15/10/2025
🌺Food Forest Diaries🌺
When I accidentally began the farm in 2014, i had to roll up the sleeves during the day and burn the midnight oil at night to Understand food and farming. It was quite an exercise for many years. I came upon, discovered and studied many kinds of native farming and new age reformulations of traditional techniques. They mostly spoke the same theories but albeit in different tongues. They all referred to soil regeneration, integration, diversity, more perennial foods, native and heirloom seeds, growing with nature, integrated pest management, intercropping, multicropping, companion planting, crop rotation, green manuring, mulching, water conservation, value addition and direct sale to avoid the middle man, creating a circular economy, working with community etc. Beejom practices an amalgamation of the best of many ideas from many streams and i have worked on incorporating the best ideas that will match my geographical, sociological, economic and cultural scenario. In my various readings i came across a very interesting concept in permaculture called Gangammas Mandala by Bill Mollison who is considered to be one of the founding fathers of permaculture; the other being David Holmgren.
“Permaculture is an ecological design system for creating sustainable human habitats and food production systems by mimicking the relationships found in natural ecosystems. It was developed by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in 1978 and is guided by three core ethics: care for the Earth, care for people, and fair share. The practice draws inspiration from nature to design systems that are resilient, productive, and regenerative, and its principles can be applied to agriculture, land management, and even social structures.”
I was fascinated and decided to try my version of this Mandala Garden. This is just behind the house in the food forest. In the centre i planted an African Moringa that i accidntally found in a nursery in Hapur. It looks like an acacia and was a little expensive. I went to the nursery at least four times to buy it and came back feeling guilty about the price. I was besotted. Finally i went back one day and just bought it. This one got the pride of Place in the centre of the mandala which Is usually left to be a central compost area. The rest of the mandala has my own keyhole design with raised beds. Things grow beautifully in this space and usually we plant greens, salads and some vegetables. This Mandala is fringed by a circle of Arabian dates trees.
Shivnath at the farm insisted on painting the brick edging with terracotta since Diwali is round the corner and so the colouful look.
In permaculture there is often a lot of conversation about kyaris or beds. When should there be raised beds and when can the beds be shallow. What is Hügelkultur? What is a lasagna garden etc etc.
These are all primarily words and names for permanent beds which are created by layering with different types of biomass and soil In different ways so that a gradual decomposition of these layers will keep generating compost, improve and build soil microbiology. Furthermore these beds will be constantly mulched creating more and more nutrition for the plants automatically. The soil will be bautifully porous and hold water longer therefore requiring less watering and intervention.
Golden Rule: Never step on them.🙂
Apart from rotted Farm Yard Manure, one can use crop waste, dead leaves ( dicot and monocot), thinner branches, sugarcane bagasse, coconut husk etc. The matter that is going to take the longest to decompose goes to the bottom and the lightest and easiest are laid towards the top of the pile.
Each farm has different needs and so one has to find the type of bed that works for them. The Noida farm had sandy soil and so shallow beds worked there beautifully. in those beds too we mulched live or dry. In the farms in Hapur / Bulandshahr, the soil is a quite clayey and dries slowly. Its great for paddy. So the raised vegetable beds in a mandala garden or even just keyhole beds work beautifully here. There is no water logging then and it is easy to work. I love using bricks to edge the beds. We can use many natural materials too. Through soil regeneration the texture and PH of the soil is changing every year for the better and becoming more loamy.
The raised beds are carefully maintained and beautifully accessible due to the keyhole design. The self composting beds filled with layers of organic matter make the beds super fertile and productive. We don’t step into the beds ever to make sure the rich soil does not compact. We also practice some elementary crop rotation on it.
Now we have seeded the Mandala with some winter crops and in a few weeks the space will look quite magnificent with the Moringa being the star.
A natural farmer is an artist and the field is his canvas.
A little about this from the net:
“The term "Gangamma mandala" refers to a permaculture-based garden design that enables a family to grow its own fruits and vegetables in a small area. The circular pattern of the garden is inspired by a traditional Indian mandala.
This mandala model is named after Gangamma, a woman from the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, where the design is commonly implemented. It was developed by permaculture designer Bill Mollison, reportedly inspired by a local woman, in the 1980s.
Features of the Gangamma mandala garden
Small footprint: This model is designed for a plot as small as 1,000 square feet, making it suitable for homesteads with limited space.
High-yield design: The circular structure, often with a "keyhole" pattern, increases the amount of edge space, which boosts the garden's overall yield.
Maximized resources: The design includes a central compost area that helps retain moisture, provides nutrients, and minimizes waste. This allows for productive and sustainable gardening using limited resources like land and water.
Diverse crops: Different sections of the circular garden are dedicated to various fruits, vegetables, and medicinal herbs, helping a family of five meet its nutritional needs year-round.
Reduced dependency: The produce grown in a Gangamma mandala reduces a family's need to purchase fresh food from the market, promoting food security.”
By the way;
I have also posted some photos of the mandala 7 years ago; when it was just made and there was no forest. 🙂
