I had attended an online permaculture design course a few weeks back and I have been itching to try my hands on them on my farm. I studied some of the designs and decided on which ones could be suitable for my farm. I also researched and planned what to grow on these patches based on some basic companion planting principles. Because I was revamping patches where I had grown millets last season for this, I decided to grow a few nitrogen fixers likes green gram and black gram too along with other vegetable crops. So, here I am documenting Day 1– a day prior to farm day and Day 2– the actual day of work.
DAY 1: (Previous day)
All set for tomorrow’s farm day! I sat and drew a few permaculture based designs for my patches. This is the first time I am trying it out so wish me luck
- I have packed my homemade natural fertilizers & compost
- Soaked the seeds I want to sow
- Kept the seed trays with transplants ready
- Kept my potatoes that are sprouting to plant them tomorrow.
- My farm journal
- Change of clothes
- Towels
- All my bags that I carry to my farm (psst…between you & me, I seriously don’t know what all I have in it, but it has to go with me)
I have kept them all near my main door, lest I forget to take any of it. This is something that happens every friday…Well, now you know!
I get super excited about the plans I have for the next day. I think its because I get to go only once a week nowadays due to the pandemic and that doubles the excitement somehow. (Oh, and if you are reading this post like 50 years from now, do check out what this 2020 “Pandemic” was all about) …HAHA just kidding; but seriously though…
Anyway, I am so excited because of this limited opportunity that I get to visit my farm that my mind is in a state like this – “Oh, I need to get this, this, this and this done, plus this and this too…and oh this too. You know what I mean… That’s because I feel if I miss anything, I won’t get to it till the next Saturday. But, does that rob the joy of it in any way? Absa-tu-ta-lutely NOT! Infact, it doubles it!
Realistically though, I have two major activities planned for this week. I have designed 4 new patches for this season according to the permaculture design course I took a couple of weeks back. And I can’t wait to start working on them. First up, I am going to go ahead with 2 of them and see how it works out!
There is this small SPIRAL PATTERN and KEYHOLE PATTERN that I want to try first.
I am super pumped! And can’t wait to get my hands dirty. Let’s see what happened the next day! With all the nervous energy I had about getting this done, I did experience a momentary “frozen in doubt” moment. Well, let’s see how that went…
BTW, If you want to catch us on video and see how the day panned out, then don’t forget to click the YouTube video link below. But if you want to continue reading, please come along!
DAY 2 (Farm day)
What a day!
Though I am bone-tired, I thought I’d drop in a quick update to let you know how it all went.
Super excited to share that I could bring to life two of my permaculture design patterns that only existed in my farm journal till yesterday. Here is the twist; I have to tell you that I did feel intimidated in the beginning wondering how and where to start. Staring at the empty ground and looking at the task at hand seemed so daunting. I had definitely underestimated the task. At that moment, I kind of froze and just sat on the pathway feeling a bit lost and dejected. But thanks to my husband, for giving me that encouraging nudge and helping me throughout the process!
The final picture might look quite simple to look at but believe me it took a solid 6 hours of work in the scorching hot sun to finish these two patches. Building the soil with manure and soil mix, layering, sowing, watering and mulching, Phew! But it was so worth seeing your vision come true!
Spiral Pattern
Keyhole Pattern
This is how it looks one week later. Green grams, spinach and coriander has really started growing well and so has urad (black gram), mustard and tomatoes! Can’t wait to see the final pic of the patches flourishing!
CLICK TO WATCH THE VIDEO ON HOW WE WORKED ON THE FARM TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN
Well, I have two more bigger patterns to work on next week. I will share the updates soon!
Now, hop on to the comments and tell me how you like it! I REALLY have to know…
