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Gaia’s Garden is just one example of the carving out of new spaces to platform such engagement. We are experiencing a watershed moment, not only in terms of the reclaiming of public space for community engagement, but in the recognition that collective change must be built from collective engagement. My experience at Gaia’s Garden left me feeling hopeful for the future, not only of the climate but of community activism more broadly. Community building has not only survived a cataclysmic loss of physical spaces, but has returned with a drive and ambition the likes of which I have not seen before in my lifetime. This book is quite the game changer if you, like me, had a very traditional understanding of gardening and what a garden should look like. As a designer, it completely changed my way of seeing landscaping and what a landscape should look like and work like. This book teaches the basics of permaculture in a practical, non preachy way. It helps you design a forest garden, gives you the bases to work with large scale gardens and small scale gardens -though the actual small scale gardens could use more information, I'm sure there's other books on small spaces. What's important is that once you understand the principles -the major one can be summed up in: nature is doing fine without you, maybe you should let her do her thing- the garden looks like a completely different canvas. It's not 'how can it look good?' but 'what is missing in this ecosystem?'. Why wasn't I thinking about gardens as ecosystems? Well, a new oneis opening this week right in the middle of thecity. Throughout the summerGaia's Garden, located by Holborn Viaduct, is going tohost daily cultural, arts and sustainability workshops for the local community. Photo: Francis Augusto Manakula Vinayagar Temple is 8.1 km from the accommodation, while Pondicherry Museum is 8.4 km away. The nearest airport is Puducherry, 9 km from Gaia's Garden Guest House, and the property offers a paid airport shuttle service. I've found now a few different "comprehensive teach yourself permaculture" books, each tailored to a different audience. Food Not Lawns for the punks and the community organizers, The Urban Homestead for the busy, The Transition Companion for the big picture people and Toolbox for Sustainable Living for the tinkerers. Gaia's Garden stands above these books for its general appeal, a guidebook in clear, flowing language for understanding and working with the ecology of cultivated environments.
Gaia’s Garden will be recorded in history as a milestone for gardeners and landscapers. . . An amazing achievement.”–Paul Stamets Gaia’s Garden is an ecological community in Auroville. Its tropical exotic plants spread over 2.67 acres. The little temple, the heart of garden, is surrounded by 9 ponds and plumeria. The banyan tree watches silently over the meditation garden. Statutes of gods secret themselves among the various lives. Opening your eyes to bird songs, following fireflies in the garden pavilion, melting thousands of stars to your heart on the rooftop terrace, you'll realize that you're in the arms of Mother Earth Gaia. Permaculture gardens are no longer a thing of the future. They are here to stay and flourish. Gaia’s Garden is enlightening and required reading for all people who desire to make their home’s landscape healthy, sustainable, and healing.”Gaia’s Garden is the best-selling permaculture book in the world. The enlarged, updated 2nd edition is the winner of the 2011 Nautilus Gold Medal Award. Primarily intended as a chillplace to hang outand relax, the garden also exists to teach visitors allaboutenvironmental causesthrough workshops, installations and performances. More than200 young Londonerswere involved in not just the building and gardening but also the curatingofGaia's live events programme. Photo: Francis Augusto Hemenway's book was my introduction to ecological garden design. The most important take away from the book: You don't have to wait. Hemenway shows readers how to start designing an ecological garden, basically anywhere. It's easy to get into the *ahem* weeds of garden design, but he navigates these deftly. There are many examples of successful permaculture in unexpected places. You don't have to start with perfect soil and conditions. Good conditions are created by introducing plants and starting virtuous and interacting web of organisms. It's internally inconsistent. "Work with nature. Be minimal in your designs." But also, step 1, do major earthworks, step 2, install a humongous water cistern and a bunch of plastic watering tubes. There's plenty of that disconnect in this book.
As an adventurous young Dutchman Gerard, alias Kireet, travelled the world over with his friend Rob in 1970s. After deciding to make Auroville his home he became instrumental in water conservation efforts leading to an improved water table for both Auroville and the surrounding villages. Previously a teacher in the Netherlands and understanding the value education, he founded and financed a school for the local Tamil children. In Auroville’s Gaia’s Garden (the first one in the Netherlands) he designed each room to be larger than usual with adjacent flower filled terraces and a pond on the ground floor. The Dutch love gardening, pets and traveling! The first edition of Gaia’s Garden sparked the imagination of America’s home gardeners, introducing permaculture’s central message: Working with nature, not against her, results in more beautiful, abundant, and forgiving gardens. This extensively revised and expanded second edition broadens the reach and depth of the permaculture approach for urban and suburban growers. In accordance with government guidelines to minimise transmission of the Coronavirus (COVID-19), this property may request additional documentation from guests to validate identity, travel itinerary and other relevant information, during dates where such guidelines exist. In the revised, second edition of Gaia’s Garden , Toby Hemenway extends his expert knowledge of permaculture to urban and suburban landscapes. A perfect beginner’s guide to ecological gardening, Gaia’s Garden dispels the notion that meaningful gardening can only take place on a large piece of land with lots of space to grow.TL;DR I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in designing and creating a permaculture or ecological garden of their own. 4/5 stars.
The world didn’t come with an operating manual, so it’s a good thing that some wise people have from time to time written them. Gaia’s Garden is one of the more important, a book that will be absolutely necessary in the world ahead.”
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The old vision and old paradigm of perceiving our world as unrelated separate parts is causing imbalance within us and our planet. Within this chaos, a new vision is emerging where the consciousness of humanity can interact with nature. A vision where we perceive our world as a web of relationships and interconnected systems that nurture and sustain each other. We are experiencing a watershed moment, not only in terms of the reclaiming of public space for community engagement, but in the recognition that collective change must be built from collective engagement. Spilling over the walls – in contrast to the intimate gathering within – the clamouring, rancorous chants of an Animal Rebellion protest saw an outpouring of anger, hope, and desperation melded in a raging tide of outraged bodies. It was a very different physical manifestation of the desire for change. Nourishing discussions in community spaces and direct action on the streets; work undertaken on the self, and work undertaken out in the world; an online platform making its first debut in a physical space – the many faces of environmental action both tangible and intangible turned to look at one another, each distinct yet sharing the same body. The illusion of a fractured movement was, if only momentarily, shattered to pieces. After a year where many forms of community organising, engagement, and activism had been forced to move online, this colliding of actions-on-the-ground seemed draped in symbolism: now more than ever there is a clamouring for change, and physical spaces must play a front-and-centre role in making that happen. Sidebars: Woody Ways to Build Soil, The Ultimate, Bomb-proof Sheet Mulch, Starting Plants in Sheet Mulch
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