The Beginning

Announcement Date: February 25, 2010

Just five years ago our place was a palm oil plantation. Starting with a palm oil plantation is probably the most difficult start for a permaculture project, since oil palm monocultures destroy the land utterly and leave the soil to be completely deplete of nutrients, hard, sandy and full of the remains of the vast root network that takes years to decompose.
The ‘first (temporary) settlement’ consisted of Tee, Toon and their daughter Numthang, and some bamboo huts which were erected in the shade of the oil palms.

We cut down most of the oil palms and dug a pond. According to Tee, the most important thing when starting a permaculture project is to dig a pond, since afterwards you can jump in for a quick refreshment which eases hard work.

The first settlement, February 2010