The plan for three acres
Santhosh K and Lakshmi set the plan: 600 native timber trees, and an acre of fruit trees, heavy on mango and sapota.
Story
40 moments from the farm, from the plan in March 2024 to September 2026.
2024
Drip irrigation work starts
Trenches are dug for the drip lines. Pipes are left above ground wherever no vehicle needs to cross.
Cow dung for the pits
The first loads of cow dung are tipped by the fence, ready to go into the planting pits.
Rain on the new pits
The first rain of the season falls on the freshly dug pits.
The helper's house is finished
A small house with a tin-roofed verandah is built for whoever lives on the farm and looks after it.
The drip system is finished
Work on the drip lines is complete.
Mahesh moves to the farm
Mahesh comes to live on the farm and look after it. He has lived there ever since.
The first saplings
The first saplings arrive in bags, ready for the marked rows.
A coconut planted with a puja
A coconut sapling goes into the ground with flowers and bananas laid beside it.
100 banana plants
100 banana plants are in the ground. Some of the timber and fruit trees are still to come.
300 papaya saplings
300 Red Lady papaya saplings are planted between the young trees.
The timber mix is settled
The last timber rows are to be a mix of teak, honne and beete.
The first vegetables
Okra, ridge gourd, sponge gourd, bottle gourd, tomato, chilli, palak, amaranth, coriander and radish are sown between the trees.
The first jeevamrutha
Dung and urine from neighbours' native cows are ready for the farm's first batch of jeevamrutha.
10 kg of okra
There are 10 kg of okra to pick, more than the family needs, and some of it is given away.
Ragi between the timber trees
The rows between the timber trees are tilled for ragi.
A count of the farm
Mahesh counts what is growing: 15 ashoka trees by the gate, one bilva tree, 83 banana plants, 26 new moringa and 252 papaya.
Gliricidia for a living fence
With the rain falling well, gliricidia cuttings are brought in and planted along the fence, away from the borewell pipeline.
2025
Greens ready to pick
Amaranth, radish and palak are ready.
Three wild boar
Three wild boar walk into the farm in broad daylight.
A shed for a cow
A shed for the cow goes up beside the helper's house.
The first cow
The farm's first cow arrives and is welcomed with a garland.
Brahmastra for the pests
With pests on the rise, Mahesh makes brahmastra from neem, pongamia and custard-apple leaves and cow urine, all from the farm, heated in a clay pot.
40 kg of papaya
The first papaya harvest weighs 40 kg.
Papaya for a school
The family keeps ten of the week's papayas and the rest go to a school.
Butter fruit for the empty pits
Mahesh visits three nurseries and brings back butter fruit saplings from one by the river in Kanakapura, for the 23 pits still empty.
Seeds treated with beejamrutha
Before sowing, seeds are treated with beejamrutha and dried in the shade for an hour.
Chilli and tomato seedlings
100 chilli and 100 tomato seedlings come from the Sathanur nursery.
2026
A jackfruit for a lost lemon
A root borer kills a lemon tree. Mahesh finds the grub while digging it out and plants a jackfruit in its place.
Tur dal from the farm
The tur harvest is cleaned and taken to the mill to be made into dal.
A calf is born
A bull calf is born on the farm at half past ten in the morning.
A row of ash gourd
A whole row is sown with ash gourd, and the first vines are in flower.
A groundwater survey
The new borewell ran dry the day before. A groundwater survey marks a point where the aquifer is good.
The planting map
The farm's map, place by place across 100 rows, goes to Mahesh to mark every tree that has not survived.
Ploughing for ragi
A tractor ploughs the whole farm, along and across, in ten and a quarter hours.
Ten bee boxes
Ten bee boxes are set up. For three weeks each gets a glass of sugar water once a week.
Counting the losses
Of the trees planted since 2024, 22 fruit trees and 45 timber trees have died.
Fruit to spare
Lemons and star fruit are ripening faster than the family can use them. The sapota and custard apple need a neemamrutha spray against disease and mites.
Yelakki banana by the gate
Mahesh plants yelakki banana beside the gate.
The ragi is up
The ragi sown in August has come up well.