Beginnings of a permaculture garden at the Thailand Retreat Center
Caring for the earth. Caring for others. Sharing the surplus that you grow. These are the ethics of permaculture. Last fall, when Dharmanidhi explained that the new retreat center in Thailand would be created based on permaculture principles, I had no idea what that was. When he described the bounty of the food forests, and the pond on the land as a big fridge,that sounded amazing. It seemed almost unbelievable in a way, since it’s so opposite to standard conceptions of commercial growing practices. I have always loved growing plants, marveling at the beans, flowers, and lettuces as they grew. I grew them in the standard way, with each seedling having little connection to the next, only insofar as occupying the same plot of soil in time and space. As I learned more about permaculture, I understood better that “Nature” as an ecological system does not need any outside assistance. I saw that we do a poor job at living with her because we do not mimic her beauty and wildness in our gardens – we try to control gardens as ‘we’/modern Western culture try to do with just about everything. It doesn’t make sense and it doesn’t work for the short-term or long-term.
By building your garden based upon permaculture principles you create communities and you embody connections that already are there between you (microcosm) and Ma Earth (macrocosm). You grow plants in their own harmonious guilds, and you start to really sense how you are truly connected to Mother Earth and to all things, including the pruner in your hand, the bugs munching on your greens, and the weather patterns. Feeling that you are part of this macrocosm, relating to the natural world around you as your very own self/family in a new way that opens your heart and thrills you with creating nourishment from the soil, and watching life grow before your eyes all offer an immense sense of satisfaction and an opportunity to really be in the present moment. We understand more clearly that we cannot exist without each other and we are one being. Does that sound familiar?
A year after hearing about permaculture for the first time, I’ve attended a five-day permaculture class with Scott Pittman (who worked with Dharmanidhi in Thailand on the retreat center), I’m enrolled in the beginning permaculture class at Merritt College, I’m trying to infiltrate our ornamental garden with the first glimmerings of a food forest, and I’m looking forward to a future as a permaculturist. Wow! And the more I learn the more excited I get. I feel I have just tasted a tiny morsel of this huge field – there’s soil to study, all the plants and their purposes, the many beneficial beasts, harvesting water, and more. Studying this seemed a perfect course for me this summer, and when I arrived at the Seeds of Change farm in the mountains near Santa Fe, I immediately felt at home. Everything about permaculture just seems to make sense on an intuitive level. It feels very ‘natural’ – i.e., without effort. As in Nature, things take care of themselves when we are not disturbing it. As I learn more, it feels so organic, harmonious, commonsensical, and VERY creative. I’m fascinated constantly as I learn more – it feels like ANYTHING is possible.
Everything I’m learning about permaculture makes so much sense, why didn’t I hear about it before?!
Perhaps it’s like the veil of Maya lifting to reveal your essence nature. Was it really there all along? Well, Mother Nature has definitely been taking care of herself for billions of years, so she must not need our help! Your traditional gardener thinks they have to work to kill insects, pull weeds, till the soil, and plant seeds each year. The average gardener usually works against natural processes and creates a space where the soil’s natural balance is disturbed by digging, planting plants that serve only one function which is often simply ornamental, planting vegetable gardens in long rows where no synergy is possible, using pesticides which destroy the natural, necessary, and beneficial relationship between insects and plant life, etc. Too much effort!
In permaculture, that same plant might be ornamental, but it might also be a nitrogen fixer, edible, medicinal, a great mulcher, offer shade or ground cover, and if it’s perennial you don’t even have to plant it each year! If we study a forest in the wild we see that it has no need of fertilizer, hoeing, or seeding. It takes care of itself. This is the model we work towards in our food forest or permaculture garden. We create an environment where each part has multiple functions, where water comes from multiple sources, and where there is a feedback system that keeps it all running and in check. And eventually with very little “work” necessary, your food forest flourishes on its own.
What I love about permaculture:
- Stacking of functions – each plant and tree serves multiple purposes in the food forest. A tree creates shade, offers transpiration, assists in rainfall, holds heat under the canopy, feeds insects, shelters birds, creates a root network to bring nutrients up from the earth, and provides habitat for animals.
- Creating guilds (kulas!) of plants that all help each other out when planted together so that humans don’t need to interfere/do as much. And it’s more like it is in ‘nature’ where plants and other creatures naturally come together to keep the ecosystem in balance.
- Natural methods of ‘planting’ rainwater. This means that we don’t lose all the precious rainwater that will actually ‘grow’ or multiply if we direct it and plant it in the ground in natural earthworks – the earth! In our area (Northern California), we get about 22” of rain per year – that can be increased with very little effort. If an acre of land gets 1” of rain per year, and you have created a proper catchment surface, you’ll increase that 1” to 27,000 gallons of water.
- Ease! The famous permaculturist Mary Stout rarely watered her garden, and used to ‘plant’ it by tossing seeds or sprouting potatoes on to the earth and MAYBE kicking a little dirt over it! She also had this to say, “I don’t do anything I don’t want to do if I don’t have to do it. And I don’t have to do it, so I don’t.” She also gardened in the nude! See how much fun and how natural it
- Networking! In my classes people are so helpful and creative and communal. They are always bringing food, sharing recipes, gardening tips, extra fruit and veggies from their gardens, giving their two cents – all very much from a place of love. It’s amazing. Human communities are now forming through these beautiful plant communities, and all are connected. I love this. And it reminds me of kula.
Inspiration – I recommend a book called “Rainwater Harvesting” Volume 2, by Brad Lancaster, who taught for two days at the class I took with Scott. There’s a beautiful story in the introduction about a community in the Thar desert of Rajasthan, and how a single man named Jagveer Singh inspired a re-invigoration of a dried up, dying farming community named Laporiyah through small efforts at planting the rainwater. Over 13 years, through careful management and a community motivated to grow, they raised well levels from 60’ deep to just 15’ below the surface, they have 2 crops per year, and the community works together to strategize their success. Interestingly, each year on the 11th day after Diwali, the 3000 villagers “march through neighboring villages promoting water harvesting, conservation of common lands, tree planting and empowerment of the people.” After marching, they have a day of worship when people bless the water “bodies” they have dug themselves, anoint trees with kumkum, and tie ‘rachis’ around each other’s wrists and the trees, “connecting them all and signifying the brotherhood of them all, including the watershed that now supports and unifies them.” This story brought tears to my eyes when I read it – a desert and community reborn through care, love, and working together.
I intend to plant more greenery, food, and water in the world through permaculture, from Thailand to the US. Jaya Ma! Jaya Gurudev!
With love,
Tara
Filed under: Permaculture
