First Morning in the Greening the Desert Garden (2025 Update)

Geoff takes us on his first walk through the Greening the Desert site after returning to Jordan, on an unscripted tour full of insights about resilience, soil fertility, shade strategies and plant partnerships that turn bare ground into abundance.

Key Takeaways:

– Observation first: Even in challenging environments, close observation reveals what’s working and what needs care.
– Plant partnerships matter: Species like lucina and purslane work together to shade the soil and build fertility fast.
– Shade is survival: In arid climates, canopy layers and living mulch dramatically reduce water stress.
– Abundance returns: What began as bare earth now supports a thriving ecosystem — proof that design can transform even the toughest sites.
– Continuous learning: Every season teaches new lessons about resilience, adaptation, and abundance.

Tree Species Mentioned:

– Lucina / Leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala) – nitrogen-fixing, fast-growing, mulch producer
– Purslane / Sea Purslane (Portulaca oleracea / Sesuvium portulacastrum) – groundcover, reduces evaporation
– Grapefruit (Citrus × paradisi) – fruit tree
– Citrus (general) (Citrus spp.) – includes oranges, mandarins, other varieties
– Fig (Ficus carica) – fruit tree
– Papaya (Carica papaya) – fruit tree
– Guava (Psidium guajava) – fruit tree
– Olive (Olea europaea) – hardy tree, drought-tolerant
– Carob (Ceratonia siliqua) – flowering, drought-tolerant
– Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera) – fruiting tree
– Mulberry (Morus nigra / Morus alba) – fruit tree
– Mango (Mangifera indica) – fruit tree, protected microclimate
– Custard Apple (Annona reticulata / Annona squamosa) – fruit tree
– Pomegranate (Punica granatum) – fruit tree
– Hibiscus tiliaceus (Beach Hibiscus) – mulch producer, hardy shrub
– Albizia (Albizia lebbeck) – shade, biomass, nitrogen-fixing
– Aloe Vera (Aloe vera) – groundcover, under citrus
– Singapore Daisy (Sphagneticola trilobata) – groundcover, reduces evaporation
– Bottlebrush (Callistemon citrinus / Melaleuca citrina) – ornamental, shade tree
– Jacaranda (Jacaranda mimosifolia) – ornamental, shade tree
– Poinciana / Flamboyant (Delonix regia) – shade, ornamental tree
– White Cedar (Melia azedarach) – ornamental, shade tree
– Brazil Spinach (Alternanthera sissoo) – perennial edible groundcover
– Purple Leaf Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas) – groundcover, edible
– Mother of Millions / Mother-in-law’s Plant (Bryophyllum delagoense / Kalanchoe spp.) – succulent, ornamental
– Kangkong / Water Spinach (Ipomoea aquatica) – edible aquatic plant
– Banana (Musa spp.) – fruiting, tropical understory

*To support us in making more videos:*

► Sign up for our newsletter and the Permaculture Circle—Geoff’s curated collection of 100+ free videos: https://www.discoverpermaculture.com/thepermaculturecircle
► Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/geofflawtononline/
► Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geofflawtononline/
► Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL_r1ELEvAuN0peKUxI0Umw/?sub_confirmation=1
► And most importantly, enjoy your permaculture journey!

#permaculture #greeningthedesert #permaculturedesign #regenerativeagriculture #soilhealth #foodforest #forestgarden #desertfarming #sustainability #sustainablelandscaping

