Lessons from nature

Nature’s system is being mimicked at The Datai Langkawi’s Permaculture Garden in a most ingenious way, writes

“GROW soil? You mean you grow plants IN the soil, right?” I couldn’t help exclaiming incredulously to the stocky, bespectacled gentlemaninfrontofme. Clad in a light cotton shirt, a straw hat perched jauntily on his head, Mark Garrett, a permaculture design consultant AND the man who designed English business magnate Richard Branson’s Necker Island in the Caribbean, is clearly tickled.

“No, I mean we grow soil,” he replies in his slow and deliberate Aussie drawl, amusement lacing his voice.

Meanwhile, standing by a modest wooden kampong house, which serves as an office of sorts, looking out to a view that I can only describe as an “eclectic” garden, withallkindsofplantsandtreesandunusual mounds of “natural matters” making up the elements, is a taller, bespectacled gentleman, who’s doing a bad job at containing his grin.

“Let’s go for a walk around this garden and we’ll explain to you how it works,” suggests Piet Van Zyl, the pioneer of Positive Impact Forever (a start-up that’s passionate about making a positive impact on the environment around us) and an experienced sustainability professional with more than 24 years hotel experience.

Garrett, who also redesigned the edible gardens of Green School, the world’s greenest school located in Bali, Indonesia, and Van Zyl are here in Langkawi to lend their expertise to one of The Datai Langkawi’s amazing eco-initiatives, the Permaculture Garden.

In fact, Van Zyl is on The Datai’s Sustainability Committee (Pure Team), where he provides full guidance on all the resort’s sustainability initiatives, and Garrett is the man behind the design of this permaculture garden.

The Permaculture Garden, which is framed on one side by lush natural rainforest, is a zero-waste organic food production system with a closed-loop waste management system. It represents a continuous journey towards developing sustainability within the property.

AsthetwogentlemanandImakeour way into the “garden”, where banana trees andthe pegaga (Asiatic pennywort), peppercorns, pak choi (type of Chinese cabbage) and many, many other plants and trees coexist in harmony with each other, it’s Garrett who enthusiastically assumes the part of obliging guide.

“As I was saying earlier, we really do grow soil here,” begins the affable Aussie, a specialist in tropical permaculture.

“Apart from climate, the permaculture philosophy also focuses on building up soils so that they can gradually become more nutrient-rich and well-balanced as time goes by. Soil is important because it’s where our food grows from,” he explains.

“Is permaculture the same as organic gardening?”, I blurt out. The question had been floating in my mind ever since I walked into this garden.

“Not quite,” replies Garrett with a smile. Permaculture does use organic farming practices but it goes beyond just that.

In a nutshell, a permaculture garden is different from other modern farming techniques because its focus isn’t just on growing food.

Those who practise permaculture seek to “...find balances between the give and takeofnature—includinganimals—and the needs of humanity.”

Permaculture, elaborates Garrett, is a way of living in harmony with nature by growing food, creating efficient energy systems, saving and reusing water, cultivating diversity, and regenerating soil nutrients and minerals so people can live healthily in thriving environments.

As we stroll further into the garden, weaving our way around “plant beds” and pausing every so often to check on the various plants that make their home here, Van Zyl shares that the biggest component of their waste programme is organic waste. “About 80 per cent of the waste is organic. So this is where this began.”

Continuing, he says: “When we decided to embark on this, we realised we needed to have an organic garden where we can bring all the food waste and turn them into compost. The compost can go into the garden; the garden can produce food and the food will go back to the kitchen, thus completing the system.”

And then Garrett, who also provides training and guidance for The Datai’s associates keen to learn about permaculture principles, was brought in to design the garden.

The duo incidentally were already familiar with each other’s work, having collaborated on several projects around the world, beginning with one in the Maldives.

This site which the permaculture garden now occupies was formerly a rubbish dump, where the hotel contractors would dump their discards. But the duo saw potential in the space and decided that it’d make the ideal canvas for what they wanted to do.

The actual garden area measures around 600 to 700 square feet (about 55-65 square metres). It’s what’s known as an intensive production garden, explains Garrett. Then, there’s the area where the kampong house-cum-office-cum-education space is located, which takes up about 400 square metres.

Another 400 square metres just outside the garden has been allocated for what’s known as the Monkey Forest, where specific fruiting trees and plants are grown in order to lure the monkeys (and wild boars) to remain in one place so as not to disturb the main garden as they search for food.

And finally, towards the back of the garden is where compost is created, other food forests are being developed and a worm farm is being cultivated.

“Wait, there’s a worm farm?” I ask, bewilderment etched on my face.

Garrett throws me an impish smile, saying: “At the back there, we’ve used discarded bath tubs for our worm farm. Instituting a worm farm on a permaculture plot will ensure that you get a consistent supply of castings, which in turn helps your soil to remain in good condition all year round.”

This permaculture garden is a major part of The Datai’s sustainability programme, adds Van Zyl, before sharing that the Pure Centre, located towards the back, is where all the food waste are brought in, dehydrated and then brought back here again for the composting and the worm farm.

Elaborating, Van Zyl shares: “We’ll shred all the plastic and crush the glasses and make other things from them. By middle of next year, the hotel won’t have any waste going to a landfill because everything will be handled onsite.”