Blind to wealth

In 2014, after a two year absence, I returned to actively manage pointReturn. One of the reasons was that the land needed immediate drastic action.

During a visit prior to my return I had stood and stared at the fields overgrown with brush and tall grass.In several places, I had to part my way to enter the tangle. They rose close to my arm pits. It was impossibly thick and prickly in places to even wade through.

I went weak with despair. What has gone wrong? And, why?
That evening -after I had ‘done’ reacting in panic and calmed down- I realised they were wrong questions to be asking.
I was in fact, staring at wealth sent my way. The wealth was biomass to be used to add organic matter to crumbly soil. My task was to harvest and incorporate it into soil.
‘How’ was the correct question to ask.

In 2006 when I began, the land was bereft of vegetation. I used to bring sack loads of fallen leaves I could gather from elsewhere and frugally deploy them in spots where I began planting. Water was scarce but so was biomass.
We used to start our mornings sickling whatever grass and weeds came forth. We were on top of the growth, as there not much to harvest. Arm loads of green matter was carried off for composting.
Bur Nature is never at rest. Silently an orchestrated strategy for reasserting itself was at work unseen.

Slowly new species of weeds succeeded previous ones. I could see the changes but not understand the changes in the selection. 

In 2009, extensive Rain Water Harvesting [RWH] work began and completed in about an year. Soil got more moist. Growth became more vigorous. Sickling by hand was becoming a losing game. I tried a scythe for sometime, but it seemed more suited for succulent shoots.

By 2014, Nature had roared back in response to RWH. How was I going to cope with the abundance? I bought a petrol driven, shoulder slung brush-cutter. That couldn’t cope, besides being expensive to run.

That’s how I came to learn of the slasher. It’s a tractor drawn equipment, with a horizontally mounted blade; more like a lawn mower, but this had brute power and cut a swathe four feet wide. It cost Rs.75,000 but has been a good investment.

After a few hours of trial I was able to wade into the thick growth and become confident I was up to the task. The slasher not just mows the tall growth but shreds it into short bits and spreads it  over the land thus mulching it in one go. The shreds rot in dew and rain and are incorporated as organic matter into the crumbly, gravely soil.

This picture gives a measure of the height and density of the brush growth

The field before mowing began

Mowing in progress

Field mowed and mulched. Took about 6 hrs for the 3.5acres

Since 2014, each year this has been the drill. Biomass growth has been accelerating.

Lessons I have learnt in regenerating a wasteland are as follows:

1- Prevent wanton grazing by cattle herds.

2- Carry out a rain water harvesting programme

3- Harvest and incorporate biomass into the soil

Nature they say, is slow. It is not. It has a mind and tens of strategies it chooses from, depending on the geography. 

All it needs is a toe-hold to begin the take over.

First it sends a pioneering set of weeds. The successive plant emissaries are different, according to its  chosen plan. 

Once a critical moment is reached, biomass growth is exponential and one is hard put to cope with its abundance.

The biggest lesson I learnt of course was that, I must learn to look for a gift in what at first seems a problem.