Right now I am standing in the middle of a Miyawaki forest. This forest is special in a small sense. But before I reveal that let me tell you that this was created on 11 May 2019. Today, on 3 May 2020, we are one week shy of its first birth anniversary. The specialty of this forest is that it stands on a one-and-a-half cent plot of land, close to a small house that was under construction when we planted the saplings. A tiny vegetable garden is grown here. This is to convince you that a Miyawaki forest is possible amidst all this. I mentioned a couple of times that it is possible to cultivate enough vegetables for a family, even while putting up a forest. This video is to show how it has been made possible.
I shall point out a few prominent trees that grow amidst more than a hundred that thrive in this plot. This is an eleven-month-old papaya tree. Look at the size of its fruits. There’s a mango tree which does not get enough sunlight. On this side also there are many trees of good quality, bearing ripe fruits. One unique feature is the luxuriant growth, and the other is the sheer number of branches. The papaya is usually a single-stem tree but here it has developed several branches, and all of them bear fruits. Look at them. Its flowers are blooming, and fruits have begun to form. We have trained the pea bean and ivy gourd plants on the fence. The pea bean has begun to fruit. The ivy gourd was planted recently and so is too young now. The chilly plant has started producing chilly. It is slightly stunted but we don’t intend to intervene.
As this is a forest, plants are left to follow the natural course. This is a tamarind and this, a robusta plant. That is elephant yam and we have planted it at several places. That is a Latakasturi plant. There are two coconut trees beyond the one you see here. And in the corner of the plot is a coffee plant. That is a Malabar plum tree. This one, whose name I can’t recall now, is from Malaysia. Its leaves turn red. This one is the star fruit and this, Mootapalam. There is mango tree here, and a cranberry plant growing up. This is the lemon tree. Many varieties of it have been planted here. This is colocasia. This is a star gooseberry plant. And a healthy curry leaf tree. Here is the breadfruit tree. This is the red banana tree. It usually takes 18 months to fruit but we see fruits beginning to appear in eight months. I imagine the bunch will be ripe by the 12th or the 13th month. Let us wait and see.
We conducted an experiment too here, by planting the cabbage in February. And in this environment, by May, it has already produced the vegetable. There are many trees here. This is the Israeli fig tree. This is a rose apple. Another one here. Star fruit. Blue guava. Wild or Kasthuri turmeric in between. We have planted ginger too. This is rose apple tree. This, the Indian borage which is used to make a dish in Karnataka. Navara rice is made by cooking rice along with Indian borage to make a very tasty meal. It has medicinal value too, used in order to treat fever and cough. This is a mulberry tree. This is a pomegranate tree. Tamarind again. This is pomegranate too. This is sapota. A gooseberry stands amidst all this. All these have grown to 11 or 12 feet in a single year. This is agathi cheera or August tree leaf. Gooseberry again. We have covered nearly every bit of the plot now. But there are more plants.
If we prune them properly and allow sunlight to come through, more plants will sprout. It is possible to have these many plants and trees within such a small space. So now you have an overall picture of what you can do in a one-and-a-half cent plot. If you have a five-cent-plot, you can grow a Miyawaki forest and a vegetable garden as well that will yield whatever you want for domestic consumption.