The layout.

I started by reading the book The Permaculture Home Garden by Linda Woodrow from cover to cover after suggesting it was not strictly permaculture to a class I was teaching at the Dungog Community Garden (no longer going). My thoughts, in hindsight, at the time thought that the concept was "too neat" and that permaculture was messy by definition. I came to realize that this was so wrong and it was the "harmonious interaction of elements" that made for good design and not messiness.

Having read the book from cover to cover, I decided that not only was it good design but that I wanted to build it. I started with a piece of A4 paper and a five cent piece and started to place things as I saw them. It may have been a good idea to revisit the book during this process but, as Linda suggests, the book is about spreading the idea and the interpretation is open for individual modification. So I just did it from memory and came up with a few variations form the original

the plan original  

.The plan continues to evolve as time goes on with paths all the way around the beds and compost heaps as we will discuss later.

I then set out the beds with marking paint, This must have looked strange from the air. I then set to make the beds by digging out the paths to allow for raising of the beds. This would not be necessary generally but we have placed the garden on marginal land with poor drainage and subject to inundation from time to time. The beds were kept to size by the use of a hoop which was to be the bottom of my first chook dome.

one of the first with hoop as guide to the size

We did one set of seven circles and planted a green manure before moving on to complete the next set of seven.

wire netting embedded to retain mulch and restrict foxes

Next we will look at other aspects of establishing the mandala garden.