Our plan for the fence of the permaculture farm was to plant Bougainvillea as a green fence. There was no debate about it. Bougainvillea is a signature hedge/ bush in Chandigarh and we have grown up seeing our streets lined with it. It brings back nostalgia and fond memories of our growing up years!
From a design perspective, the bougainvillea makes for a dense bush, which provided habitat to a lot of species, but prevents trespassers from sneaking in. It's flowers are good food for the bees, and attract pollinators.
It took a couple of weeks to dig a 1 foot wide trench along the entire perimeter of the farm. The soil is hard, with stones and no organic matter whatsoever. We added some organic manure along the way as we prepared this bed.
Then we got 5000 plants of bougainvilleas in 14 different colors, from Kolkata, and planted them along the periphery. All this we did in May/June. It took just the rains and five months for the bougainvillea to burst into this riot of colors. More importantly it creates a tightly knit barrier to keep wild dogs and other predators out. It also gives shelter to a lot of birds, who find refuge here. So security, beauty and birds - you get all three with a bougainvillea boundary.
You can spot Aanandaa from a distance now - its the brightly colored farm!
