Samuel Eddy, a personal friend, has been highly supportive of the farm initiative. He has had lots of plantation experience in his early days and his ideas have always been innovative and practical. So, I was really glad when he volunteered to speak his mind out on what would he do if he had 7 acres of land.
Eddy sent me his ideas over email. I liked it so much that I immediately replied back to him asking if it was ok for me to put this up on the blog. I really felt that ideas like these should be helpful to anyone who has a similar dream. Ofcourse, I knew his answer already! 🙂
And so, here is his first set of ideas. The following text is in Samuel Eddy’s own words.
“If I had seven acres…………..!!!
I am going to let my imagination run wild here but I am also going to do extensive research to see if it is also practical and be implementable .It has also to be functional and aesthetic .It must be a legacy that I will leave behind me and it should tell my story. It must be what my children will be proud of and it should draw many people towards it. It must sustain itself and should generate enough income to fund future dreams.
The first thing I would do is to survey the land and make a map of the area as this will help me in all my planning. I would then figure out the outer boundary in running feet .This will help me in estimating and budgeting my fencing costs .For example if the outer boundary was 3665 ft and I had a spacing of 10’ then I know I would require 366 posts to do my fencing and the quantity of barbed wire I needed to fence my property .I would stop here to think as to why I needed fencing. Was it to keep out cattle ,snakes or people ? Which is the most cost effective way of doing that.Will it also be beautiful and at the same time functional?
For me it would be a barbed wire fencing with a bougainvillea hedge in many many colours .This plant does not need much water .In fact the water stress makes it bloom!!. It is a hardy plant ideal for the climate in India and it contains thorns which keeps cattle and humans out but it looks beautiful and this is how I would plant it.
I would in fact plant it during the monsoon season as by the time the monsoon ends the plant would have established itself .I would have a weekend where I will get people from Chennai to come and get their hands dirty and also pay for their trip and then get them to write their experiences!!
BloGGers! Now get your hands dirty!!
I would source the plants locally at some nursery so that I save on transportation costs. I would plant the plants with roots near the fencing posts and fill up the space in between with the cuttings which I can get free!”
