What is Zen-Farming?

The Zen-Farming Approach

Zen-Farming is a holistic approach to Self-reliance and Sovereignty on the land.

It is an approach of maximum allowance of Nature’s ability to thrive and yield on its terms. Zen-Farming utilizes the greatest range of useful perennial, annual, aquatic and support species, to create strategic seasonally maturing ecological plant guilds for that feed all traditional livestock with a nutritious diverse diet, who in turn perform all vegetation maintenance, nutrient recycling, fertility renewal and prepare ground for no-till annual broadcast cropping.

Zen-Farming is based on observations and understanding how nature can thrive effortlessly by itself, and how we can align our efforts to fully cooperate with nature’s inherent productive powers. Zen-Farming is doing only what is required to successfully grow naturally, Co-creating with nature, ecological production systems following  nature’s own blueprints for thriving and resilient abundance. Zen-Farming in a nut shell is a robust strategy for ‘Achieving Ecological Abundance with Ease’,

Zen-Farming’s unique guiding principle is ‘Holistic Natural Efficiency’. the mindset and practical approach that acknowledges all natural-healthy processes within their time frame, and the range of energies expended and resources required to achieve productive outcomes. We see how nature has achieved vast ecologies of plants, animals, fungi and symbiotic organisms, across diverse environments, living in a state of dynamic balance and health without any human assistance. ‘Holistic Natural Efficiency’ is then applied to all aspects from the garden-farm design layout and to all production functionality. It leverages the natural productive momentum in all possible ways, from strategically locating all species in their optimal growing niche, to working efficiently with the weather and seasonal influences. Ultimately doing only what is required to assist nature to thrive year-round, promoting the greatest levels of natural-organic production. ‘Holistic Natural Efficiency’ follows all the inherent advantages of nature’s ways of production, including optimizing the natural growing conditions, maintaining natural soil structure/no-till, utilizing perennial crops and legumes; allowing many annual and biennial species to self-sow; growing the other annual crops via broadcasting their seeds into the mulch layer for their oncoming season; Easily propagating perennial crops via division, layering and cuttings. And deliberately consider the most efficient relative location of all infrastructure, plants and livestock systems for optimal efficiency of time, energy and sustained natural production.

Zen-Farming and Holistic Natural Efficiency are in a sense, simply a return to a state of balance and appreciation for our own living environment and the many benefits of being part of healthy natural ecology. Many indigenous cultures have aligned with this deep sense of connection and have intentionally managed their environment as a productive ecosystem that has sustained their people and culture over millennia. In the present time, we have a unique opportunity to learn from indigenous cultures and also from nature directly, co-creating with nature, productive landscapes of this level of efficiency and enduring productivity.

Zen-Farming applies ‘Not-Doing’ to all unnecessary, inefficient and detrimental activities, practices that waste and prevent a true collaborate link with nature to achieve lasting and resilient production. We phase out and end all..Tilling/ploughing the soil; Repeated mowing and slashing; Using synthetic chemicals and performing ‘maintenance activities’ that destroy nature’s regrowth impulse. We instead get on the front foot offering our species in the most efficient way, strategically planting out all the useful species available to us, phasing out input expenses through becoming increasingly more self-reliant as we produce most of our own essential foods and medicines.

Zen-Farming builds upon the existing ecology with holistically integrated design and strategically timed actions to achieve the succession of productive species, we can fill every niche across the landscape and microclimates. Co-creating with nature, dynamic ecological production guilds that are resilient and achieve reliable production from a foundation of perennial crops bordering areas for annual broadcast cropping and seasonal livestock foraging.

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Zen-farming creates resilient food production systems that yield effortlessly while quickly  phasing out input expenses, as you grow more of your own, become less dependent upon external inputs, and phase out ‘maintenance needs’ or machinery use. Utilizing heirloom/ natural seeds and plants, heritage animals and optimized water resources via contour channels and terracing, strategically manage livestock in seasonal production areas where they feed themselves predominantly from perennial crops and self-seeding and broadcast grown annuals, performing all vegetation maintenance, stimulating the soil biome and fertility, doing all the preparation before we broadcast the next seasonal range of annual grains, legumes, leaf and root crops..

Zen-Farming incorporates a number of unique design features &  including;-

Seasonally maturing orchards and forage crops, for targeted livestock rotational foraging, 4 or more for each livestock type;

‘Abundance Corridors’ of hardy-staple high-food-value crops, (Avocado, banana, papaya, cassava, sweet potato, taro,) linking all livestock systems with additional food resource backup;

A focus on Planting out a maximum range of useful species into their optimal niche to thrive effortlessly & be managed holistically for maximum natural productivity.

Zen-farmers cultivate their relationship with the natural world, via silent observation and the faculty of intuitive intelligence/ holistic view, learning directly from nature itself how to promote natural momentum of our crops through the changing seasons and celestial influences. We become the stewards of our own life sustaining and life affirming habitat, imbued with the surety and resilience of nature aligned production systems, holistic practices and a clear vision and purpose of the practical achievement of a lasting natural paradise, garden of Eden 2.0.

Matt Downie 2024