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April 18, 2006

Well over ninety species of herbs grow in the clinic garden, we use them to make our own medicines

Neem. Azadiracta indica. One of the most important herbs used in Ayurveda. The roots, bark, gum, leaves, fruit, seed kernels and seed oil all find uses in remedies that heal & prevent disease. We use it in combination with other herbs shown here to treat pain.

Akaua. Calotropis gigantea, in Sanskrit also called Arka. In alliance with tamarind from our garden it is used in a medicinal oil effective at treating aching and swollen joints, muscular and lower back pain as well as sciatica, headache and paralysis.

Tamarind. Tamarindus indica. The leaves are ground with lime juice and other herbs and applied to boils to reduce sepsis and swelling. The leaves and pulp are often used in congestion of the liver, cases of chronic constipation and to treat painful haemorrhoids.

Tulsi. Ocimum sanctum, Sacred Basil. Has strong antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral action. Inhibits growth of E coli and other pathogens Its natural anti-tuberculosis activity has been recorded at a tenth the strength of streptomycin and a quarter that of isoniazid.

Eranda. Ricinus communis. Castor oil plant. Traditionally used to treat pain, fever, inflammation, asthma, bronchitis & leprosy. Leaves for intestinal worms. Flowers for glandular tumours, anal troubles & vaginal pains. Seed and oil are cathartic, and said to be aphrodisiac.

Ginger. Zingiber officinale. The familiar rhizome is a powerful anti-inflammatory, its juice is a staple of many Ayurvedic preparations. A common home remedy for nausea and dyspepsia, ginger has also been shown to be of use in treating viral hepatitis.

Vasa, Arusa. Adhatoda vasica. Traditional healers use the juice of Vasa leaves mainly to treat cough, asthma and other respiratory diseases. A paste made of the leaves can be given with honey to asthma sufferers. We use its leaves to produce a medicinal steam.

Ashwagandha. Withania somnifera. The dried and powdered root is used to boost the immune system and to treat weakness, muscular pain and seminal disorders. Taken with milk it is a fine tonic. Ashwagandha is often used in shirodhara massage to treat headaches.

Lemon balm. Melissa officinalis. One of the most useful of all herbs in women’s medicine, Extracts of the leaves taken in both oil & hot water have been shown to possess strong antibacterial & antiviral qualities.

Nirgundi. Vitex negundo. The traditional healers and natives have rich traditional medicinal knowledge about Nirgundi. The healers prepare special herbal oil from fresh leaves of Nirgundi and use in treatment of more than 70 common and complicated diseases.

Giloy. Tinospora cordifolia. The entire plant is valuable, used in Ayurvedic medicine as a tonic, revitaliser and remedy for diabetes and metabolic disorders, stomach ulcer and urinary affections. It is also helpful in chronic problems and cases of fatigue.

Shatavari. Asparagus racemosus. Used as a blood purifier, it is highly recommended for many women’s problems, including coping with the menopause. It helps to maintain a healthy urinary tract, strengthens the immune system and is useful against vaginal infections.

Posted by ulrich at 12:07 AM | Comments (0)

April 17, 2006

The second year, the garden blooms and is captured in a Jeff Stride pastel, the new clinic is finished

FROM THE ARCHIVE, SPRING TO AUTUMN 2005

"Winter" ended suddenly one day in early February, just after I bought an extra blanket for my bed. The fluffy cotton quilt kept me toasty on the last night of the cold snap, which killed the sensitive kala jeera (Carum carvi) plants. The next night I barely needed a sheet. We shall soon have to start working at 6 am again to avoid the mid-day heat.

Ratna at work among the tulsi plants

What a difference now that everyone is here in our brand new beautiful clinic surrounded by our medicinal gardens. After two years of gardening alone to the sounds of construction, seeing the brilliant smiles of the people coming for care is pure magic. The Ayurvedic doctors send many people directly down to the garden with prescriptions for fresh herbs that we pick on the spot. Thus begins the process of introducing folks to the bounty of our garden.

Now it is a joy to be in the full bloom garden, buzzing with bees and other wild pollinators. Many bird species visit. A golden tiger cat has appeared to keep the burrowing rodent population in control. We would love some birdwatchers to do a population survey so we can record the increasing number of species attracted to and supported by our growing garden.

