From desert to seed preservation How can sustainable horticulture, reforestation and biodiversity transform pebbles into a flourishing productive garden? If you check Auroville’s website, you will read that Pebble Garden is “A garden area of a quarter acre devoted to Seed Conservation. It was created by an intensive process of soil building, using select pioneer species to create biomass in-situ in raised beds, and today supports a plant collection of more than 100 endangered traditional vegetable varieties from all over India - root crops, herbs, perennial and wild food crops, medicinal plants and flowers. These varieties are ideal for home use and home gardens. ‘A Garden for Everyone’ is an outreach initiative to share these hardy plant varieties, which have performed well on this wasteland, with home gardeners and subsistence farmers throughout India. They are shared within known organic farmers’ collectives via organic fairs, seed melas and through personal contacts and references. A place of continuous learning, Pebble Garden also has a charcoal/wood vinegar production plant and conducts research on in terra preta.” If you want to read more about the Pebble Garden, this article retraces the visit of the Pebble Garden and shares some of the techniques implemented there as well as the great stories and anecdotes counted by Bernard. What is this? The journey begins… The visit started with Bernard holding a spoon in his hand and asking, “what is this?”:
The visit continued with Bernard holding a seed in his hand and asking, “what is this?”:
Bernard then told us about José Carmen Garcia Martinez, this amazing green-thumbed Mexican farmer. José Carmen Garcia Martinez became famous for the extraordinarily big vegetables he managed to produce. His secret? Listen to Nature: he would literally speak with his plants and listen to his plants to understand their needs and act accordingly. He says that if the energy of a plant clashes with ours, the plant may prefer to die rather than accept us. Some, on the other hand, are born with gifts to cultivate and get along well with many plants: they have a green thumb. As a result, some plants accept him, others not. He estimates that he does not have the right to cultivate the plants that do not accept him. Bernard met José Carmen Garcia Martinez and recalled the aura of the illiterate farmer, his genuine extensive knowledge and his stunning physical conditions as they hiked up mountains. Bernard had a similar story about “barefoot doctors” in India. Before contributing to the Pebble Garden success in Auroville, he was concerned about the great risk of losing the traditional knowledge of those barefoot doctors. He organized interviews to record their knowledge and take notes. He remembers asking one of them how they know what plants to use, how to use it, where they got their knowledge; the answer: “the knowledge is there!”, as if it was so obvious that we are part of it, in the middle of it, we are it… Before the Green Revolution, the connection with Nature in India was really strong. For instance, one was not allowed to go with shoes on the fields! It was considered an offense to our Mother Nature… At AuroOrchard (where I volunteered), I acknowledge that the Tamil workers indeed remove their shoes when they go to the fields. They also regularly proceed with “pudjas” (prayers). Bernard invites us all to connect with full intention. First step: observe! History lessons: from forest to desert From indigenous forest to desert Did you know that Pondicherry was destroyed and rebuilt three times during the colonial era? As French colons settled in Pondicherry, they acquired land from the Nawab and started depleting the indigenous Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest of its precious wood (e.g. teak) for the “compagnons” to build furniture and other pieces of art. Apparently, when the British conquered Pondicherry, they were impressed by the woodcraft work and decided to deplete the city from its exotic wood pieces of arts. As French conquered and rebuilt the city, they needed more wood to do so. Repeat three times… On top of that, during the beginning of the 20th century, local communities were pushed by the government to cut down trees and plant cash crops such as groundnuts (peanuts). By doing so for a given number of years, farmers could pretend to a property title from the government for the land that they cultivated. Why groundnuts you might ask? Essentially to provide Europe with oil, especially during World War I, for mechanical purposes as well as cooking oil for soldiers. Did you know? In traditional Tamil, ground nuts are named “Manila”. Groundnuts came from Philippines (Manilla) to India; and previously from Brazil to Manilla. From bad to worst As a result, the land was bear. Moreover, this region receives heavy rain (up to 2 000 mm in +- 50 days per year). As rain falls, topsoil is washed out and runs off to the nearby lakes that overflow into the ocean or runs off directly into the ocean. As soil runs off, fertility goes down, vegetation is scarcer and scarcer, sun hits harder as shade is not available anymore and wind blows stronger as no vegetation stops it, rills become gullies, gullies become ravines, ravines grow bigger, water flows faster and rips off more soil. This is a rather straightforward recipe for desertification. “Where the soil is bear, the culture is eroded”: add Green Revolution and loss of traditional knowledge and environment stewardship and you get to severe degradation. Concrete solutions: from desert to forest In 1984, people started using satellite imagery for civic purposes. Those images revealed the amplitude of the desertification phenomena in India. Government had to react and launched the “one family one tree” initiative. At the same time, Auroville was defining its action plan for the bioregion; Pebble Garden derives from this effort. Pebble Garden is called as such because it was literally a garden of pebbles; considered as the least fertile land in Auroville. What do pebbles teach us? Well, at least two things: first, that topsoil is gone; second that Auroville stands in an old riverbed dating back couple millions of years back. Set ethics Pebble Garden defined two guiding principles and working constraints:
