Circle Gardens in Auroville and beyond

Now the Town Hall has a circle garden. It was started by Krishna from Solitude Farm around six months ago. “Despite Auroville being home to many inspiring and different experiments, the community still by and large does not realize that the essence of our existence lies in our relation to food,” he says. “In a world currently dominated by industrialized agriculture, which adversely impacts the environment and where financial profit is the bottom line, circle gardens are based on the principles of permaculture and natural farming.”

It all began during the ‘localicious food’ movement a couple of years ago, when many Aurovilians came together to promote local vegetables. This was later the basis for the ‘People-Food-Music’ activities at Solitude, which eventually developed into the circle gardens. As Krishna points out, “Nobody is going to solve our problem of where the food comes from unless it’s you and me at the grassroots working towards it. We make circle gardens to show people how they can grow local vegetables, and we run workshops to show how they can cook them.”

The land used for the Town Hall circle garden is a barren patch next to the entrance, deliberately chosen “as this is the most public spot in Auroville! Ever since the circle garden has been planted here, people come with doubts, questioning the sustainability of the project, or complaining about the way it looks. But this circle garden aims to bring the community together and build conversations around the present crises,” says Krishna.

The circle garden took five people a few hours to make, but maintaining it is a problem. Currently, the garden is being cared for by Krishna himself, together with a few other Aurovilians and employees of the Town Hall. “It would need just four to five Aurovilians to ensure the continuity of this garden,” he says. “A few people have shown interest and have come to harvest some of the gardens produce – the cherry tomatoes were quite a hit at the Financial Service. But the challenge is to get people ‘s commitment and physical involvement,” Krishna admits.

Krishna is also working outside Auroville. Together with children from the nearby village of Chinnamudaliarchavady, he and his team cleared village garbage to make space for a circle garden. In this neatly fenced garden, the children planted tapioca, capsicum, bottle gourds, pumpkins, and spinach along with some flowers. Children from this village were also taken to Solitude where they participated in workshops on cooking. This circle garden, he says, provides food for around 23 children.

For Krishna, both projects have helped him understand the ‘different inertia’ one faces while dealing with the larger context of food and farming – be it the ‘posh’ attitudes at the Town Hall or those of a much less affluent village. “Circle gardens are only about reaching out to the collective. Our next step is to work with Meenakshi and the headmen of this village to extend the work into the rest of the village. We also plan to hold a permaculture festival for the village. The village has a complex of issues like poverty and alcoholism. Amidst all that, the circle garden is a source of pride and happiness for the children.”