When the new clinic opened at the end of April we were busy processing our winter harvest. The cool, dry season between October and March is very productive for us here, with mild temperatures and sunny days that many tender annuals prefer. Seed crops and root crops maturing as the hot weather approaches can be easily dried and stored for use throughout the year.

The tulsi (basil) harvest. Tulsi is widely used in Indian herbal medicine and is in great demand among our herbalists. From left to right are Steve, Terry’s hat, Mukesh and Ratna, our gardeners, who built the jhopri.

Over the past few weeks we have been harvesting ashwaganda (Withania somnifera) roots. We devoted about a third of our field to this important general tonic that helps the body cope with all types of stress. To make one of the preparations used at the clinic the dried white roots are ground into a powder and mixed with shilajit, a black, mineral-rich ooze that seeps from rock outcrops in the Himalayas. This powerful combination is given to TB sufferers to strengthen their immune systems and help them get through the arduous, six-to-nine month long treatment with antibiotics.

Our Nigella is in bright white and yellow flower, soon ready for harvesting. Seed crops and root crops that are maturing as the hot weather approaches can be easily dried and stored for use throughout the year. We harvested seed crops of fennel, dill, cumin, cress, and coriander. My desk was covered with rose petals and calendula flowers drying for use in herbal teas and soothing oils – a far better state than being buried in reports and memos.

Biju, our medicine maker, came by the other day to request leaves of acaua, an essential ingredient in our pain relieving massage oil.

My desk is covered with drying rose petals and calendula flowers for use in herbal teas and soothing oils - a far better state than being buried in reports and memos overflowing the inbox.

We were helped in the garden this season by many overseas visitors. Graeme, former tree dweller, harvested castor roots and painted our plant signs; Charlene who planted tulsi; Rosa who planted Vidanga (Emblica ribes); Jenny and Andy who harvested flowers; Steve gathered seeds and made lots of delicious tea. If you'd like to help in the garden, please write to me.

Rosa's dad Jeff visited us to make a painting of the garden, one of a collection of twenty paintings he is doing of Bhopal in aid of the Medical Appeal.

Jeff at work and (below) the finished pastel

Jeff's pastels of Bhopal were exhibited in London in December 2005 to mark the 20th anniversary of the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal. A few pastels are still available for sale, to view them please visit our arts website, www.bhopal.fm

Last December 3rd was the 20th anniversary of the gas disaster and thousands gathered in the streets to remember, and mourn, and carry the struggle for justice forward. Many of our long time supporters gathered in the garden jhopri to find peace and solace, sip medicinal tea, and plan for the future.

The 20th anniversary meeting of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal took place in this tea hut, built by Ratna. Below, the view from the tea-hut towards the new clinic

We’ve been giving attention to designing and planting the medicinal landscaping around the building. We want to create beautiful spaces around the clinic with both practical and educational value. In the courtyard outside the gynaecology and Ayurveda wings we have focused on plants used in daily panchakarma and massage therapies, and plants especially important to women’s health.

Staff from these departments provided ideas, suggestions, and requests for specific plants, which we incorporated into a design appropriate for and adapted to the different environmental conditions (sun, shade) of the space. Thus purple foliage of tulsi alternates with the bright green leaves of lemon balm to form a fragrant and colourful border along the passage where visitors wait to see the doctors.

A bank of roses and vitex (nirgundi) lines the sunny wall by the panchakarma rooms, ready to pluck as needed by the therapists. Creeping up the pillars behind the roses are climbing asparagus (shatavari) vines (good for treating vaginal infections) and leafy vines of heart-shaped giloy, Tinospora cordifolia, which among other things is a tonic, revitaliser and remedy for diabetes. The shady walls opposite are planted with the evergreen shrubs of vasa, beneath which a ground cover of brahmi grows. And the center of the courtyard will be shaded (in a few years time) by the shapely Sita ashok tree, an evergreen covered in bright orange blossoms, symbolic for women all over India with many medicinal uses.

We also just finished building a waterfall to channel rainwater runoff to our pond, which is once again full. As I gaze across the water surrounded by verdant vegetation a kingfisher perched on the castor tree dives for her dinner, a white egret glides in for a landing, and hundreds of green parrots perch and swoop in the top of the tamarind tree. There are so many more birds visiting now than when I began two years ago on a barren plot. We would love to have some birdwatchers visit us to do a population survey so we can record the increasing number of species attracted to and supported by our growing garden.

