project::forest hut

Forest Hut, our farm, was the first property that we designed using Permaculture design principles. The implementation of the design is an iterative & ongoing process.

Through this post, I intend to share some key aspects of Forest Hut farm design & its implementation progress.

location::velvandi valley, northern western ghats

area::4.25 acres

When we purchased the property back in 2017, it was exploited & degraded.  But we loved it – its orientation & location suited our needs. Also, we wanted to take up a property that needed healing to make the journey fulfilling.

This place was going to be our new home soon. It was imperative for us, as a family, to have clarity on how we were going to live a new way of life. That clarity was defined through S.M.A.R.T objectives.

The site analysis & assessment exercise  provides data points like contours, macro & micro climate, existing features, access, soil properties, energy (sun, water, wind) flows, views to preserve, high flood lines, forest fires, etc.

Combining the objectives with the site analysis & assessment allowed us to come up with a zone layout. A zone layout is a macro design.

Once we know how the energies are entering our property, we can place elements to harvest those energies to our advantage.

Post zoning, 2 concept design options were created. We decided to go with following one.

The concept design had various elements. We created element specific designs wherever appropriate. For example; we created detailed plant map for zone 4/5 using Miyawaki method. Similarly, we had a very innovative design for our kitchen garden beds.

Implementation Updates

The first year, 2017-18, we did earthworks for terracing, secured river bank with vetiver & had couple of green manure (jute & legumes) cycles to build soil organic matter.

In 2018 monsoon, we started planting native trees – in zone 4/5, we planted tree saplings of 100+ native species totalling to 3000+ in numbers. I’m glad that we started tree plantation early in the game.

Post monsoon, we started building our kitchen garden & food forest.

Every monsoon, we continue to plant more trees, as the shade of previously planted trees provide micro climate for young ones – succession planning.

And, we also introduced new elements as we felt appropriate – working on cob oven, cob house & a bamboo veranda has been specifically fulfilling.

Here is the most recent one.

Forest Hut farm photos

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