This is not a Miyawaki forest, but a vegetable garden created using the Miyawaki method. There is a story behind it. Some time back, we simulated an urban micro forest for the first time, close by. Vineetha Gopi wrote about it in great detail in the Malayala Manorama newspaper. On reading it, a few students of Architecture studying in Engineering College, Thiruvananthapuram, approached us. One of them said that her mother wanted to know if a Miyawaki-style vegetable garden was possible in a one-cent plot. I replied that it was impossible because Prof. Miyawaki never intended that. Later I reflected upon it.
On seeing a Miyawaki forest, most people wonder what profit they will get out of it. Not all are interested in forests. Forests cannot be set up everywhere either. So if a vegetable garden, using the Miyawaki model, is set up, it will create a small green cover. Secondly, it will help people become self-sufficient too. A point worth remembering here is what Prof. Miyawaki himself has said. A forest will have all kinds of creatures, insects and worms but it never gets destroyed. One set of insects may attack one side, a different one may attack another. But the entire forest never gets consumed. That is because a prey-predator relationship is very dynamic in a forest. If a certain species grows or diminishes in number, its predator’s number will change correspondingly. Nature itself has created this equilibrium. We apply the same technique here.
Normally, for instance, if we cultivate lady’s finger, we prepare the seedbed, ensure the plant gets sufficient supply of sunlight and water. We use pesticides too. But an insect or butterfly that eats the lady’s finger may be useful in pollinating other plants. So it should not be destroyed. What we have done here is to follow Prof. Miyawaki’s method, and plant different species of vegetable-and fruit-bearing plants in a specific area. We see worms in all of them. But we don’t intend to use pesticides. We are going to check whether the prey-predator balance will work itself out here.
This garden is barely two months old. When it turns six or seven months old, we’ll be in a better position to comment on its success. The changes we have introduced are these. Usually Prof. Miyawaki selects four trees and four plants for every sq. m. of land. But here we planted only one tree sapling in a two sq. m. area. The soil was prepared by mixing it with coir pith and rice husk. After they attained an average man’s height, we introduced the vegetable- and fruit-bearing plants in between. Other plants – tapioca, banana, elephant yam, colocasia and purple yam – can also be grown like this. We are also planning to put up a fence and train a few climbers on it. This garden covers 800 sq. ft. Our hope is that we will be able to grow enough food material – rice excluded – that can feed a family. You too can experiment it for yourself.