There is so much going on, even more to write about, but I’ll have to save it for the next newsletter. If you’d like to help in the garden, please write to me at terrykisan@yahoo.com

Much love from

Terry

Posted by ulrich at 11:08 PM | Comments (0)

The garden shoots up, helped by a drenching monsoon

FROM THE ARCHIVE, SEPTEMBER 2004

After a couple of false starts, the monsoons have finally come to Bhopal. All of the rain and humidity has brought a big spurt of growth, especially of weeds! However, as most of us know, almost every plant has a valuable use, even weeds.

Ashwagandha, used in numerous ayurvedic remedies

Our primary weed this season, known locally as pattar chatah, is very useful for treating kidney stones. But, while a few people have come to harvest this rampant ground cover for this purpose, we find ourselves weeding it out of the growing beds on a daily basis. Kidney stone sufferers need not worry, there is always plenty, despite our best attempts to keep it in check.

In spring Mr Mukesh Kushwah joined us as gardener. Along with Ms. Ratna Soni he is responsible for carrying out most of the work of the garden. Mukesh has his own small farm on the outskirts of Bhopal and brings a lot of local farming knowledge to Sambhavna.

Around our garden borders the tiny trees we started last year from seed have now grown more than two metres! They are literally getting bigger right before our eyes! It is so exciting to see our small medicinal forest take shape.

Mukesh, Nic and Ratna plant a neem seedling

This season we have expanded our plantings with two new groves along the west wall and near the nullah. Sunil, Ratna, Mukesh and others have planted dozens of trees and shrubs including neem, amla, amaltas, gulmohar, palaash and Sita ashok. The way things are growing around here we wont have to wait long to sit in the shade.

Sunil, Mukesh, Nic and Ratna, this time planting ashwagandha

Speaking of volunteers, Sam Tilley, a medical student from the UK, braved the summer heat and designed and built some stackable drying racks for our freshly harvested herbs, among other projects for the clinic.

Nicolas Cadot, an engineering student from France, endured the rain and mud to plant trees, weed (of course!), and build a couple of trellises.

Nicolas and Mukesh erect a trellis

In our main growing area, we have planted white musali, a general tonic sometimes referred to as the ginseng of India. We also have ashwagandha, sarpgandha, tumeric, tulsi, passion flower, cumin, black cumin, fennel, caraway, dill, climbing asparagus (shatavari), peppermint, lemon balm, catnip, yarrow, clover, and alfalfa.

There is more, I’m sure, but my brain is a bit too damp to recall it all.

In July, Mukesh assisted community health workers Massarat and Aziza in supporting an herb gardening project in the bustees [slums]. Residents of Nawab Colony, a neighbourhood with contaminated soil and water from the abandoned Carbide factory, have decided to grow some of their own medicinal plants in containers at their homes. Sambhavna provided growing advice, clean soil and plant seedlings from our nursery, while community members provided well-rotted manure for fertilizer, the containers and the interest.

Mukesh said, ‘The people from the bustees are very eager, and we all had a great time together talking about plants and learning from each other.’

Meanwhile three products from this year’s harvest are already being dispensed at the clinic.

Methi [fenugreek seeds] is being used for treatment of joint pain and elevated Blood sugar levels, chandrasur for weakness, low back ache and excessive vaginal secretions, and isabgol husk is being used for treatment of constipation which is a common problem among the survivors visiting the clinic. Different mixtures for teas meant to cure colds, coughs and loss of appetite are currently being packaged for distribution.

Nowadays, there is the constant noise of construction as the new clinic buildings rise above us at the top of the hill. As the new facility takes shape we are starting to envision the landscaping for the courtyards, roof terraces and outdoor spaces around the buildings. We will get lots of plants started in our nursery so they will be a nice size for transplanting when the construction is finished. All will be medicinal of course, and if you doubt that we can create a beautiful landscape with entirely medicinal plants let me just say that even the grass is medicinal!

Here’s to your good health!

Much love from Terry

Posted by ulrich at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)

The first spring, and the garden begins to bloom. Our first harvest.

FROM THE ARCHIVE, MARCH 2004

From the shade of the tamarind tree at the top of the garden you can look out over our garden fanning out below. A raging red amaranth welcomes you to paths curving off to different corners. Your eye is drawn to the bright orange of nasturtiums in the distance, beckoning you to the cool blue realm of oats in the back.

There are lush patches of clover, alfalfa, indigo, and flax with lovely sky blue flowers floating like stars among its mass of vertical stems.

