Introduction
I recently shifted to Delhi and rented an apartment. I found this small un-used small garden space in my society. I have been growing vegetables in pots at my balcony. But this space intrigued me. In a small corner, I grew vegetables like Methi (Fenugreek), Sarson (Mustard), Garlic etc. One day my neighbor saw me working and shared that we can do it together. She herself was doing lot of organic gardening at her place. We say in Hindi ‘ ek se bhale do’ (two is better than one). So now we have started growing vegetables, all organic (using desi seeds, kitchen compost and organic pesticides like neem/garlic etc.).
The purpose of this blog is to share our joy and fun learning organic farming through (dirty) hands on experience at this farm (we will name it soon!)
Day 1–4
Plough & Level the soil..
First, the land was well-drenched for 2 days. The society electrician (who is an experienced farmer from his village and also grew some vegetables on this land last season) helped us with water supply for the same. The plough (gudai)was minimal to loosen the soil. We will befriend the organisms of the earth and let them do the further ploughing for us.
Designed the landscape..
We are using Permaculture concepts and have designed this farm as a Mandala, as shown below in the video and graphic.
Permaculture (permanent +culture), is an established tool for designing landscapes that are modeled after nature and focus on interconnections among all forms of life including humans, buildings and invisible structures (sunlight, wind etc.). The aim is to apply these relationships to create a healthy sustainable whole.
Mandala is an efficient way to utilize resources and space while creating beautiful landscapes. It is made of four to eight keyhole beds arranged in a circle with one more bed in the center and a path entering the mandala from one side (using least space for walking & max for growing).
Source: 1. Gaia’s Garden by Toby Hemenway, 2. Edible Routes workshops
Day 5
Adding organic manure…
We spread decomposed cow dung , kitchen compost and leaf compost. Today we did more digging and mixed manure to the soil.
Day 6
Sowing the seeds…
The beds are ready and we were all set to start sowing. Today, we started with seeds of Carrots, Radish and Broccoli.
We completed sowing Radish on plain surface (with a plan to raise soil around the saplings as and when they grow. (Source: our domestic help having village experience of farming). We were about to sow Carrots, when a Punjabi guy from farming background approached us (visiting someone in our society). He advised us to make raised beds instead(called butts in punjabi). It was supposed to be the best way to grow root vegetables. So we accepted his rather assertive advise and help (although we were appreciative of same); and sowed the seeds on the raised beds. We will compare the results of these two styles of sowing (raised and plain).
He expressed amazement on seeing city girls working on field, spoiling their hands in cow dung and earth. While he would be leaving his farmlands and shift to Canada to be a truck driver. On our probing the reason for the same, he mentioned that the truck driving in Canada would earn him much better than tending his farms here due to high input costs and ever decreasing yield. On further discussion, we found that monoculture farming was being practiced along with liberal use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides (e.g. Urea). In our opinion, this might have resulted in a vicious circle of over use of chemicals, depleting biodiversity, decreased fertility and hence the yield.
On the other hand, Permaculture works on life cycle approach connecting diversity of- the land, organism and crops to build sustainable system of minimal inputs and maximum yield/fertility.
By explaining the benefits of organic farming (and importance of farming itself) we encouraged him to consider staying in touch with his roots and explore livelihood opportunities like teaching farming to urban enthusiasts, utilizing his knowledge and experience and thus earn better money. Although, our opinions differed we ended on a positive note as he got re-motivated to at least grow vegetables in his backyard till he is still in Punjab. We asked him if he would do that in Canada, and he said “there would be no time as the work load would be huge”.
We felt disheartened by the fact that people, especially farmers, are compelled to leave their roots seeking mirage of comfortable life in far away lands. There they might earn more but would they actually enjoy a fulfilling life while getting disconnecting from their lands, families & culture.
We wish this Punjabi farmer would make his dreams come true.
Day 7
Hey find our first detailed video blog we made today. You can see the farm and the development till date.