21 December 2008
Tim Taylor
Digging the holes
The field is sloping south east. The soil is thick whiteish clay; when it is the dry season the ground is baked hard and very difficult to dig. But this is the wet season (musim hujan) where the soil is easier to dig, but then the hole fills with water which cannot drain away. I work with Pak Mamman who arrives every day at my house at 8.00am with his digging stick and machete. The digging stick is a thick rod of ribbed reinforcing steel with the end beaten into a flat nose. The rod is wedged into a stout bamboo pole. It is heavy but in expert hands like Pak Mamman’s is very effective on the sticky clay ground. Squatting, you wield the pole, thrust deep in the soil, lever it around to loosen, and thrust again several more times. The heavy soil is loosened and you dig out with your hands. My hands are small and puny compared to Pak Mamman’s – his hands are huge and one hand seems to excavate as much soil as both my hands cupped together. He wields the tool expertly and makes it seem effortless but in fact it is more difficult than it looks as I found out for myself. At the first attempt to thrust into the ground, I was too vigorous and the rod disengaged from the pole and had to be wedged in again. It takes practice, but the tool penetrates the ground more effectively than a spade or mattock where the larger surface area would make the work much more laborious. Several digs are needed before the hole reaches the right depth (half a meter) and width, with a flat bottom. The earth piles up in a mound – meanwhile the clay accumulates around your boots and soon they are as heavy as divers’ lead boots. Each hole takes about five minutes to dig. We work steadily across the field, 10 holes in each row which have previously been marked out in regular spaces of five meters apart. The water level rises in the hole very quickly, the rain has been very heavy. The ground is furrowed and the bottom of the furrow becomes saturated and very difficult to move in. The sun beats down, it is hot. We started at 8.00am. We drink water. The cow bells tinkle softly in the distance. Children shout from the road/village/school nearby – ‘Hello Mister!’. The buffaloes love the meadow, munching the grass avidly and loudly. We work methodically across the field. We have dug 10 holes. Pak Mamman gives a thumbs up, a smile and says ‘OK’. We are sweating. We shoulder the stick and machetes and walk back across the field, down to the meadow and across the rivulets of rain water. We clean our boots. I look up – it is a beautiful morning with a clear blue sky. A moment I will never forget – the blue sky, the bright sun, the peace, the buffaloes splashing. I look at my watch – it is completely covered in mud, I cannot see the time. I clean it – it shows exactly 9.00am. One hour of useful work.
The Planting Sequence.
At first, for the smaller seedlings from Pak Baha, the planting sequence is as follows:
Dig hole
Place layer of straw
Soil
More straw
More soil
Larger plastic bag lowered into hole, straw in bottom of bag
Small polybag with seedling lowered into bag. Polybag is cut to allow root growth.
Soil fills larger bag so whole plant is well supported
Hole is in-filled with surplus soil, making sure the plant is upright and level with the ground.
This sequence is to protect the roots of the smaller seedling while it grows.
Later, with larger seedlings, it is not necessary for either the straw or the large bag to be used as the roots system is much stronger. The polybag is simply cut at the base and the whole plant is placed into the hole and in-filled with soil tightly all around.
Protecting the trees with Fencing.
Earlier Pak Mamman has cut strong hedge poles to form the corner posts.
4 posts for each hole are pushed into the ground. Then 3 cross sticks are cut to length for each of the four sides and tied to the corner posts with ‘kuala leaf’ binding. You then have 12 cross members in total which form the structure to weave the elder sticks into each side. The elder sticks have been cut from the hedges around the edge of the field. The weave forms a tight structure which should be sufficiently strong to keep the cows and goats from getting near the seedlings which they would eat. However, the cows are big creatures and really the whole planting field needs to be protected around the perimeter with strong barbed wire fencing to be absolutely sure that no large animal gets into the plantation. This will cost money.