did it.
Beautiful place, and so much wisdom. Soil really the essence of it all.
Thank you for giving time to the wonderful creations of the Lord!
I'm on the same journey, I learnt years ago that replicating ecosystems is so much easier than using store brought nutrients and you get far better quality and now just setting everything up on a small scale so when I get land(12 months🤞🤞) I can upsize everything and support as many families and schools as possible because people don't understand the value of good and most Importantly NATURAL soil and I feel the schools is where we can change that :)
The Good Earth. Would have loved to see vid of the area outside the wind break looking out and looking toward the oasis. Very nice.
Great suggestion!
This is wonderful! More people need to do this. There is another wonderful woman named Colette O'Neill who has done this to a 3 acre smallholding in western Ireland. She has a You Tube channel called Bealtaine Cottage. She is an environmental activist and writer. The Bealtaine Project was begun in 2004 and is going strong. Her land was bare and classified poor quality when she started the project and today is a beautiful lush woodland, full of abundant life of all kinds.
The beauty of nature enters our feet ( our roots) it works it's way up through our bodies as it nurtures us. When it reaches our minds it teaches us how to recycle back to continue the process. Society has been teaching us backwards for far too long and we can see the outcome in both destroyed lands and in destroyed Societies. The proof of this is expressed in the Beauty of the Person in this Video. Nature is Altruistic and we need to return or Mars this Earth will become. May God Bless you on your Journey.
Just watching this infuses some pleasant magical feelings in my being. Thanks big mum
Wonderful! this is exactly what I hoped to elicit with the video. All the best!
I can so relate to her relationship with the spider.
I miss my Morning Glories...
Respect.
🙏
*WONDERFUL WOMAN!* Many years of wisdom, I wish they taught more teaching in schools about planting trees.
Wow, thank you!
@@GrowingSmall thank you 😊 back in my days we literally planted trees, nowadays they don’t teach nothing in school but a bunch of Junk Politics Information😤😤
Simply outstanding and inspiring. A contribution to the whole 🌍🌎🌏Beautiful home too.
I am in awe! Wonderful Woman! Wonderful shootage. Now I don't find critical things to comment on your filming. Thank you!
Thank you Anne. I'm so glad you feel inspired - I was too when I visited Grete. It's a magical place and just incredible to see the changes in person.
What country she is at? 💞
@@danalexa69 Kenya!
Great video. The woman is living in the heaven she has created. She is calm and how beautiful to take a walk in her forest. I can do this! Why not!
Thank you for what you've done for our earth.
Inspirational stuff. I love trees - everything about them: their bark, leaves, branches, trunks, fruit, flowers - they make me so happy. Not sure what that's about, but it truly gives me hope when I see more and more nature warriors out there in the world, changing the world back to where it should be, one growing tree at a time.
Same here! I love trees too and that's why I was so inspired when I met Grete.
Yes!!
Nature is so important and healing. Have you come across Jadav Payeng, “the forest man”? He is an inspiration as well…
Well done, your an inspiration....the planet will love you, thankyou
Thanks a lot Francis! Inspiring people are much needed right now.
The woman's accent reminds me of my late father's and my late aunts' accents. They grew up in Shanghai when it was an international settlement, and lived in the British concession.
Interesting, it's quite a melodic English which I enjoy listening to a lot :)
It most be truely wonderful living in a place like this, glorious.
So heart warming. Can’t wait to meet this lovely lady soon. Thank you so much for taking care of our beautiful country
I wish you every success and a long life. Greetings from Cornwall.
Proud of this kenyan lady.
I love her! She has the sweetest voice, and such a beautiful passion.
Bless this woman
Wow!! Well done mama for your effort in restoring nature . So so inspiring!
So glad you find it inspiring!
I really like your new video style with all the narration coming from.the interviewee. And once again so much to learn from.the beautiful lady and her trees. Really points to what Kenya should be.
Thanks! I appreciate you taking the time to comment and share your reaction. You've been there since the very first video I uploaded - thank you! I still feel very much like a novice filmmaker, so it's great to get feedback like this.
@@GrowingSmall I was actually questioning if you took this from nat geo or something it was so good! Nice job! You definitely deserve millions of subscribers!
@@jakobtrahey846 Awww, thank you for your kind words, really gives me some motivation to go out there and do videos like this about the everyday heroes who do so much good work without really being recognized. People like Grete should be National Heroes for regenerating the land!
@@GrowingSmall :D
Great idea.
Great woman.
