First trees planted in the farm 21st November 2023

This is how we left the moringa cuttings on the farm yesterday. After having to abort our plans for planting them when it was clear that we would not be able to dig the holes in the wet clay soil by hand.

After a dryish night it was good to get back to the land and see the cuttings still waiting for us to plant them.

The land was also still waiting for us, now nice and level after having the digger go over it yesterday. It still looked very wet and muddy despite the drainage channel having been cleared out.

Once we started planting the cuttings it was very obvious that nothing much had changed. The area was still very we and muddy.

This picture doesn't do justice to the amount of clay mud that my shoes managed to pick up.

It was also true for Ashok who brought the augur machine that made short work of making holes for the cuttings.

Underneath the mud there were quite a few oil palm roots which wound themselves around the augur. It was a VERY muddy job!

This is what the area looked like after we had planted the 30 moringa cuttings.

I'm hopeful that these trees will be able to deal with the soil conditions.

Moringa is a tough tree and as they grow I hope they will help the soil to become more alive and fertile. Our next job will be to mulch the area as well as plant papaya and banana seedlings which at present are on order, but should arrive soon.

We did this planting to the background noise of the digger going about its work. Two terraces have been levelled and he started working on the place where the house is going to be. After which work will start on the pond.

I love the feeling of interacting with the land and the feeling of bringing more life to it after the deadening effects of the oil palm it has had growing there for at least the last 20 years.