Manage water The first step was to work with water. Thus, they built swales and bunds to slow water, spread water and sink water in the ground. The idea is to collect and store the water that only falls over a short period of time to make it available for the drier days. One remarkable landscape feature is the pond located at the lowest point of the Pebble Garden. This pond collects a lot of water during the rainy season. It also collects the silt that runs off during this heavy rain period of the year; thus, the pond acts as a silt trap. The silt trap is a great solution for “soil cultivation” (see below). Moreover, it attracts wildlife and enhance biodiversity. I cannot forget this incredible anecdote: as the pond fills up with water, birds intentionally carry fish eggs to the pond. The eggs will grow into fishes and feed… the birds. The pond also attracts ducks that fertilize the water with manure and oxygenate it as they move their feet. This biodiversity enriches the ponds and provides a great source of nutrients to later feed the soil. Identify indigenous species What trees lived in the Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest? This question is unfortunately valid and the answer sadly not so easy to find… Pebble Garden referred to French archives of Pondichéry to acknowledge the botanical heritage of the Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest. Also, they went to sacred groves (e.g. in temples) - the last remains of the native forest- to collect native seeds. However, Pebble Garden team was concerned about potential cutdowns. Indeed, one should recall that many families still rely on firewood for cooking; some people walk for several hours every day to fetch firewood. A new tree in the area might soon become ashes... Plant pioneers Pioneers are plants that grow in harsh environments where native species can no longer grow. Considering the climate in Pebble Garden when the project started, choice was a special type of Acacia that grows in the Australian outback. This acacia colei offers other opportunities: it is a fast-growing tree that can be used for construction and is a very good source of firewood (remember the firewood-related cutdown risk?). Pioneer planting is the first step in succession: the acacias are multifunctional as they protect the area and provide useful biomass for the succession. Grow soil In the tropics, termites are amazing partners for environment rehabilitation programs; especially for soil rejuvenation efforts. As termites do not like direct sun, they protect themselves from the sun. How do they do that? They mine soil and minerals from the ground, carry it up to the surface and create a soil shell to protect them as they work on fragmenting acacia biomass (for instance). This fragmentation will actively support the decaying process to make the organic material available to the soil (now back on top of the surface thanks to the termites) and later to the plants. One can easily notice how life comes back where termites did their job. In a nutshell, termites add layers of soils on decaying biomass; they prepare soil lasagna, one could say. Pebble Garden inspired from the termites to “grow soil”. Bernard demonstrated the procedure that follows:
NB. Talking about biomass, one will collect leaves and branches. Bigger branches are also used to create the structure of the beds. You might ask about the quantitative information applicable to this process; I do not have the answer. I guess we should inspire from the Mexican farmer and listen to what the plants ask for 😊 Preserve and share seeds Unfortunately, Deepika was not here during the visit. She is very knowledgeable about seed preservation and now actively contributes to the preservation of 90+ seeds and 10+ roots. We saw the different species that Pebble Garden preserves in their fertile garden. The seeds now go all over India with the objective to reach to the less privileged farmers. Feel free to read more articles of our blog; we often faced this challenge on the projects we visited and volunteered for: hybrids, genetically modified organisms, pre-treated with pesticides, sold with chemical fertilizer and pesticide user manuals... sincerely disturbing... There are so many issues related to seeds! I am so grateful we meet people that actively work on concrete solutions to tackle this massive problem. Seed, seed, seed! preserve and share. Go futher… Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/109362432429880/?ref=group_header
Auroville project presentation: https://www.auroville.org/contents/2901 Radio interview: https://www.aurovilleradio.org/from-pebbles-to-seed-preservation/ NY Times article: https://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/30/for-farmers-fearing-drought-auroville-offers-some-lessons/ Our article and DIY tutorial abour Dry Toilets: https://sustainable-autonomy.weebly.com/blog/technical-sheet-humanure-dry-toilets-low-tech-tricks
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