Permaculture Living with MLG

Growing potatoes is a little like digging for treasure. We put one potato—or even a piece of one—into the soil, watch a leafy plant grow above ground, and have very little idea of what is happening underneath.

In this episode of Permaculture Living with MLG, I talk about how we grow potatoes at Aanandaa: planting the tubers, adding more soil as the plants grow, mulching and watering, preventing potatoes from turning green, knowing when they are ready to harvest, and finally curing and storing them.

And then comes the best part—putting your hands into the soil and discovering just how many potatoes that one little plant has quietly produced.

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For more information on permaculture, visit www.aanandaa.com. You can contact us at [email protected] and +91 62838 99456. To take courses on permaculture visit www.permaculture.co.in

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Winter is the season of abundance at Aanandaa. As the sun filters through our trimmed trees, the vegetable beds come alive with cauliflowers, cabbages, broccoli, peas, tomatoes, leafy greens, radishes, carrots, turnips and more.

In this episode of Permaculture Living with MLG, I talk about the peculiar logic of the winter vegetable garden—shorter days, the need for more sunshine and space, and crops where one whole plant may give us just one vegetable. Yet the sheer diversity of the winter harvest is astonishing.

From crucifers and greens to roots and peas, winter reminds us what seasonal eating really looks like. I like to think of fruit as cleansing and vegetables as healing—and winter is certainly the season when the garden invites us to eat our vegetables!

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For more information on permaculture, visit www.aanandaa.com. You can contact us at [email protected] and +91 62838 99456. To take courses on permaculture visit www.permaculture.co.in

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We once had a lively flock of geese at Aanandaa—until bird flu swept through and left us with just two survivors. We didn’t know whether they were male or female, but when they began laying eggs, we waited hopefully for goslings. Year after year, they made their nest, laid a clutch and sat patiently on their eggs. Nothing ever hatched.

Eventually we realised the simple truth: both our surviving geese were female.

What followed was my surprisingly difficult search for a gander, and a growing awareness of just how much these birds seemed to miss having a larger flock and the opportunity to raise young. I never managed to find them a mate, and eventually we lost them too.

In this episode of Permaculture Living with MLG, I recount the story of our last two geese—and reflect on what keeping animals teaches us about companionship, instinct, responsibility and loss on a farm.

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For more information on permaculture, visit www.aanandaa.com. You can contact us at [email protected] and +91 62838 99456. To take courses on permaculture visit www.permaculture.co.in

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In October 2017, I lost my father. He chose to spend his final days at home, surrounded by the people he loved, and to leave this world with dignity and on his own terms. It was a deeply personal experience that changed my understanding of life, death, acceptance and what it means to live intentionally.

And then, almost unexpectedly, another chapter began. Soon after his passing, my work in permaculture started finding a much wider audience. I found myself at the International Permaculture Convergence, connecting with practitioners from around the world, and Aanandaa was featured in a Down To Earth documentary.

In this episode of Permaculture Living with MLG, I reflect on that extraordinary period when profound loss and unexpected visibility arrived almost together—and how, sometimes, the ending of one chapter quietly makes space for another to begin.

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For more information on permaculture, visit www.aanandaa.com. You can contact us at [email protected] and +91 62838 99456. To take courses on permaculture visit www.permaculture.co.in

Follow us on our social media handles

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I grew three varieties of paddy at Aanandaa—and came away questioning the entire system.

From migrant workers who could distinguish rice seedlings from almost identical grasses, to flooded fields that needed water again and again, growing paddy became a fascinating lesson in crops, culture, water and traditional knowledge.

Why do we flood rice fields? Does rice actually need to stand in water? Where does all that water go? What happens to the soil under anaerobic conditions? And most importantly, should a water-intensive crop be grown in a landscape where it depends heavily on irrigation?

In this episode of Permaculture Living with MLG, I explore paddy through a permaculture lens and ask a deceptively simple question: just because we can grow a crop somewhere, does it mean we should?

