Sami Korhonen

We finally bought the place, a few km from nearest village. Dry olives, a few fig trees, tons of Herba. We will be moving on late november. Any advice in addition to swales and ponds to get moisture to The land is wanted 🙌

Biomass in general, I do plan to use the olive prunings as mulch, but Im thinking I need more non-woody type biomass for faster decomposition. Maybe, Im not sure Its totally different type of soil than in Finland so I have zero experience working the land, any tips are welcome I suppose. I was thinking adding carobs for animal feed/biomass since they drop tons of stuff without even pruning,  maybe mexican sunflower for a hedge (living fence type?)

Benjamin Dinkel wrote:Congratulations Sami!
Are you looking for specific plants or just biomass in general?
If it’s biomass you’re after your olives (and maybe the neighbor’s trees) will produce quite a lot of thinnings. Maybe look into a mulcher (trituradora). Usually people (at least in my area of Andalucía) burn the cuttings in winter. I just got a giant pile of tree cuttings and have good success mulching with it or making compost.
I also started making biochar in a ground dug hole.

Sooo, we found a place with recidencial building, agricultural water, a few cisternas for clean water gathered from the roofs ( 10 000l), 2ha of medium steep terraces planted with mostly centuries old olives, some newer arbequina olive trees planted in the 1980s and 1ha of unproductive land filled with wild herbs, flowers, bushes and a few pine trees.

Some of the issues to plot are: The plot if fairly dry since it hasnt been worked in recent years and the last years of drought, but its bouncing back. The drip irrigation system has disintegrated in the Spanish sun, bedrock is fairly close to the surface, exposed at some points = not a lot of soil.

Looking for all input working with the Spanish soil, slowing the water cause the plot is fairly steep and has seen some erosion. Also what plants have you seen to have good success for creating biomass.

Hey Sarah, sorry to hear abou the water issues you and the whole are been having. I dont lack in motivation for work the land, so I hope it will help us a little :D The area isnt really a favoured by Finns, but that doesnt matter. We arent really moving to Spain to see more of us there, it's more about living of the land and not suffering the Finnish winter while at it.

Some plots were looking have irrigation water or the possibility to join the irrigation network, sadly most of the irrigated farms are tilled till barren so we'll have to see them close to get a feel of the land.

Edit: We came to the area earlier, and it hadnt rained in almost 2 years then so we saw the drought pretty good even though it was spring time.

Yeah, we've been monitoring the water situation for a few years now and actually came to see some plots last year also, we didnt find the place we wanted to settle then though. It did help with knowing what we were looking for though. Some places weve been looking have irrigation water and/or land with terraces or hills so water collecting should be easier with ditches & swales to ponds and cisternas.

Thanks for the warm welcome!

Hello all, me and my missus are coming to Tarragona region to house hunt in the mountains. Grew up on a homestead type place, been working with animals (dogs, horses, cows & a sheep herd every now and then) and construction most my life. Trying to move From Finland to there next autumn, maybe as soon as summer. We're arriving to see places late march and have tons of places in mind, some from Idealista etc. We dont have a huge budget since we have own an apartment here and plan to save it for pension money, but we do can take a loan from Finland. We would hope to live in Spain about 3/4th of the year (summer excluded since we have a cabin here also).

The plan I have in mind is a to 1st fix a house, then save as much water as possible in ponds, swales & in the ground by slowing & cathing water, plant fast growing support species & some oaks, olives, a small garden & an orchard. WSounds like a lot I know

Any tips, book recommendations, contacts, architects in area, weak points in the original idea, etc. Anything, been deep diving youtube on building dry stone, keeping, trimming and harvesting all edible, keeping livestock. I have some books too, but more is better.

Thanks again