Permaculture Pictures - Mar 2013
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Goyo provided a planting demonstration using the Patel Family’s plot in which he made circles and pathways while explaining how plants thrive together.
Image One -
The first thing that Goyo did was to make a pathway into the centre of the garden. He said that the pathway should come from the south and lead to the centre of the garden.
Here Goyo uses a rod pushed into the centre of the garden, and attaches a string. From there, from the centre, he starts to create the circles.
The Inner Circle, is a small pathway to stand on.
As he creates the next circle - the next pathway, he tells us how to figure out how big the first growing patch should be ... just big enough to reach across it. If it is bigger than that, it makes you struggle, and is no longer practical.
Image Two -
He tells us that growing our plants this way, in circle groupings, is more of the natural way that plants grow. “plants like it better.”
Goyo next explains that in a larger garden plot, they would continue to make more circles, an arms length deep.
The question was asked, "if it gets much bigger, do you divide up the growing patches?" he said, yes, a few pathways across the circles of growing patches is done.
After the circles, we come to the corners. To make the most practical use of this space, he makes a path into the centre of the corner, and creates another standing spot.
Image Three -
Depending on the size of the corner, you can also put planters, or a stack of planters.
We also wanted to know about growing a variety of things in this style. He said that in his country, he would not use this for tall plants like corn, they are fine just in a field. However, for a regular "kitchen garden" variety of vegetables, he said that along the northern side of the garden would go the taller veggies, the shorter veggies get planted in the southern part of the garden.
