Step 3: Beginning of the windbreaks

The multipurpose windbreak we started to plant this month will protect the crops from wind. Of course it will not stop typhoons but the negative effects of strong winds until 50 km/h are drastically reduced. This benefic effect improves the production, protects the soil and conserves water. It will also increase the biodiversity and provide farm products.Its design must be considered very seriously: in the worst case, a bad windbreak increases the destructive effect of the wind! The orientation, the density, the number of rows, the height of the trees is not the fruit of the hazard.

The trees  or bushes we chose are the result of a hard selection: the tree should show good qualities when used as windbreak, it must be available in Negros Island, thrive on clay-loamy soil and show at least one useful property like nitrogen fixer, erosion control, fruit, nut or food, bee or bird forage or food, resistance to dryness or water logging, good growth rate, mulching, medicine. Thanks to Negros Forests and Ecological Foundation, Inc. in Bacolod ( http://www.negrosforests.org ) especially to his Chairman Gerardo L. Ledesma and David "Davoy" Castor who helped me in the choice of species of trees and provided a great number of seedlings.

The first flower of a cutting of Hibiscus

in our nursery will be a component of

the living fence

We decided to install 7 rows:

- the first one is along the barbed wire and will establish a living fence supposed to replace the bamboo posts and the barbed wire when they will be destroyed in 3 to 5 years. Most percent of the plants are leguminous and will be used as forage for the lifestock. This row starts to deflect the wind.

- The second row is made with medium size trees (as neem tree), first real rampart to protect from the wind.

- The third row is the place of tall trees (as white lauan) which will deflect the wind high over the crops on about 10 times the height of the tallest tree.

- The forth row is again medium tree but exclusively fruit trees (as cachew or avocado).

- the 3 next rows are leguminous plants used for cut and carry method to feed the livestock.

Today we will see only the first row: the living fence. This row is the first you will see when you arrive at the school farm. It must be nice to see, that is why you will find Bougainvillea spectabilis so beautiful and much more efficient than barbed wire to keep bad people outside! And Tecoma stans, Duranta plumieri, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis and Caesalpinia pulcherrima will color and become more attractive the limit of the lot. A farm should also look like a garden! 

                                        

                                             

Caesalpinia pulcherrima, a beautiful leguminous plant of Asia!

But it is also a farm and the living fence should also be productive and we will plant Cajanus cajan, the pidgeon pea, Calliandra calothyrsus, Sesbania sesban the egyptian pea and Gliricidia sepium the marvellous and multipurpose Madre de Cacao. 

Let see the plantation of the 500 first Calliandra. The seedlings are planted every 50 cm to have a good windbreak effect. As always in a windbreak we give preference to the efficience as windbreak, not to the productivity. As rule of thumb, 500 Calliandra are enough to feed 1 cow or 4 to 5 goats.

 

Here the 9 steps: 

Cleaning of the roots of sugar cane

     Sticking

      Holing

     Adding compost

   

 Mixing of the compost

    Planting

    Protecting from the wind

    Spraying of microorganisms

    Mulching with bagasse

Step Two: The fencing

A little cleaning is necessary to build the fencing on a plane soil. A bulldozer solves the problem in a few hours.

The fencing is very simple: bamboo posts every 3m, five rows of barbed and planned wire. We only want a protection for our plantations against the appetite of goats and carabaos. As soon as possible a living fence will be planted and will cover and replace this ugly barbed wire fence.

Seven species of plants constitute this living fence: Bougainvillea spectabilis, Cajanus cajan (Kadyos), Calliandra calothyrsus, Desmantus virgatus (Cow pea) , Sesbania grandiflora (Katuray) and Caesalpinia pulcherrima (Bulaklak ng paraiso). These plants are also selected because of their great value in a windbreak and the living fence is the first row of the windbreak. Of course they participate to the increasing of biodiversity and embellishe the limits of the lot.

In our temporary nursery we start seedlings of some of these species. Here are our first seedlings of Caesalpinia pulcherrima, one of the most beautiful flower of Asia.

Step One: The survey

After the administrative work and official ceremonies, it is time now to discover each square meter of the lot. With the help of a GPS it is easy to make a fast survey with basic informations about position and altitude. It is essential to position the windmill, the tanks, the buildings and the crops at the good altitude. As some differences appeared between the old maps and the reality, the City decides to proceed a new survey with theodolite and technical description of 1918.

The City solve also some problems of squatters who use the lot for their own cultures. The City will relocate them.

We can now edit the use of the lot as we see it in a near future and allocate the areas for each crop and buildings, for the livestock and its forage, for the water net from the windmill to irrigation, tanks and wetland. Now there is more or less only sugar cane, but we are at the step one, doesn't it?