The smooth, broad, bright green blades of our young banana trees poke up out of this carpet, along with the less noticeable saplings of other medicinal trees and shrubs. In the opposite corner is the lemongrass patch with guggul, bamboo and putranjeva.

Through the sunflowers you see the large patch of chandrashur turning golden as the seeds ripen. In other parts of the main growing area, ashwaganda, tulsi, plantago, nigella, coriander, dill and calendula are interplanted with alfalfa and fenugreek for nitrogen fixing, biomass and soil improvement. Unfortunately, our big plantings of tulsi never came up. But the small plantings of six distinct types of basil and tulsi are doing well. We are growing them for seed, so that next time we will get better results.

It’s hard to recall that only just back in October & November, our gardeners Ratna Soni, Amar Singh, Sunil Lodi and I were making the beds for the first time. While the plants have been happily growing along with the weeds we have been busy making lots of compost, and spreading it around. It is beautiful, rich and earthy – sounds like a personal ad: ‘seeks nourishing relationship with well rooted individual of any species...’

Mohan, the security guard who helps in the garden in his spare time, went to the scrap market and found an old refrigerator body and wheel to make a wheelbarrow, which has become the favourite vehicle of the kids. We installed a basic irrigation system with a couple of taps and hoses that make it a lot easier to water the different parts of the garden. The cuttings we planted around the fence lines grew quite well during the cool winter season. And we adopted a puppy, named ‘Tiger’ who is our mascot and is always on the lookout for treats and biscuits.

We have been harvesting various things, and have recently finished cutting our biggest crop, chandrashur (Lepidium sativum), or garden cress. We are interested in the seeds, which are used in Ayurvedic medicines. They are very high in easily- assimilated iron. Rinsed and briefly soaked in water, they can be eaten to help combat anaemia, which is a common problem with gas-affected women.

So it seems that we have become seed growers and savers! Not only are we saving seed for our next crops, but the seeds themselves are medicine. Other medicinal seeds we are growing include flax, tulsi, psyllium, fenugreek, and nigella.

Threshing the seeds is best done by inviting a lot of kids over for a dance party. We all had so much fun jumping, tumbling and dancing on top of the dry plant material, the seeds were separated with pure laughter.

After threshing, Ratna, Kanta, and Puja are experts at winnowing away the chaff. Learning to winnow is also like dancing - with the basket, the seed, and the wind.

Several people have come to volunteer at the garden including Anjali Deshpande, Daya Shankar, Kanta, Asima and Vikas (from Bhopal), Vinita (Bangalore), David Francis (Canada), Susan Allan and Maude Dorr (USA), Sam Tilley and Nick and Kelly Tarbuck (UK). They have helped with sowing seeds, weeding, and harvesting. We have been harvesting and drying lots of tulsi leaves, nirgundi leaves (Vitex negundo), calendula flowers, curly dock roots, and Mexican poppy roots. One of our big Arjun (Terminalia arjuna) trees died, so we harvested several kilos of the bark, which is used in infusion to treat heart disease.
We are also starting to get a lot of visitors. One day a group of gas-affected women from Oriya bustee came over for a tour and we all shared our knowledge about the medicinal plants growing in the garden.

Once a month the clinic staff and interested community health volunteers come to the garden for a class led by Dr. Deshpande about the use of specific plants in Ayurveda. When the new clinic opens we will have many such tours and classes. Other visitors have included researchers, activists, journalists, and film-makers from different parts of the world. Please write to us if you want to visit on your next trip to Bhopal.

Outside the walls of our peaceful garden the 20-year-long struggle for justice continues. 150 Bhopalis went to Mumbai in January to attend the World Social Forum and demonstrate in front of the Dow Chemical Company India headquarters. And on March 8th, International Women’s Day, more than 100 women survivors and Sambhavna staff demonstrated in front of the Indira Gandhi government hospital, demanding medical care, research, jobs and justice. The government does not officially recognise women’s health issues as related to the gas disaster, so many women continue to suffer without proper care.

The heat is coming now. We will bring in our harvests and start getting ready for the monsoons in mid June. We have to be totally ready including having all of the compost spread and soil prepared before the first rain. Then run out and plant all of the seeds really fast before the monsoons make working the soil nearly impossible. But that will be another story.,, Keep checking our website for more updates on our work. We are happy with the amount that we have been able to achieve so far, but we have a long way to go and little money to do it with. Please be generous, Your money goes a long way here. Just £60 would cover the salaries of our two gardeners for a month.

