A question that came to us last week was: Is it possible to have a Miyawaki model pool? We haven’t heard of such a thing at all. Or of anyone who has built one. It is possible to have a Miyawaki forest around a pool. But no one has been known to construct a pool in the middle of a Miyawaki forest. Permaculture adopts that system however. This small pool here follows the Permaculture model. In actuality, this is not a pool but a water tank. Or rather, a part of it, after its top portion has been taken off. A drain pipe from the bottom of this tank extends to the shallow pit that holds a coconut tree there. It is fitted with a valve and, if required, water from this tank can be drained completely into that pit. We have put a gold fish and a carp in this tank. Their small fry are already visible. Usually, the water in an aquarium is changed every week. But that practice seems to be unnecessary here because it doesn’t become murky. The reason is unknown.
When it rains, this tank fills up. Some of the water overflows. At times, some water flows back into the tank as well. We have never had to drain this tank at all. Its upper half has been fixed there to form a compost pit. It has plenty of earthworms inside. With compost material and the work of the earthworms, manuring is taken care of. Thus, with the help of a single tank, we’ve been able to achieve two aims. The specialty of this place is that we have been able to put up small Miyawaki forests at different spots, each covering two, three and four cents of land. This is one of them, covering an area of 800 sq. ft. If you have a five-cent plot, your house may take up a three-cent or 1,200 sq. ft area. If you build an upper storey, the whole floor area may increase to 2,500 sq. ft. The rest of the ground area, which may come to two cents or 800 sq. ft, can be used for planting trees.
Following the Miyawaki model, we have planted tapioca, colocasia, four or five varieties of banana, of which three have put out fruits, jackfruit, cherry, guava, ginger, watery rose apple, Malabar plum, elephant yam, country mallow, bird’s eye chilly, lemon of three or four varieties, mootapalam, arecanut, tree spinach, custard apple, soursop, babloos, a lemon variety locally known as odichukuthi narakam, six or seven varieties of mango, cardamom, two types of mombins, mulberry, and if you look behind, you’ll find kateera gum, bilimbi, starfruit. Then there is the drumstick, Indian coffee plum, vegetable hummingbird, and so on. There are more trees here and more space too which will accommodate more plants. As for tapioca, there is no need to plant 100 stems. We may need tubers from two or three stems every month. So planting that many will be enough.
Some of them will be eaten away by rodents but that cannot be avoided. Amidst all these, we have Ayurvedic medicinal plants too. What this means is that we need no longer complain of lack of space in order to keep away from farming. We can do agriculture in two cents of land, cultivate a Miyawaki forest there, grow a vegetable garden, and harvest whatever we want for our daily needs like curry leaf, mint, chilly, bird’s eye chilly and so on. There is a social angle to this practice too. If one lakh people in Kerala take up farming in their two-cent plots, we will have 2,000 acres of forest. Thus even urban folk can, in their own small way, counter the effects of deforestation. The impact of such an intervention will be certainly great.
As for this land, it was full of rocks and not conducive for agriculture. We started farming here after overlaying the rocks with two feet of waste materials and soil. Rain water ensured that the soil remained moist, and its natural fertility has increased tremendously. What I wish to reiterate is that farming is possible in all kinds of land. We don’t need huge plots or a lot of manure. If we can create a natural atmosphere around our house, we can cultivate whatever we require and enjoy the fruits. We can manage the land on our own because it does not demand intense labour. Please try it out yourself.