Garden in M'sia: Visions and Concept
A little foreword
I will admit, I was a little too enamoured of permaculture or agroforestry when I began this project. I think I was delusional when I wanted to match high yield agriculture with agroforestry-based gardening. Upon doing more research, I am now of the opinion that while agroforestry-based gardening can produce sufficiently (which is enough, in my opinion), it will never be able to match the yield of conventional, monoculture agriculture. I will cover this in a future post.
That being said, I would still like to make this project of one revolving around agroforestry, and am curious to see the yield, environmental impact and social impact of such a setting.
Visions of the M'sia Garden
1) To grow edible plants in a manner of which environmental sustainability is the utmost priority.
2) To learn and be flexible in the ways of learning about gardening while working with nature as much as possible.
3) To provide a safe haven for beneficial animals like spiders and bees to reside in.
Concept of M'sia Garden
1) Self-fertilising garden: Fertility will be provided by planting nitrogen fixers, active composting and mulching, and via other ways that do not rely on commercial products.
To reduce or eliminate the reliance on commercial fertilisers, I would like to implement a system where composting of food waste, weeds and garden clippings is commonplace. These will be broken down by decomposers and detritivores like earthworms, millipedes and isopods to recycle nutrients in the garden. Planting nitrogen-fixers will also be a key component in this scheme; legumes (Family: Fabaceae) are able to fix nitrogen gas in the air into plant-usable nitrates in the soil. Mulching with organic matter like leaves and twigs will also provide a small amount of nutrients as they decompose, but more importantly, they encourage healthy soil life by shading the soil from the harsh sunlight. Dead plants will be left in place to decompose (maybe cut at the base), thus returning nutrients to the garden.
2) Minimal watering garden: Manual watering will gradually be phased out as the garden becomes more established, with good soil structure and constantly mulched soil.
Good soil structure will be prioritised to allow better water retention and reduced need for manual watering. The complete reliance on rain will need some time (or not, in a region as wet as Johor Bahru), but mulching, cover cropping and encouraging soil life should eventually make this a possibility.
3) Biodiversity: A large variety of species of both plants and animals will be encouraged in the garden, to promote biodiversity and multifunctionality.
Many species of edible plants will be planted, and flowers will also be planted, to attract insects and other useful animals to the garden. Having a broad array of plants also allows for greater experimental value. Beneficial animals will also be encouraged by means of providing habitats such as a container pond, dead wood and stones. Lastly, the dense vegetation and mulch will also provide a home for beneficial animals like spiders, centipedes, isopods and earthworms.
4) Integrated pest/weed management: Various methods of pest control will be utilised to eliminate the use of environmentally harmful pesticides and herbicides.
Biological control by attracting natural predators like green lacewings and spiders will be the main way of pest control. This will be done by planting nectar plants and providing an array of microhabitats. Weeds will be controlled by mulching and cover cropping, always ensuring the soil is covered. Both weeds and pests may also be manually dealt with if they become too problematic, since the garden is quite small.