Much love to all from Terry.

Posted by ulrich at 10:36 PM | Comments (0)

2003 - the beginnings of the medicinal herb garden

FROM THE ARCHIVE

Sambhavna Trust is planting an organic Ayurvedic herbal medicine garden at its new clinic in Bhopal. The garden project will produce fresh herbs to use in making the Ayurvedic medicines dispensed by the clinic, train people in organic gardening techniques, educate community members about growing and using medicinal herbs, and demonstrate a home-grown alternative to expensive, drug-store variety health care.

View of land from the south. Masses of plastic needed to be picked from the soil

Looking at the bare, open land, it is hard to envision what the garden will look like a few years from now. But imagine a lush green garden surrounded by shady trees and shrubs. Beneath this shady border, worms are at work making rich, dark compost for use in the garden. Walking paths meander through the beds of more than 100 varieties of medicinal plants. Hand painted signs help you identify the plants and their uses. Around the large pond you see plant species that like water. Entering the small grove of trees next to the pond you follow a small stream up to a short waterfall. The sound of the water gurgling over the rocks tempts you to pause for a rest on the bench. Once still, you notice the dragonflies flitting over the water, and are amused by the chipmunks running around the trees and stones. Continuing up the path toward the clinic you pass several women doing yoga for relief of breathlessness. You pass the medicine-making workshop where the plants harvested from the garden are being made into Ayurvedic medicines. Ahead is a plant nursery where you can find the plants you want to grow in your own medicine garden at home. Reluctant to leave, you head back down toward the Tamarind tree for a last lingering view of the beautiful garden.

Hoeing, weeding and mulching

Let us know if you want to help us make this vision a reality. Come to Bhopal and get your hands dirty.

Garden Journal: March 2003

In starting this garden we face many challenges. The garden site was formerly used for a brick-making operation, hence the red clay subsoil will need a lot of improvement. We have planted a “green manure” cover crop to begin this soil-enriching process.

Bordering the garden is an open sewage “nalla”, completely choked with plastic bags and garbage. During the monsoons, this overflows on to the land, depositing all of the garbage. We spent two weeks cleaning up all of this garbage before we could plant our cover crop. We will have to pick plastic bags out of the soil for years to come. We have tried to design our fencing to prevent this flooding.

The largest tree on the property is a lovely old Tamarind. The tree is still standing tall despite the fact that the soil around its roots has been severely eroded. We will build a protective wall around the base, and fill it with soil and good compost to help protect this tree, which is our favorite place to sit in the shade and cool off while working in the garden.

Garden Journal: August 2003

The dampness has set in now, as we reach the middle of the rainy season here in Bhopal. The early rains came as dramatic afternoon thunderstorms blowing fast across the landscape. I would stand on the roof of my apartment building and watch the lightning displays until they got too close and I ran inside for shelter. The afternoon and evening rains cool everything down and make the nights quite pleasant for sleeping. Some days the sun glares down through the thick humid air enough to dry the laundry on the line. And in the open space across the way, boys splash and play in the seasonal pools, and get covered with mud in rowdy games of soccer. Compared to the parching dryness and dust of the winter and hot seasons, the humidity in the air is welcomed by my skin and nostrils. And the thirsty earth bursts forth in a bright green lushness, luminous against the dark grey skies.

Now, it seems the clouds have moved in to stay for a while. In the cabinets and under the bed anything that can absorb moisture is getting covered with fuzzy white mold. Nothing to do but wait for the sun to air everything out... eventually.

And in my garden the soil has transformed itself from hard dry bricks into thick sticky clay that accumulates on the bottom of my sandals, adding inches to my height like platform shoes. Worms have come, and the cover crop I planted back in March/April that I thought had been completely destroyed by heat and grazing has reemerged and is jumping toward the sky, along with a healthy crop of weeds. Since I got back in mid-June the fencing has been completed, effectively keeping the overflowing sewage nalla at bay and the ever hungry goats and cows away from the plantings. Jean Batiste and Aude, two organic farmers from France, came to volunteer and we built the first compost pile, weeded, and planted some trees donated by a local plant nursery.

