Geoff Lawton — Zaytuna Farm & Greening the Desert
Two distinct teaching settings: a subtropical Australian farm and a managed dryland demonstration in Jordan.
Botanical illustration—not a photograph of this project.
Geoff and Nadia Lawton are associated with Zaytuna Farm in Australia and the Greening the Desert project in Jordan. These are distinct places with different climates. The Jordan project’s own description places it in the Dead Sea Valley and names Nadia Lawton as founder and team leader. Meet the site and team.
The idea to borrow
Water is a design constraint, not an afterthought. The Jordan site describes rainwater-harvesting earthworks, wastewater treatment and reuse, plant and animal systems, housing and teaching. The interesting story is how those pieces are managed together.
Follow the water budget
A cultivated green site does not show that every desert should become forest, or that trees can thrive without a water budget. Natural dryland ecosystems have their own value. A demonstration also does not isolate which intervention caused which result.
The operator presents ambitious restoration claims; we treat those as the project’s account, not independently verified outcomes. Infrastructure, expertise and ongoing work belong in the story alongside the planting.
Before borrowing the earthworks
Check local hydrology, soil stability, permissions and effects downstream. Site-scale water engineering deserves qualified local advice. At home, observing runoff and reducing waste is a sensible beginning; digging a swale from a photograph is not a plan.