Permaculture Living with MLG

We set out to grow some food and harvest our own water. But we got so much more in return. We realised that land is not a place of extraction. It is not a factory. It is our home. And before we set out to build a dwelling unit on it, we must convert it into a habitat. Somewhere along the way the land changes, and we change. And then we both meet to live a life of compatibility and harmony. . . . F...

As we integrated vegetables into our plantation design, we realised how the green revolution has completely wiped out all the varieties of heirloom and native seeds that grew in Punjab/ Haryana belt. Today farmers are dependent on companies for hybrid seeds and have lost the self sufficient and dignity that comes from seed saving . . . For more information on permaculture, visit www.aanandaa.com....

A big problem of modern agriculture is our choice of crops. All across the world our focus is on growing grasses like wheat, maize, rice and millets. Grasses are neither our natural eco system, nor our natural diet. This shift to eating grasses at large scale is a big criss for both the planet, and our health. Grasses are the natural diet of grazing animals, not humans. . . . For more information...

Within years of setting up Aanandaa, we had a stream of fruit available around the year to feast on. Its crazy how people choose to plant monoculture orchards, when you can grow a vertically stacked orchard of many different fruit varieties - which together constitute a food forest. Fruit is our natural diet and trees are the planet's natural cover. There is a reason why food forests are good for...

Building soil is not an overnight exercise. In fact it may not be completed even in one lifetime. Our soils are so degraded worldwide, that it requires serious and continuous focus to build them back. That is a primary goal for a permaculture project. It is the conversation we must have with our staff when we review their performance. How is the soil doing? . . . For more information on permacultu...

2015 saw us making some big changes. Some of those decisions were taken by us, and by the end of the year destiny steered us in another direction. Eventually it all worked out better for our ultimate goal to come live on the land at Aanandaa For more information on permaculture, visit www.aanandaa.com. You can contact us at  hello@aanandaa.com  and +91 62838 99456   Follow us on our social media h...

As we share this space with so many other species, we start observing the instincts they have regarding raising their young, findings their food and healing themselves. In contrast to them, humans look weak and incompetent. We have lost our instinct for living on this planet. Maybe we need to re-connect with our children, our food and our bodies. This is what permaculture teaches us to do. . . For...

Pigs are intelligent and loyal animals. They have been domesticated by humans for centuries and used for meat in many cultures. Many farms in the west integrate pigs into their permaculture farms. This led us to also experiment and see whether pigs have any place at Aanandaa. Our experiments were interesting and insightful. Listen on the hear what happened.   For more information on permaculture,...

A big source of inspiration for our work was Masanobu Fukuoka's book One straw Revolution. he spoke about do nothing farming, and no-till farming. We were eager to see if this really works, and the best way to find out is to do it on a small scale. We decided to plant wheat without tilling the soil on a small patch, and compare the results with the tilled wheat crop. The results were fascinating....

2014 was the year of learning about animals. After our adventures with keeping goats, we now wanted to integrate cows in aanandaa. We believed that cows were an essential part of farming in India, and that we needed them for cow manure and urine. Being vegan, we had no plans of taking milk from them. However, integrating large animals like cows came with its own challenges.    For more information...

A parcel of land came up for sale across from our second entry gate. It is rare to find land adjacent to or near your existing land. So we took the opportunity to add it to Aanandaa, and named it Annexe. It os where we grow crops, and we have intelligently added trees to the design, while leaving large plots for wheat, pulses and oil seeds. Today it is a no till farm.    For more information on pe...

After reading so much about permaculture practices in teh west, we decided we must also integrate domesticated animals into Aanandaa. Our first introduction was a pair of goats/ lambs named Hira and Moti. What initially looked like fun turned into a high maintenance activity for us. We realised animals were best integrated if you had large land holdings and were rearing animals for meat. Otherwise...

Just two and half years into the project, the land was already looking like a piece of heaven. Flowers, fruit, vegetables and crops grew everywhere. The dogs, cats, geese and hen were well integrated into the farm. The land was thriving and lush - the beauty of permaculture design. And we were yearning to get closer to it. We found Mumbai to be too far. We regretted not being able to carry back an...

