Wednesday, February 15, 2006

The Kolkata Permaculture Demonstration Garden at the Close of the 2006 Visit by Friends of Kolkata.


This was the banana circle as we left it on January 25 2006. I see the old fellow has gotten on board with the mulching concept (at first he was somewhat sceptical). Check back this time next year to see what happened!


And here is where we left the mulch experiment, again taken 25/1/06. We put brick edges and sunken paths around half of one of the existing vegetable beds. We then added water, a layer of newspaper, a layer of food scraps and azolla, and then a thick layer of water hyacynth (walking on it to fit more in). Then made holes through the mulch, filled them with some compost (which was apparently from food scraps and cow manure but was very old and dry), and then planted in some Eden Early Gem Sweet Corn seeds. We planted the same seeds covered with the same compost in the rest of the bed so we get a direct comparison of any benefit that the mulch gives us.



These pics are as far as we got with the chook tractor based mandala garden. The frame is complete, from bamboo strips drilled and wired together then braced with wire ah la Linda Woodrow. Base diameter is 3.4 meters. Bhaskar has chicken wire netting to cover the whole dome and has started putting it on. He is also researching chickens and hopes to have them at work by the end of February.


We have marked out and dug out the paths for the whole mandala, and Bhaskar is planning to get sawdust for the paths, to plant lemon grass around the perimeter, and to get various legumes growing where ever they will fit. Again, check back in a year to see what happened!


Finally, here is a chilli, corriander, and flower spiral we knocked up just before leaving. Bhaskar (God bless him!) is going to plant it out. Dan only had time to plant one nasturtium seedling right at the base...

7 comments:

vivekananda said...

Hi really nice blog. Please add posts. would like to seems the updates. please add your mail ID. I want to discuss something more with you. or please send a test mail to my ID vivekanandak@gmail.com

Unknown said...

Just wanted you to know that I linked to you at my blog, Permaculture & Regenerative Design News, at http://kjpermaculture.blogspot.com/
It would be great if you could link back. Thanks,
Keith

Unknown said...

Hi Dan

Really like your blog. Very inspiring.

I am living in Orissa for 1 year and am keen to practice some permaculture here. One thing I wanted to ask your advice on. People I am living with apparently bury their food scraps and kitchen waste as their method of composting. I would usually start a compost heap on the surface. Is that wise in the tropics or is it even more likely to attract vermin etc, including snakes? I guess it would have to be in a protected "container" of some sort?

I would be interested to get your leaflets in both English and Bengali (if the Bengali is written phonetically rather than in the script) as I might eventually have a go at translating them into Oriya, which I think has some similarities to Bengali. But if it is in script don't worry.

My email is clahunt@googlemail.com

Thanks Claire.

Ridhi said...

Thanks for this blog Dan. You might be interested in looking at Ringo's projects. He's doing one 25 km away from Bangalore and another one in Coorg. Here's his blog address http://ringospermaculture.blogspot.com/
He's looking to set up a Permaculture Network in India and conduct PDCs for interested people. He's also looking to connect and learn from other Permaculturalists in India. Hope this helps :)

Good luck with everything you do.

SamThePonds said...

Hello! Great work and nice blog. I'm living in India in Nagpur, Maharasthra, and am interested in networking with those practicing and teaching permaculture here. I have a project working with farmers nearby too so would be very pleased to hear more about your experience working with permaculture in India (I'm from the UK). Please contact me on sam_is_online@hotmail.com. Many thanks! Samantha Bhaware

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