Just looking down the driveway, I can see a lot of extra growth. And um we’ve got some beautiful overhanging foliage that’ll be great to prune and add to soil fertility. Um lots of cats here coming to greet me. And uh our sea purse lane here is covering the rock wall and it’s thriving. And we got plenty of that we can chop out and transplant or just add as nice juicy mulch. Um, I can see uh Lucina, one in full seed here and one not in seed, but all producing great organic matter. There’s lucina everywhere. As usual, it’s performing to give us lots and lots of organic matter. Super fast carbon pathway. And I can see just through there. There I can see grapefruit. Citrus are always a bit hard in such a a difficult site like this. Um, but I can see at least three grapefruit on that young grapefruit there. And that’s a really nice sign. When I left, this area was bare of foliage. There was all lucina were cut down. So, there was no foliage. There were just polided high stumps. And now massive amounts of organic matter to return to the soil. And um, it looks like we’ve lost a fig here. There’s going to be casualties, of course. This is an extremely hardy site, but generally that area there is looking amazing as far as organic matter, and we’ll be able to add to the soil fertility. So, I’m going to walk around the perimeter first. And um yeah, cotton. Look at the cotton. It’s funny. Uh looks like cotton wool. It is cotton wool, actually. Um so, cotton grows quite well here. And it doesn’t look like it’s uh too stressed from the summer. Look um moringa. Minga is absolutely full of seed here. And um very little foliage, but it’s going to bounce back now. Um looks good. And behind the albizia lebecia lebecks are thriving with their high foliage prune shading our garden. Um, papaya definitely looks a bit stressed but still alive. Okay, let’s go on round. See P Lane has extended beautifully. Uh, our kitchen garden, our home garden is more or less empty. Few chilies, but now’s the time we’re going to plant. It’s going to be up and away. Cats having fun. There’s cat scratches all over these trees, but that’s all right. give them a bit exercise. Um, yeah, see pane is just starting to creep over everything, which is great. It’s what we want. We want that gel grand cover reducing evaporation. Evidence anti- evaporation in strategy initially. Rock walls are getting completely covered. Those rock wall earth swelles hardly recognizable because of the sea purse lane. Just love this plant almost as much as lucina. and uh they’re a great partnership. So, Olive, Olive looking fine. Absolutely thriving. Doesn’t worry about temperatures. Citrus again. Not so good. Not so great. Actually, looks quite dead that one. Anyway, we’ll see. And uh here’s uh says Benia Grand Flora. Looks like it’s going to make it. Beautiful legume flower that one. And in the ground here coming up is one of the old propus. Still giving them a a flogging every now and again and knocking it back and abusing the regrowth. But that’s what pioneered the site originally. We don’t need it anymore. And uh yeah, citrus casualty here again. We’ve had a very hard summer. And uh oh, carob is flowering. Uh, carob pods are going to come booming out of there. Some of the dates are still here. Still dates to pick. It’s good. More precopus. Little bit of precopus regen. Takes a bit of knocking back and it’ll go if I keep abusing it. And then on we go up through the top of the site. This is hard up here. It’s the harder part of the site. Uh, Lucina thriving, coming back, giving us lots of organic matter. We’ll get that on the ground pretty soon. Yeah, I can tell by the some of the losses we’ve had. It’s been pretty hard this year. This summer’s been very heavy, high temperature summer. Uh, little carob. Another citrus here. Pretty stressed. Trying to produce one or two little citrus. Trying hard. Wava looking a bit stressed. As we get more and more sea pers across everything on the top of the site, it’ll be better. Yeah, this top area really needs a bit of love. It’s looking a bit hard up here. As the nutrient goes downhill with it, you get more and more fertility. So, there’s little lines of foliage coming more and more everywhere. So this is a a twostory mud brick building which is accommodation. So uh pretty special this one. Twostory mud brick. Very nice. Every every room’s got an on suite and uh it’s a nice cool building to be in. So coming down this side which is shaded by the front wall. Wow. The lucina there is absolutely massive for the size and time it’s had to produce that and uh says banania again grand flora there’s one or two around they’re not super rampant but they are very beautiful as well as being a legume on this side we’ve got a bit of extra shade and that’s what helps so good looking citrus right There. More olives. We’ve got Singapore daisy grand cover there. That’s great. Hardly keeps up with the sea post, but it is thriving in this section. There’s another patch here. Need these grand covers. And