permaculture

[<permed@nor.com.au>]

>>> Could someone tell me to what extent has the use of Mandala Gardens, 
Keyhole
>> Gardens and Herb Spirals contributed to the home gardeners food production 
in
>> Australia?

Any bodies guess - but I do know there are an awful lot of mandala 
gardens in the suburbs of Australia and many other countries.
I found the concept of the mandala garden helped break through the 
reservations of many people against growing vegies in the garden 
especially with regards to labour and aesthetics. I was quite amazed at 
the response to my little Mandala Garden Booklet and the video produced 
by Mandala Productions. 
I wrote the 36 page booklet (originally printed 1990) to meet the demand 
for a simple start to home food production and introduction to backyard 
Pc. Not an academic work, it was written in simple language that a ten 
year old can understand. The booklet & video have inspired a lot of 
people to BEGIN gardening, and am constantly meeting or being contacted 
by people thanking me for presenting it in such an easy to understand and 
put-into-practice way in private backyards, in schools etc. Some years 
ago a visitor from Cuba came here to meet me and greeted me like a long 
lost friend - he promptly pulled out his photo album full of piccies of 
dozens of mandala gardens in Cuba made using the book & video. Someone in 
Japan has translated the book and I've had a request for permission by 
someone else to translate it into Spanish.
Working with tribal Aboriginals in the Northern Territory, they related 
immediated to the mandala garden design, especially the women - it 
resonates perfectly with their art patterns. One of the told me told me 
the women in her tribe plant seeds of the wild tomato in a keyhole - step 
off the track, jab holes in the soil in a semi circle around their feet, 
drop the seeds in and stamp them in with one foot. An ancient concept....

I self-published 2 small print runs (totalling 5,000) of the book and 
have been out of stock for over a year but orders keep coming in - 
unforunately I don't have the funds to reprint again unless someone can 
sponsor it or forward me a modest loan.

By the way, I don't have a mandala garden here at Djanbung. I have an 
aversion to dogmas and specific design features have the potential to 
become dogmatised - I meet too many people who think you cant do Pc 
without having a swale, mandala garden and herb spiral. But before 
Djanbung, when I was renting in suburbia, I made a mandala garden in 
every backyard I rented and surprisingly most of them survived to be 
continued by subsequent tennants.
So I think the mandala garden can be claimed as a modest success for 
introducing many people, not only in Australia, to pc and the joys of 
home food production :-)
Robyn Francis

Djanbung Gardens Permaculture Education Centre
home to: 
Permaculture Education
ERDA Institute Trust
Nimbin Eco-Village Project Office
Robyn Francis - permaculture designer & educator
PO Box 379, Nimbin NSW 2480 Australia
Ph 02-6689 1755 Fax 02-6689 1225
permed@nor.com.au  www.earthwise.org.au