Permaculture Living with MLG

Living in cities we are so far removed from what is going on in villages. It is a very extractive economy, which is taking natural resources like food, minerals, metals, stone, sand etc into urban centres. Any land you buy in the country comes with it's shares of problems, and is more often than not, degenerated.

2015 saw us making some big changes. Some of those decisions were taken by us, and by the end of the year destiny steere...

Many of us describe ourselves as nature lovers. It is time to convert this adjective into a verb, and work towards restoring the nature we love so much. Influencing the younger generation early in their lives and taking them along can be a very rewarding experience as a family.

For more information on permaculture, visit www.aa...

Finding people to help you with your long distance permaculture project can be a challenege. But by paying a good remuneration, giving them respect for their skills, embracing the community and of course some luck, you can find many people to help you.

For more information on permaculture, visit www.aanandaa.com. You can contac...

On agricultural land, you come face to face with fresh water resources. There is no municipality, no tanker water, and no back ups. Just rainwater and borewell. The reality of how much or how little there is, and where it comes from, really hits hard.

For more information on permaculture, visit www.aanandaa.com. You can contact u...

We need money to invest back into nature, because resources have been exrtacted from our environment never endingly for the last several decades or even centuries. For nature to heal, we need to shift monetary resources back to it. This money is in the capitalist economy of the cities. We need to do a reverse migration of wealth.

Our life in the cities is so fast paced, that we can barely find time for our hobbies, interests or even for our families! In that context to take on another commitnment like restoring a patch of nature seems like an audacious or even foolhardy exercise. But a time audit will reveal how you can make time for something that is important for the future generations, but also a great way to bring the family together.

In the corporate world we are taught to get professionals to help us with everything. Pay them the money and outsource. You can't do everything yourself, we say.

But a landscape design that mimics nature works differently. It needs someone who will listen to it, walk together with it and evolve over time. You have to do this yourself.

It is one of the most intuitive things to do, because we are wired to live within nature, to prote...

Restoring a ravaged piece of land is as simple as managing rainwater through earthworks and planting trees. It does not take rocket science or any great knowledge to do this. It is the most intuitive and simple activity to undertake. A simple contour map explains the slopes & potential flows of water. A simple design map will give an idea of where to plant trees and which trees to keep in the list. As we sat in our offices in M...

Rains arrived on time when we landed in Chandigarh for the planting season of July 2011. We made a day trip to Saharanpur and bought 1000 trees from Farman Bhai. A collection of fruiting trees, flowering trees, medicinal trees, timber trees, and native heirloom trees.

The size of the saplings were a bit of a shock for us, and Agam was highly sceptical of any of these 12 inch twigs becoming full grown trees.

On the way back we stopp...

We managed the deluge with some temporary hacks, knowing very well that we will have to find a permanent solution once teh rains are over. We added bamboo to our list of plants and incorporated them into our design.

Bamboo would hold the edges of the water path, filter the water, provide a habitat for birds and give us bamboo for structures. One plant, so many purposes.

It had been almost a week now, and our children were getting...

On Sunday, 3rd July 2011, we gathered with our friends and family to begin the tree plantation. Panditji had arranged for extra labour to help with this task, as he wanted the trees to be put into the ground as soon as possible.

While I had a plantation plan in mind, and a list of all the trees, it all started to blur in the heat of the moment! Eventually, we did a random plantation of the native trees, but managed to organize the ...

Our summer stay at Aanandaa was soon coming to an end. We still had a few tasks to accomplish before we left!

We had to build a basic irrigation system for our tree saplings.

We had to build the brick walking path through the spine of the land.

We planted a bougainvillea hedge all over our perimeter.

We had a litter of 4 pups by the village dog Basanti - we had our first set of farm dogs!

On our last day, we made bird perches with ...

Our two weeks at the farm forced us to interact with people from all walks of life. It opened our worldview and helped us to reconnect with the real India. We could see the clash between the rural and urban sections of society. We experienced that first had as well. All four of us changed that summer .. and I think for the better

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It's not easy to convince the children that its more fun to spend their summer vacation in 42 degree summer in a village in north India, rather than go for a holiday overseas.

Yet, it can be done.

And it will build tremendous character and mettle in your children, which will serve them well in life.

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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.

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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 of my personal care routine.

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!

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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!

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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 contact us at hello@aa...