uh a lemon there fruiting quite well. Again, shade. Big difference is shade. There’s an albizia lebec going over the top of the wall. There’s two date palms. The wall itself is shade, the front wall. And we’ve got a bit of lucina and you just notice what works after a while. Pomegranate going quite well here. Hibiscus, not a legume, but a great mulch producer. Very hardy. Doesn’t mind alkaline conditions. Got a couple of these. Can definitely get a lot of organic matter off them. Another citrus. Another guava. And we’re coming down towards the bottom here or the midsection, should I say. Yeah. And it definitely looks like we’re coming to the end of summer. It’s pretty pretty tough looking scene, but we’ve got plenty to work with and plenty to teach from. That’s the important thing. People need to know what to emphasize. And uh [Music] there’s an a key apple. Always hardy. The old South African ai apple in them. I pruned our busy bec again. Our main vegetable garden at the bottom pretty empty. But our nursery looking good. Still got quite a bit in the nursery to transplant out. Yep. always nice and efficient in the nursery. And the bottom here, very little in the vegetable garden. Just kicking back in now as temperatures start to fall. Uh our little pots are are going well. We’ve got these ornamental pots with super hardy cactus and succulents. Volunteer lucina partnered with a presopus which is our initial pioneering tree. There’s residual seeds, I suppose, everywhere. And um Hey, pretty nice date here. Yeah, quite a bit of fruit still on the date. Lovely stuff. Yeah, got to try one. That’s good. All right, let’s go on round. By looks nice. Temperatures are cooling. back from the hardware. Another date. Still got plenty of fruit on to harvest. Couple of nice papayas coming out the worm farm gardens. Not a bad way to go. And here we are down behind the cafe. Nice little gardens. Lots of volunteer lucina and regrowth. This old lucina here has always produced well and she’s done it again. Given us lots of organic matter. Oh, one of our little succulent pots. What a funny combination that is. Purple sweet potato. Brazilian spinach. Mothers of millions. Mother-in-law’s plant. There’s a few mothers involved in the names here. Okay. Uh, Chat Malbury looking highly stressed, but looks like she’s going to come through. Love this mulbury. Just such a tasty little malberry, that one. And uh, on we Oh, look at this. What a treat. We’ve got a cactus flowering. Oh, isn’t that just gorgeous? Look at that thing. Amazing. Thank you for that treat. That’s really sweet. Beautiful. Beautiful. A gift of beauty there. Lucina, that one’s flowering heavily or seeding heavily, providing us some propagation material. Another little succulent pot again with Brazil cherry. Uh, Brazil, I keep saying it. Brazil spinach. I better get the Latin name out there. Uh, anthetheria sissu goes from cutings. Endless perennial spinach. But a nice little example of hardy succulents just for some potted beauty to be around. All right, let’s see if the doors open and I can get out of this way. Yay, I can escape to the street. All right. Haven’t seen that here. There’s uh um Abler’s garden now. Thousands garden. I can look at see that’s nice and green coming over the wall across the road from us. Beautiful. And our street side cafe gardens which are definitely eclectic and unusual. We’ve got a lot of lucina to chop out and shape up the gardens back into the mostly ornamentals. Here’s our cafe. Organic cafe. What a beautiful thing. It’s very very special. And u it would fit in anywhere. Paris, New York, London. You begin that the decoration in there is is quite unusual. Why not? And then up on the top floor there, we have an organic restaurant which is uh another very special part of the project. Now see Persine raging over the wall. And this is one of my favorite little examples here. This is my streetscape garden cage from the goats cuz you have to to get a really good result. See pers lane and Singapore daisy in the floor. ground cover and um Euphobia bush as a as another gel plant, but a bush, not a ground cover. And then we got pansiana. Oh my goodness, it looks great. and uh Caliandra and white cedar and Australian bottle brush uh and a uh jackaranda poniana white cedar and it’s all thriving end of summer looking fantastic looking great just cuz that assembly of plants uses less water than just trees add this assembly And the trees don’t need as much water cuz of the great reduction in evaporation. And it’s a testament. There it is sitting right out. My uh brother-in-law next door has planted trees without much protection at all. Well, without any. And um they’re in quite a different condition. Now, they get the same amount of water as these trees, but uh I’m trying to show plant the right assembly, and you need less water. So, in through the next entrance here into the driveway. And let’s have a look how it looks on this driveway entrance. Here’s Darren’s house. Looks like he’s lost