Why Mandalas?

Having decided that I wanted to start a small organic farm, I had to work out how I was going to design it... no straight rows for me!

I'd toyed with ideas of having a large chook pen in the centre of concentric rows of beds. These would be divided into four so that the chickens could have access to each quarter, each season. This seemed interesting, but impractical.

Fortunately I remembered a book, "The Permaculture Home Garden" by Linda Woodrow in which she fully describes a mandala system. Re-reading it I was hooked.

I loved the way she integrated chickens, vegies, fruit, flowers and water into one very efficient and beautiful design.

I thought to myself, if I'm going to spend my days working on a farm, then this is the sort of farm I want to work in.

Besides being full of circles, and therefore interest and mystery, the main feature of the design is that it ensures that the wastes from one area of the garden becomes the food for another part. Not only that, but that they are right next to each other so there isn't much carting around of heavy items.

The other attraction to the design was that in full swing it should be able to feed at least 20 people, all their fruit, veg and eggs for the entire year!