mandala gardens?

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by devinp, Nov 13, 2005.

  1. devinp

    devinp Junior Member

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    Hi.

    I really love the look of mandala gardens.... and am keen to revamp my current / very modest veggie garden into a mandala.... but can someone tell me what the thinking is behind arranging a mandala?

    Does it creat more space than rectangular beds? Does it allow for more companion planting... etc?

    Any help would be appreciated.

    Thanks,
    Devin.
     
  2. christopher

    christopher Junior Member

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    Devin,

    The thinking behind mandala beds, as I understand it, is to allow maximum growing space to access ratio. Our veggie plots are either on hill sides, requiring some form of terracing, or in the flood plain, where dry season veggies do very well, but any earth work would be wiped clean in the large, powerful floods we get.

    We have built "comb beds" which are a series of keyhole beds laid across the grade of the hill. These were very productive, but eventually we ended up using the interior space of the keyholes for planting anyway.... that decision was made by Dawn, who "owns" the garden...

    Mandalas are especially useful on small plots of land as you can, with some thought in design, fit a lot of plants into the system.

    Depending on your plant guilds and inter species relationships of the components you select, as well as your various spacing regimes, horizontal (N,S,E&W), vertical and especially temporal spacing (cropping regimes, A, then B, then C, then, etc, rotational and seccesional planting) a well planned out strategy designed around the keyhole bed arrangement can be a very productive and easy to maintain, but like any farming endeavour, protracted and thoughtful design will save in work.

    Gley sounds very interesting. We want to put in a pond, (somehow tied into the aquaponics system :wav: that we intend to build), and the significant cost we can identify with ponds is the liner, which we may need here.

    Best,

    C
     
  3. Franceyne

    Franceyne Junior Member

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    And further to all the good things that Christopher pointed out - mandala beds look and feel good, are friendly and inviting and in my opinion Devin, they are more attractive to animals (birds, frogs, lizards, spiders) that are great assistants in the garden because they look more natural than straight lines of traditional garden beds and plantings.

    :D

    Cheers,
    Fran.
     
  4. Veggie Boy

    Veggie Boy Junior Member

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    I have been seriously considerring changing my patch into a mandala. Then I could build one of those great polypipe round chook houses. Also - beacuse I am likely to want to build some exclusion structures for my tomatoes - due to my losing battle with fruit fly - a mandala would mean that I can beuld round ones of these using a similar design to the chook pen. Could also use this design more my bird exclusion structure for strawberry bed...hmmm lots of pipe - ver expensive :shock:
     
  5. devinp

    devinp Junior Member

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    Yep - I'm convinced. A mandala garden may be a little ways back on the priority list (like behind clearing fallen trees) but it's a definate.

    I was already leaning after all the lovely info from you guys and fell right over when I found Linda Woodrow's "Permaculture for the home garden" at a local library... which I can only recommend to everyone (both the library and linda woodrow).

    So thanks again.

    Cheers,
    Devin.

    P.S. On an encouraging note : Linda's book has been constantly out from the library since its arrival midway 2004...

    P.P.S Christopher... am currently trying to dig up all the info I possibly can on gley and will let you know what I find out.
     
  6. Guest

    Hi Devin,
    Ummm... My understanding (or interpretation) of a mandala design may be a tad tooo deeeeep for some, as it has nothing to do with with the shape. A mandala can be square.

    When we create mandalas, we are recreating and drawing on our personal "circle/cycle of life"...and they usually encompass features of a persons life or spirit. Common considerations are Earth, Fire, Water and Air and their interactions...some include a zodiac influence or others can be based on tributes to mentors, influences, progress etc. They are generally a reflection of YOU, so they are individual and ever evolving.

    The heart of your mandala represents your heart, soul, centre of being (whatever you call it), so you would plant something symbolic of that and nurture it, or maybe something to inspire,lift you or give you peace. You might begin with a feature of some sort, ornament, favourite plant...whatever feels relevant. The mandala then extends from the heart to expand consciously... You add to it things that inspire, seem appropriate or just feel right, (much like drawing a picture) and the mandala begins to grow and change alongside your attention. It becomes a conscious reflection of you, and is rarely uniform (unless you are that way inclined). Aspects of your mandala can 'belong' to others, so your children or signifant other may also feature in it (either symbolically or by active involvement). You can incorporate whatever goals you have into it, so if you have plans for self sufficiency they would also be included (or reflected) in the mandala. When you begin a mandala, every thing you add to it has personal significance or relevance.

    Mandala gardens are about self conscious gardening... and seeing yourself as part of the greater environment...

    Well... I warned you! Tis deep! :oops: Gawd its late.
     
  7. Franceyne

    Franceyne Junior Member

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    Hey there Rainbow Farmer,

    I'm not real good at expressing what I feel in words...especially since in this forum as I'm always in such a rush to get my post up and continue with what they pay me to do to be here (at work)...but every now and again someone writes something in here that I react to, usually along the lines of, "Yeah! Yeah! That's what I feel! That's part of me!" And this makes me feel connected and keeps me wanting to come back and read the words that people have written in the forum, to be part of the good stuff that goes on here...

    Your above post has just got me thinking that way, all excited, connected and inlove with life all over again.

    Thank you.

    :D
    Fran.
     
  8. Anissa

    Anissa Junior Member

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    Here's ours. We only started in May, so its still getting established. It's also our first go at doing anything like this. Seems to work well so far! We haven't really done much companion planting yet. Will start soon I hope. Thought the visual might help somehow.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  9. Cornonthecob

    Cornonthecob Junior Member

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    That bare patch looks good enough to dive into!!

    How many chooks in the dome?

    :)
     
  10. Guest

    Your welcome Fran
     
  11. Anissa

    Anissa Junior Member

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    Looks good hey! We cheated a bit and top dressed it with some soil and mulch. :D That was taken back in Oct. The zucinni are going great in there at the moment. Can't eat them fast enough.

    We have 8 chooks in there at the moment. Two roosters one of which will get the chop soon. We also have two chicks and their mum to go in soon as well.
     
  12. Cornonthecob

    Cornonthecob Junior Member

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    Ya cheaterer :p

    :)
     
  13. devinp

    devinp Junior Member

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    Anissa, that's a mighty fine looking dome you got there....

    RaindbowFarmer.

    Thanks for the wonderful perspective.. I'm addicted to the concept of gardening as spiritual metaphor (ala zen). Recently been looking through a book on islamic gardens and wow - transcendent isn't the word!

    If I could find out a way to have a zen food forest in the islamic style with a cottage garden aquaponic system... well I don't know what to say...
     
  14. Guest

    Hi Devin,
    Yes...Yes...YES! Begin it and it will appear.
     
  15. ho-hum

    ho-hum New Member

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    Gangamma's Mandala

    Here are the misconceptions/thoughts I had about mandala/keyhole gardens.

    1. Probably named after Nelson Mandela - scrapped that a long time ago.

    2. A circle allows more garden for less edge than a square.

    3. Most efficient way of reaching everything without walking all over it.

    4. When I saw one layed out my first thoughts were, 'YOU BEWDY!!', so I stuck sprinkler in a bare patch of dirt watered it for a few hours and began gardening. Tailor made for sprinkler irrigation and plant stacking.

    Anyway, I read the thread and found this for us all...

    https://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/perm ... 21641.html

    PS I have never made a herb spiral.

    :D floot
     

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