This is a project we want to do for some time, the reason for the delay is we wanted to ensure a stable supply of water for irrigation. Also we need close the fence to keep out animals. After solving these problems (we’ll talk about them some day) we started with this “mandala garden” but using the “Basque mandala” : the lauburu (four heads). We have done internet searches and haven’t found anything about this issue, so we are original here

I will not argue about Lauburu is really Basque or not, it is said that this design is part of the Celtic culture and imported here, in fact resembles other figures like triskele or Labarum. The only thing I care is represents to our culture, our ancestors, and we want to honor our ancestors, nothing else. It seems ridiculous to use any other mandala having this one, also has 4 parts which allows for crop rotation to 4. So, we see the shape and how it is drawn:

Lauburu

How to draw a lauburu

Here we show a sketch or plan of how we have designed, is not exactly as you see above. The corridor to reach the center would be too long if we respect the original form, also too much area is stolen to the garden, and had become more difficult to build, so for simplicity we have done at this way:

lauburu garden's sketchup

In the plane we indicate also the amount of material going to use, cost and so on. Like almost all of these sketches, perhaps could be understanded by myself because isn’t clear, I apologize for that. It is drawn at 1:50, it has 1 m diameter in the center, the corridors have 45-50 cm width and the outer diameter is 6 m. Each zone has a surface area of ​​about 5 m2, giving a total of 20. They are designed to avoid having to enter, access only from the outside. There is a little surface but we also note that we will use the raised bed technique , so ground level will be higher, 40 cm. This has several advantages:

Avoid bending down, you can work standing up. The tilling of the land is minimized by not touching it, you can put drip irrigation and no need to move, you can put plants close together because there isn’t corridors, this increases performance and reduces losses of water by evaporation and weeds, as they haven’t space between the plants. For these reasons some studies talk about a production of between 2 and 4 times that of an orchard of the same size. So we talk about 40 to 80 m2, this is already a more reasonable size for a garden. The only disadvantage of this technique is it takes some work to do at first, but then you forget many other tasks. Let’s see the concept in a drawing made with sketchup:

Lauburu garden: concept

And a plan view to see the resemblance with the original lauburu:

Lauburu garden: plan view

We see an outer perimeter in the ground of about 50cm wide and other one with another 50, thus arriving at an outer diameter of 8 m. This is because in the fall we will build a geodesic dome that wraps the garden, so in winter will be a greenhouse. the whole year will serve to protect against birds, wind, for trellising tomatoes, etc.. Finally, we include two picture of the garden nearly complete. We have already planted some things and we have put a drip irrigation system.

In this picture I’m with one of my daughters and my brother in law, planting zucchini:

First raised bed ready

In this picture we see lauburu almost finished:

 In other thread I'll include more pictures about the process and final result.