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For more information on permaculture, visit www.aanandaa.com. You can contact us at [email protected] and +91 62838 99456. To take courses on permaculture visit www.permaculture.co.in

Follow us on our social media handles

FB: https://www.facebook.com/farmaanandaa/

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LI: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aanandaapermacultureproject/

Flood irrigation is one of the oldest and most common ways of watering agricultural fields—but is flooding an entire field really the best way to give plants the water they need?

In this episode of Permaculture Living with MLG, I explore what actually happens to water after it enters a field: infiltration, runoff, evaporation, deep percolation and groundwater recharge. I also discuss waterlogging, salinity and soil erosion, and why healthy soil may be our most important water-storage system.

Rather than simply asking how much water we give our crops, perhaps we should ask: how long can our soil hold on to it?

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For more information on permaculture, visit www.aanandaa.com. You can contact us at [email protected] and +91 62838 99456. To take courses on permaculture visit www.permaculture.co.in

Follow us on our social media handles

FB: https://www.facebook.com/farmaanandaa/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/farmaanandaa/

YT: https://www.youtube.com/@farmaanandaa

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aanandaapermacultureproject/

Poplar trees grow fast, grow tall, and can become a valuable timber crop within just a few years. At Aanandaa, we planted them along our boundaries and swales—but what have we learned from growing them? In this episode, I talk about why poplar is so popular in North Indian agroforestry, how long it takes to harvest, its timber value, and its pros and cons. And an interesting question: when a tree has become part of your landscape, how easy is it to finally cut it down?

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For more information on permaculture, visit www.aanandaa.com. You can contact us at [email protected] and +91 62838 99456. To take courses on permaculture visit www.permaculture.co.in

Follow us on our social media handles

FB: https://www.facebook.com/farmaanandaa/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/farmaanandaa/

YT: https://www.youtube.com/@farmaanandaa

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aanandaapermacultureproject/

A beehive is an extraordinary little world—complete with a queen, thousands of workers, drones, nurses, guards, foragers and an astonishing system of communication and cooperation. 🐝

After hosting a beekeeping workshop at Aanandaa, I came away fascinated by how bees organise themselves, divide responsibilities, communicate the location of food, care for their young and work collectively for the survival of the colony. In this episode of Permaculture Living with MLG, I share some of these fascinating insights into the lives of bees—and why understanding them makes us appreciate just how important they are to our farms, biodiversity and food systems.

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For more information on permaculture, visit www.aanandaa.com. You can contact us at [email protected] and +91 62838 99456. To take courses on permaculture visit www.permaculture.co.in

Follow us on our social media handles

FB: https://www.facebook.com/farmaanandaa/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/farmaanandaa/

YT: https://www.youtube.com/@farmaanandaa

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aanandaapermacultureproject/

What if you made your vegetable beds once—and never had to remake them again? In this episode of Permaculture Living with MLG, I talk about permanent raised beds: how we design them, why we never step on them, and how they help us move towards a no-till system. From permanent pathways and better soil structure to mulching, crop rotation, water management and biodiversity, I explain why the bed should remain even as the crops keep changing.

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For more information on permaculture, visit www.aanandaa.com. You can contact us at [email protected] and +91 62838 99456. To take courses on permaculture visit www.permaculture.co.in

Follow us on our social media handles

FB: https://www.facebook.com/farmaanandaa/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/farmaanandaa/

YT: https://www.youtube.com/@farmaanandaa

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aanandaapermacultureproject/

One of the greatest gifts a farmer can pass to the next generation is not land, machinery or money. It is a living collection of seeds. Because every seed saved today is a promise that diversity will still exist tomorrow.

Today, saving seed has become a planned activity at Aanandaa. We intentionally leave selected plants to flower. Choose the healthiest individuals. Harvest at the right time. Dry them carefully. Store them correctly.

Many of these heirloom seeds are also shared through our seed bank so that they continue to spread rather than disappear.

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For more information on permaculture, visit www.aanandaa.com. You can contact us at [email protected] and +91 62838 99456. To take courses on permaculture visit www.permaculture.co.in

Follow us on our social media handles

FB: https://www.facebook.com/farmaanandaa/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/farmaanandaa/

YT: https://www.youtube.com/@farmaanandaa

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aanandaapermacultureproject/