Moondram Velai: Third task

Task 3

I presently live most of the time in Talegaon a place 140kms from Mumbai. We have a plot of around 1 acre with 1/3 of it covered with the house 2/3rd left for plantation and a small shack for the caretakers (One of the tasks i want to do is rework the shack meant for the caretakers and make its pucca mud house). Currently we use fertilizers for the plantation but my intention is to convert this place chemical free i.e to follow permaculture, do some nice organic farming and lead an "almost sustainable life."

I have started practicing organic farming on the plot in order to increase its yield and to have a healthy green environment, below given are strategies which i will be using.  

1. Basic rule of Permaculture:

" Its not the amount of the resource that determines the health of a system, it is how long the resource stays in the system that determines its health"

2. This is how the system works…exactly how my grand mom said ..there is nothing called waste, everything goes back to the earth…at least all the organic stuff.

3.1 Planing the landscape based on the usage.

3.2 Using human waste pee and other grey water waste for plants.

4.1 Banana circles and wetlands one of the best ways of using up grey water. The 1st one dissipates the water into the ground under the mulch and the other filters the water using different root filters, this water can be later used for domestic purpose.

4.2 Guilds are very efficient planting system, one can do companion planting ( plants which don't require the same two nutrients and are independent of each others growth).Guilds are combination of ground covers, herbs, shrubs, creepers and trees.

5. Sheet mulching is a process of renewing the fertility of the soil. 

6. Vermicompost is a good way of treating kitchen waste. 

7.Spiral herb is a system of planting herbs in a gradually sloping spiral format in order to make best use of the resources. In this case a combination of sheet mulching and companion plantation is a good option.

8. One of the experiments i have started doing in my compound.