The year end of 2013, saw us headed back to Aanandaa and Chandigarh for our vacations. No holiday was complete without undertaking some kind of a project!  For a while now, Panditji had been complaining about mice on the land. They were eating some of the swet potato and potatoes etc.. So we decided it was time to introduce cats on the land. Listen in to how we found cats to adopt and introduce at...

Doing a permaculture project close to your home town comes with some perks. The perks are that you get a chance to establish new adult relationships with your parents, be their primary care givers, allow your children to get to know their grandparents and lead to an overall sense of well being, fulfilment and rootedness. We were very lucky to have earned the good karma of spending so much time wit...

Integrating animals and birds into food production is a large part of permaculture. All the books and videos we read suggested that we should introduce hens, ducks, pigs, cows, goats - all of those into our eco system. Our first experiment was with introducing hens. It was a new world of knowledge about birds - their bodies and their living systems.   For more information on permaculture, visit  w...

This summer the family insisted we take a holiday elsewhere. While coming to the land was nice they said, it was also work. And as a family we were busy and not really relaxing. So, once I had taken 2 weeks off from work already, it was not possible to take more days off for Mandala planntation. The only option was to come into Chandigarh two back to back weekends.    For more information on perma...

It was time to design the new 2 acre plot of land using permaculture design principles, and all the learnings we had got from Aanandaa. We added bamboo into the design as the land has a waterbody on east and west. We put in a snaking driveway to ensure privacy. And broke up the land into smaller plot to be used for growing crops today, and who knows for something else tomorrow. Meanwhile our dog J...

Some flowers bloom at a specific time, and a permaculturist tends to associate fruits and flowers with seasons and important dates! For me, the flowers on a Crepe Myrtle always remind me of mother's day. In 2013 I celebrated mother's day with my parents & siblings at Aanandaa. It also marked the expansion of our project with the addition of 2 more acres of land, down the road.    For more info...

Our first visit of 2013 was in March, during the Easter break. It was a work cum leisure trip. We augmented our water harvesting infrastructure. But also managed a weekend trip to Shimla, harvested lots of food, played with the dogs and nourished our souls. We had flowers growing everywhere, and it reinforced our belief that a garden should not only be productive, but also beautiful.   For more in...

When is the best time to start a permaculture project? In your 30s, 40s or 50s? When you are in your 30s, you may have your hands full with small children and junior level jobs. Withn you are in your 50s, you may have more money, but you may be busy settlng your children into college or looking after your ageing parents. 40s is the best time to do this. That is what we discovered!   For more infor...

In the city, we are familiar only with the Gregorian calendars. But in the village, the HIndu calendar is commonly used for sowing, harvesting, predicting the change of seasons and marking out the important festivals. Familiarising ourselves with this calendar was a new thing. To our surprise we found it to be more accurate in predicting the change of seasons, arrival of the monsson, and the ripen...

At the heart of our climate crisis is our broken hydrological cycle. Our cities get flooded whenever it rains heavily. Our rivers fill up with muddy water almost immediately. Gone are the perennial pristine rivers, springs and streams of our childhood years. Why is this happening, and what can we do about it?    For more information on permaculture, visit  www.aanandaa.com . You can contact us at ...

While we waited for the monsoons of 2012 to arrive on our land, we passed our time hanging out with our children, playing games, mulching and singing songs. When the rains finally arrived, it was our privilege to see lakhs of litres of water being harvested into our newly built pond. In the absence of tree cover, clouds often pass by without precipitating. But the mini forest we have planted, has...

Influenced by the film www.backtoedenfilm.com, we decided to do a small experiment of growing the peanut crop using the no-till method prescribed in this film. It involved convncing the farm staff to not use a tractor to prepare the field. Instead, we used newspapers, compost, and wood chips to create a field good enough to sow the groundnut see.    For more information on permaculture, visit www....