a mango out the front. Oh well, the bottle brush here which grows where I live in Australia is just loving it. It’s behind the shade of the wall. Let’s go and find getting an extra treat then. Let’s just have a look through here. Area that needs cleaning up. But there but there’s a reed bed and it’s just sort of disappeared underneath foliage. Um this is the reed bed for the cafe. You can hardly see the reads because the trees are all over the top of it. What a lovely thing. Right in front of me was an experimental banana circle. Just couldn’t take it. Couldn’t take the heat and our lack of water. We aren’t going to have enough water to keep them alive. But I’ll get there one day. Yes. Yes. This old girl, she comes here regularly to have puppies. We’re such a safe destination. Another lovely palm date palm. This is probably a seedling, but it’s fruiting late, which is good for us. That’s great. All right. Tree I haven’t mentioned here before. Sespania says bands. It’s a gorgeous thing. It’s super super fast and only lives for about seven years, but it just flies out of the ground. Can plant by seed. It’s so quick. Have to worry about any care. I’ll dodge these beehives and get over the top here. This area here, we’ve done a bit of work bringing it into function, adding lots of extra support species. There’s a young albizia lebec here going to take the canopy one day sooner or later. Fisbania sisbans and uh quite a bit of stress citrus this time of year, but everything’s going to get better now for the next 6 months. Nice organic matter on the ground. Added extra straw. We need more sea pane, but it is coming. It’s creeping across there. And here, nice one. There’s a aloe vera ground cover under a citrus. It’s fruiting. Okay, consider it. On we go through the system. The veggie bed next door is a poultry pen at the moment as we’re preparing the plant. Another film going down there later. Won’t go back into that system. Let’s go on through the food forest here. Beehives. We have lots of beehives through the system. And here we have the ground covers again. Grand covers are working. Beautiful. Nice. There’s more citrus here. They’re coming. These ones are coming. Good. Oranges, mandarins, grapefruit, mulbury here. Another malbury. I love this malbury. It just fruits really well. Looks good. Everything looks good here. Citrus is looking a lot better in the lower section. Just a nutrient. The nutrient drips downhill. Everything drips downhill really. Okay. Nice olive. Little bit more open in this section. Grant covers looking good. Looks like we’ve lost a custard apple here. Oh well. It was always a bit questionable custard apples here when we get dry summers. And on the outside of our natural swimming pool, this date I love this date. It’s great. I think it’s a seedling. I’m not sure it’s a true variety, but it just produces. I have to get up there with a ladder and get some of these down. There’s a lot There’s a lot already falling onto the ground. Look, we get those back to a compost. I’m nearly full circuit. Some empty holes here to plant. Get some more trees in here. There’s more citrus. Citrus coming. Coming towards winter when the citrus thrive. Coming good. Um up into our chicken pan back corner. Here we are. And the citrus is looking quite good. The compost getting ready to be made. I’ll be turning that one. Plenty of manure to hold on to. And here are our chickens. Collect some eggs for breakfast in a minute. As usual, I’ll find something to pick in the garden for a fresh breakfast. Now, let’s just walk it through. Nearly there. Hey, natural swimming pool and lots of Kang Kong. I can eat some of that for breakfast with some eggs. Right, we got some Kang Kong, fresh dates, Brazil spinach, and probably plenty more if I start looking. Our natural swimming pool’s going okay right now. Well, fence pool to keep the kids out. Here’s the back terrace that’s a little bit more subtropical. And the malbury is actually flying up there. And the moringa is feeding and the ground covers prolific. [Music] I’m got to go in. I’ve got to go in. This is Singapore daisy and sea pane mix on the ground. Cutle leaf mulberries really big above me mixing with moringa. And uh there’s a little bit of a defined track. Figs are going okay. And I want to visit this girl at the back corner. It’s another malbury. And uhoh, here she is. Bit of a pride and joy this one. This is a mango. This is the best mango on site. I think it’s the best position we’ve hit. Nice little corner protected in summer from a bit of extra shade and a nice sun trap in winter in the opposite way. So, I’ll leave you there and we’ll get into a few more tours later. Well, that’s my first morning in Jordan. Adlib, straight off the camera. You can’t have it more broad than that. Great bringing it to you. I’m off on a consultancy this morning and I do a bit of filming out there. Different scene. Very different scene. So, live live reporting from the front line and I’ll I’ll bring more of it to you. Thanks,