field note
The daisy meadow
Eight days into our first planting season at Chaptari, the wildflower meadow on the lower terrace was already in full bloom — a sign of how much life had been waiting for someone to leave the ground alone.
· Sameer Jain · 1 min read
We were still moving sapling trays when one of us noticed the strip of unplanted ground at the foot of the terrace. White daisies, mountain clover, a couple of wild pear seedlings. Nothing we had touched.
The first decision Pawan made on the farm was to leave it alone. The second was to leave the strips above and below it alone as well. Three years on, those strips are the busiest places on the property — honeybees, hoverflies, lacewings, the small native butterflies whose names we are still learning.
The walnut block needs pollinators. The pollinators need the meadow. The meadow needs us to keep the strimmer in the shed. The simplest part of organic farming, really, is not doing something.