This was a drastic treatment, but we thought was the only way of completely removing the trees.
At the start of Buddha Garden the site of the Cashew plantation was covered with eucalyptus trees which were taken out with a huge mechanical digger. This was a drastic treatment, but we thought was the only way of completely removing the trees. These tenacious plants will grow even from very small pieces of root left in the soil and will completely take over any piece of land. Their roots give out a substance which makes it impossible for other trees to grow.This felt like a necessary radical surgery on the land, but we had very mixed feelings about the barren vista that it presented. When the rains came, later that year, in August we planted a green manure - a mixture of seeds that bring nitrogen to the soil.Then we planted the cashew trees which we had grown ourselves in our nursery, using Cashews from a very good cashew tree growing in Auroannam farm. On the poor soil the plants have had quite a struggle to survive. This is despite the fact that we mulch them regularly and water with cow urine, a good source of nitrogen.