We’ve been away and our focus has been simply to keep going – protect existing trees, continue with organic farming, and maintain our boundaries. The extreme seasons of north India give us enough to do to keep things under control! In 2025, we plan to do our next round of intense plantation. Since January, weContinue reading “Gearing up”
Tag Archives: Miyawaki
Visitors!
On February 25th, we had one of our first ‘tours’ of our Miyawaki foresting. Our partner organization, NIRMAN, had a “Farm to Fork” event with all kinds of inspiring and creative activities related to the environment. One of these was a visit to the main land and forest. It was lovely having people visit respectfully,Continue reading “Visitors!”
Gangavan in 2024
A forest will grow naturally. This year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, called for the world to plant a trillion trees. Many commentators explain, however, that all you need for forestation is to let the land alone without further damage and the forest will grow back itself. Meanwhile, “….a new study shows that theContinue reading “Gangavan in 2024”
Welcomed back by the land
We’ve mostly been trying to get things back in hand after the monsoons, which were overwhelming, and then trying to harvest the rice and get in the winter farming crops in time. The whole village is doing the same, but with a calm and collected attitude. We are such amateurs in comparison! Here’s our rice:Continue reading “Welcomed back by the land”
Floods!
Well, we made a mistake not to make our bridge even higher. Our carpenter had planned it for about five feet higher than it is, and that seemed outrageously high to us. But, today, the nala has risen above it. If you stand on the bridge, you are knee-deep in water, and it is stillContinue reading “Floods!”
First trenches done!
We managed to hold off the rain till last night (!), and started filling the trenches yesterday. Twelve are done, and what beauties they are! They all have a mix of soil, cowdung, straw, and leaves. They are porous and feel rich and ready to welcome new life. It finally rained last night, so thatContinue reading “First trenches done!”
Hello, babies!
The two things we have been working on for the past few days are seeds and trenches. Re: the latter, we are in the process of buying and gathering together massive amounts of straw, leaves, and cowdung, and trying to distribute them in piles all around our site. It’s a lot of manual labour, andContinue reading “Hello, babies!”
Another storm approaches
This time, as an after-effect of the cyclone Yaas in West Bengal, the forecast says rain for the next few days. We’ve started dumping mud near the ‘dam’, which is the main place from which we lose water and soil, and where we have been building the retaining wall. We have a few days workContinue reading “Another storm approaches”
Who we learn from
Akira Miyawaki: for intensive planting mainly around our boundary and places where our land is threatened by erosion Masanobu Fukuoka, Subhash Palekar: Natural farming techniques Robert Hart, Martin Crawford, Geoff Lawton: Forest gardens and food forests Others: There are so many inspiring individuals around India and the world who we read and listen to, andContinue reading “Who we learn from”
First steps
Digging, tool-building, organising The excavator is busy making trenches along the entire boundary, in order to plant intensively, Miyawaki-style. The trenches are 10 x 20 ft, and each will contain about 75 trees of four different sizes. We’re in the process of making lists of trees and contacting nurseries to order the saplings for nextContinue reading “First steps”
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