God bless.
I need to see the inside of that house. I'm guessing it's as gorgeous and earth friendly as her land.
Oh yea, the house inside is lovely too. Simple cabin like feel with lots of rustic wooden furniture. You'd love it :)
Bless you Grete. I live in a large town in South Africa with trees and birds. A living garden where the leaves remain under the trees to compost. No poisons. My neighbour's hate the trees and the birds and hack them whenever they can and spray weedkillers and poisons. The first thing to disappear were the chameleons. I love you mother earth!
Grete? I was wondering why this wonderful woman has no name here.
i love this, its so beautiful what some people are able to do even in a semi short timeline compared to other projects. All of it is natural, but yet serves a very useful purpose to keep that area green and reduce all the wind/dust/noise that otherwise would hit the house
Thank you for sharing, completely with you, that's why I've found Grete's story so inspiring!
Secret and critical...A GOOD FENCE... and a reasonably secure water source for nursery stage till established ...
Agreed!
so beautifull and i agree🌱🌳with you Lady ,soil is very importend
What a wonderful lady!
"Water has to be used at least twice" , that was powerful
Grete Davey, the simplicity of nature comes out with such a serene feeling! Thank you for documenting this beautiful story. We look forward to more!
That's exactly what I felt when I first visited Grete and it inspired me to make this film. Thanks for watching, Joyce!
Thank you for sharing her name and story. 'His eye is on the sparrow' is how folks express God's love for the smallest things. This lovely woman has sat down to admire her spider neighbor's life for two months. Hers is a life well lived.
As Grete said, you must have good soil. I have a patch of garden in front of my house where only weeds thrived for the past 12 years that I have lived there. I dug down deep and realized what an awful soil I have - 1 foot of good soil + 2 feet of compacted builder's sand + un penetrable super compacted coal pieces- 0 drainage. I've bought humus with horse manure and plan to do as Grete has done - dig up old soil and amend with the humus. Good luck to me at 70.
You can do it!!
You don't need to dig it up. Mulch it with whatever you have in the way of leaves, compost, manure. The earthworms and other critters will come and dig for you. You can lay down plain cardboard first, worms will digest that too. Weeds are a very good indicator of your soil type and are doing their best to amend your soil for you. Depending on the weed it's usually best to cut them off at ground level and use them as mulch.
So calming as she walk in her forest. Working towards the same. Thank you for this video and all others.
You are my hero. Yes to knowing about the importance of soil. I learn something new every day, put it into practice and spread the word. Fixing the planet one person at a time.
What a beautiful soul she is! God bless her for understanding what gifts He gave us and being a faithful steward of the natural beauty He created...FOR US, HIS CHILDREN!!!!!
We need more forests.
If only everyone would do that, instead of selling out to build subdivisions
It’s a paradise. She’s built paradise.
Thank you so much for this beautiful film the reminds us how lovely life can be. 💕
Glad you enjoyed it! Really like how you're putting it, "life can be lovely" :) Much love to the beautiful state of Maine!
when I perish I want my soul to have experienced such life and beauty as this woman
This woman is tremendous, kudos to her efforts!
*Her every single thought juss is mine as well*
...thanku granny for this
Danke für die Vielfalt, die du uns präsentierst uns die beeindruckenden Menschen mit ihren gelebten Idealen und Visonen
Immer wieder gerne :)
God bless this wonderful lady. Hydrated soil is critical.
She is such an amazing inspirational person .. exactly what I am going to start soon here in South Africa ❤
What a legacy she will leave behind.
Love the story and the music. Thank you for your work.
I loved thanks for that you doing (respects)!!!!!
So valuable lessons being transmitted and God bless!
Dream of me. Seeing her smile on her face and pride on her face when she speaks of the trees show how much passion and love she had for the plants. wish I have that life. bless her
Bravo! Thanks for sharing and the very best of luck!
Godbless this lady.🙏
She explained so well and so true that every tree provides shade, relaxing music of birds, food, beauty and home to wildlife.
This woman is amazing! I have always loved trees 🌳 growing up in Oregon.
This was a bit of calm outside of all of the chaos. It also reminds you of what's really important in this world.
Ahh thank you for your kind words 🙏
So beautiful the way that she loves spiders instead of killing them like most people I know. All life is so important.
love the lady, beautiful film, hope more people can and do this, so rewarding when you see threes growing and forming a small forest.
Thank you for filming this lovely lady and have us* experience her wisdom
Absolutely perfect!!❤