Permaculture Living with MLG

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....

Forest fires are a common phenomenon in the countryside. We had our first experience with one in June 2012. We were surprised at the various trivial ways in which a fire could start off on the land. And we were also impressed with the calm and competence that farm staff exhibited when dealing with this human disaster.    For more information on permaculture, visit  www.aanandaa.com . You can conta...

Within a year we found ourselves to be short on space again. Since we visited the land with our friends and children, we needed some privacy for ourselves. Similarly the farm staff needed space to keep their tools, machines, pipes and materials. They also needed their own space for having chai, and processing the harvests. So we decided to build a second gate and.a storage shed.   For more informa...

Digging a pond proved to be a challenging experience because it was very very hot. Moreover permissions were required at the last moment. Levels had to be worked out. There was not scope for error with inlet and outlet levels. And there was a paucity of time. We did our best and left the rest for nature to sort out!   For more information on permaculture, visit www.aanandaa.com . You can contact u...

Having a pond on your land is something everyone dreams of. But it is prudent to make a pond only if you have excess water entering your land, which you cannot manage and absorbd into the soil by simple earthwork strategies. Since we had a large body of water gushing through out land during the monsoon, we decided to build a pond to harvest that water. What should be the size of the pond, where to...

The summer of 2012 was brutal for our newply planted saplings. Our farm staff was watering the plants morning evening. Yet, we would lose most of the water to evaporation and the plants would be stressed all the time. We had to find an alternative. And that was mulching. But where would we find wood chips for mulching in such large quantities?   For more information on permaculture, visit www.aana...

As Aanandaa became more of a second home, we found ourselves travelling back and forth between Mumbai and Chandigarh. We started appreciating the time with our children in the countryside. We enjoyed healing ourselves, our relationships and our planet. We struck a balance between the corporate life that puts pressure on ourselves and the planet, with our personal lives that focused on healing ours...

Our quest for good health sent us down the path of experimenting with different approaches to our diet, one of which was fruitarianism. We understood why our natural diet may be fruit, and only this diet could allow our bodies to heal itself. We gathered knowledge and information from various sources, and clubbed it with our own instinct and experience of growing food. We live in a world where abs...

The idea of integrating animals into the farm introduced us to animals beyond dogs adn cats. We learned how chicken, pigs, cows, goats were equally intelligent and emotional beings. While gathering information about how these animals were raised on farm, we learnt something shocking, and decided to become real animal lovers.   For more information on permaculture, visit www.aanandaa.com . You can...

In January 2012 we receved a panic call in Mumbai that our neighbours had thrown a fence around the village pond and taken possession of it. My act of adding fish and geese to the pond had been misunderstood by them as an act of establishing ownsership. He decided to do a 'one-up' on us by putting up a fence and taking it over completely!   Thanks for stopping by, stay safe xx   #permaculture #per...

My father's 75th birthday was another reason to go back to Chandigarh in November. Since it was winter I could not do any plantation work. I decided to focus on the pond instead. To create an ecosystem, I added fish and geese to the pond. I was so pleased with this act, that I also bought two cast iron benches and placed them as a viewing gallery, so I could admire the pond at leisure!   Thanks fo...

A close friend's brush with cancer had us thinking about why we fall sick. We started reading and researching about food, sickness and ow to heal naturally. We did an audit of our kitchen and discontinued a lot of processed and packaged food. Anything that can be on a shelf for months and not get spoilt, cannot be food. I also re-looked at what products I was applying on my face and body as a part...

A quick 3 days trip to Aanandaa with Radha & Ira, gave me a chance to review and finish the Caretakers cottage and the Weir which was being restored. It is this infrastructure which takes up more time and money. It also needs more detailed attention. The girls wanted to go back to see the puppies who were a little older now. Caring for the dogs became the responsibility of Radha & Ira.   T...