Aude and Jean Baptiste, volunteers from France, with a friend, taking a break

The biggest project was digging the pond before it became too rainy to work. The pond will store rainwater for irrigating during the dry season. The work was done by hand by about 15 local men and women who completed the whole thing in a week. Now it is filling up, and I am anxious to see if the water will stay without having to put in an artificial liner.

The pond was marked out and digging began. The rains had already started

My attempts at seed sowing in my nascent plant nursery have all met with disastrous results, with everything succumbing to "damping-off", a soil fungus that attacks and kills young seedlings, and obviously thrives under these monsoon conditions. With nothing resembling a "sterile soil mix" available hereabouts, I think I'll try sowing into pure sand next. My other idea is to water the seeds with neem leaf tea. I'll let you know if it works.

The seedlings came up, but they were savagely attacked by fungus

Garden Journal: October 2003

As quickly as they came, the rains have ended. And the overabundance of water has just as quickly dried up. But I am impressed by the effectiveness of mulching. The soil is still moist and damp, even on the surface, in the areas where we have mulched.

While it seems that day-to-day things just inch along, looking back I can say we have accomplished quite a bit. Our pond filled up with water, and now supports cypress grass and lotus. The lotus flowers look quite beautiful in the early mornings, thrusting their deep rose flowers, crisp, clean and new, toward the sky. Lots of frogs leap into the water as you walk around the edge, and red-orange dragonflies dance their dance above the surface. Mohan says there is also a turtle, but I haven't seen it. I did see a big black water snake swimming swiftly around one day, but it slid into the grass when it saw me watching.

The monsoon filled the pond, and a large black snake promptly took up happy residence

Around the boundary we have planted dozens of trees and hundreds of cuttings. The cuttings are primarily: Nirgundi (Vitex negundo) a beautiful shrub used for relief of headache, rheumatism, and fever, with anti-cancer activity; Giloy (Tinospora cordifolia) a climbing vine good for fevers; and bouganvilla whose thorny branches will become an important part of the live fence, and whose hot pink flowers will provide cheerful color even during the droughts. And this is just the beginning! We plan to add Shikakai (Acacia coccinia) a thorny vine good for the hair, fragrant (and thorny) Indian roses, Karonda (Carissa carandus) a thorny shrub, and Henna shrubs (Lawsonia inermis), among other species.

Our plant nursery is now doing well. We started more than 120 varieties of medicinal plants and trees, and those that germinated and survived “damping off” are now ready to go into the ground. We should be able to start planting in the next few days. In addition to our nursery-raised seedlings, we will also direct seed many more varieties.

We used our first cover crop of Sorgham to make a nice pile of compost. And down on the low lying portion of the field near the nalla (sewage canal) we have planted a new set of nitrogen fixing, soil improving cover crops like alfalfa, red clover, and indigo. It is essential that we grow our own biomass for compost and mulching material, as there is no other local source. The cover crops are planted in between the trees in rows separated by newspaper and straw mulching to suppress weeds and conserve moisture. It is time consuming to plant it this way, but I am sure it will pay off in the end.

Some of the trees we have planted so far include leguminous nitrogen fixers, good for biomass and tasty vegetables, medicinal fruits, and trees with medicinal leaves and barks. These include Arjuna (Terminalia arjuna), Palash (Butea frondosa), Ashok (Sarraca indica), Neem (Azadiracta indica), Cassia spp., Gulmohar (Delonix regia), Babul (Acacia arabica), Amla (Emblica officinalis), Amaltas (Cassia fistula), Bel (Aegle marmelos), Ber (Zizyphus jujuba), Peepul (ficus religiosa), Banyan (Ficus bengalensis), tamarind, lemon, banana and papaya.

We hired two gardeners in mid-August, Mr. Amar Singh and Ms. Ratna Soni, and recently Sunil Lodi, a gas survivor with severe psychological problems, has joined us for some horticultural therapy. In addition, several local volunteers have helped out regularly. They have learned a lot about compost making, seed sowing, cuttings, and transplanting. We all share our knowledge of different herbs, and bring in plants and seeds that we find in the villages. Nivritta, the clinic's yoga instructor, has taught us several yoga exercises to help us strengthen and protect our backs.

So things are off to a good start, and we are all excited to see what the place will look like in a few months.

Terry Allan
C/o Sambhavna Clinic
44, Sant Kanwar Ram Nagar
Berasia Road
Bhopal, M.P. 462018
INDIA

Posted by ulrich at 09:47 PM | Comments (0)