Knowing the boundaries of your land is the first step before everything else - especially planting. Engage a certified land surveyor for this work.
Hold the heavy machinery and excavators, land owners normally gets too excited to start things cutting down trees and moving the earth. You need to know where your boundary lies and find your boundary stones or markers for good reasons:
- To plan for the boundary of where the earth works ends for the benefit of the excavator drivers so that you wouldn't plough other people's land
- To take the opportunity to survey which trees are to be cut and which trees are to be kept alive
- Opportunity to find the boundary stone markers and confirm these markers are installed at the correct coordinates
- Gives opportunity to visual the landscaping and terracing work that needs to be done afterwards
Boundary stone markers are concrete cylindrical 1.5 ft lengths buried into the ground at boundary corners. These were buried when the land was first sanction and issued a grant by the Land Office
These are new boundary stone markers given to me by my land surveyor. I've sprayed it with red paint, that's the normal practice. The paint won't last forever but it will give visual aid for some time. Of course the sprayed end will be above ground and the other end will be buried below soil level.
4 Things to Do During Land Surveying
OK, now that you've engaged a competent and certified land surveyor, its time to do the leg work. We will walk along the boundary line following the survey equipment coordinates as displayed. At the time, what we will do is:
Mark the boundaries with a flag or a red/white plastic tape by either tying it to a prepared bamboo pole or to a tree trunk or stem of a shrub. Distance interval for marking is ideally 20m or less
When reaching a boundary stone, do the same as above but also save the coordinate of the stone for future reference (in WGS84 format)
Take a photo of each stone with reference sight of a landmark that can be seen from afar.
Install the newly prepared boundary stones if the existing stones are missing or visually unidentifiable.