Project: Intense Food Forest in the Mediterranean Coast of Valencia, Spain. Land rehabilitation

Hi Steve,

I hope to meet you too
I will be living quite close in Orba, starting some time this autumn.

Erik

Tipuana tipu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipuana is a source of Brazilian Rosewood, so it's another species which planted more like a forestry / timber crop has potential of supplying beautiful wood for building and craft work. Finding reasonable local markets would be the challenge. Then again, with the proliferation of various 'maker' groups, maybe it could stimulate a renaissance of wood working.

Same thing for Melia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melia_azedarach, Toona https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toona, and for that matter a lot of other 'exotics' commonly used in landscapes, on streets and ornamental gardens. Just need to connect up the dots to enable this to happen. Every time I see an urban forestry crew chopping up trees into fire wood (at best) or landfill (too often) my heart cries out. What a colossal waste.

Thinking about Albizzia, another fast growing canopy tree for the Mediterranean is Albizzia procera. or 'White Siris' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albizia_procera.

It is taller than A. julibrissin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albizia_julibrissin , and grows quickly. I have planted it in a few locations on the Catalan coast, even in sand near the sea. Does very well, and you could also chop and drop it via coppice. At least in Barcelona it is a common enough street tree to find seeds under it many times of the year.

I agree about avoiding Eucalyptus. Not only does it sterilize the soil, and steal water, but it is basically a fire waiting to happen. Same thing for Pinus halepensis, which is one of the primary causes of devastating fires across Spain. Both of these actually need fire to reduce competition and clear the soil for their own seeds. So they are not just flammable, but fire-dependent. As such they have evolved to promote fires.

Gracias Erik! I planted lots of this and I already had some Meliah , so this is a great advice!

At this moment, my focus is on propagation of new trees and developing a small corner for vegetable polycultures.

For vegetables, I have been direct seeding, but I am considering to have part of the vegs started indoors and transplanted later. Some things dont start directly (eggplant, peppers) and I have to fight ants and slugs. Others are going great. Starting indoors is more work for my mind, but who knows. Yet to decide. The videos of “nograss” of David The Good are very inspiring for this part.

And on tree propagation, I am experimenting with methods.

1.- Muvuca / seed cocktail directly between trees. This is good to randomly fill gaps, but also an art by itself that I should improve. I placed thousands of seeds, expecting to see maybe one thousand germinating. There are some really interesting results, but I expected better.

2.- Air Prune Bed. I seeded black locust, carob, seaberry, cranberry and raspberry. Wooden box, first pic. Black Locust and Carob going more than okay. Some seaberry germinating. Other berries, nothing yet

3.- “Hugel Pot”. Is the plastic box, I filled the bottom with wood, sticks... and seeded hazelnut, alder and lulo. Hazelnut and alder starting to sprout.

4.- Traditional seed flats or whatever you call it. Morus Nigra. Nothing yet (one week ago)

5.- Nursery Bed. A Nursery Bed, filling the bottom with wood and leaves. Seeded gooseberries, neem, palmito, acacia , morus alba and guanabana. This is the only one with irrigation.

The best experiment should have been to place the same seeds on each, but well, I did it this way. Lets see what happens

My aim is to fill the whole property with things that I propagated myself. I cant spend millions, so I should go this way.

Waaaaaa! Jealous of your black locust. I’ve seeded a few thousand nothing came up so far.

Erik van Lennep wrote:Hi Steve,

I hope to meet you too
I will be living quite close in Orba, starting some time this autumn.

Erik

By the way, why Orba? 😉

We should meet when you come by

Orba is the choice of my extended family (good friends and their kids), because they will send their kids to a progressive school there.
I am simply going along with them.

Still, I do see opportunities to create permacultural /regenerative projects in the area, so I' guess I'll find out!

And yes, I'd be happy to meet once I get there.

Maybe this will help:

(from https://www.treeseedonline.com/store/p245/False_Acacia%2C_Black_Locust_%28robinia_pseudoacacia%29.html)

"GERMINATION, SOWING AND AFTER CARE INFORMATION FOR
BLACK LOCUST/FALSE ACACIA (ROBINIA PSEUDOACACIA)

Although Robinia seeds have only a very shallow dormancy they have a very hard, water-impermeable seed coat and require pre-treatment for successful germination to occur. Without pre-treatment it is likely that 10% or less of the seeds will germinate.

A combination of a variety of seed pretreatments is usually necessary to make the seed coat permeable so that the seed embryo can take up water and begin to germinate.

The first (and easiest) method is place the seeds in a heat proof container and pour hot (not boiling!) water 70-80 degrees Celsius over them and leave them to soak for between 12-24 hours. Seeds that have been successfully pre-treated will have swollen to around 3 times their previous size. Remove all swollen seeds as these will be damaged by further pre-treatments. These can be sown immediately.

This hot water treatment can be repeated up to 3 times, making the water a little hotter each time. Seeds that remain small need to be dried for further treatment.

The remaining method is to physically breakthrough the seed coat by cutting or (k)nicking the edge of the seed with a knife or using a file or even rubbing them between layers of fine sandpaper. All of these methods can be used to break through the seed coat. Once you have done this soak the seeds in cold water for 12-24 hours and successfully treated seeds will have imbibed water and swollen greatly. Any that have not could be scarified again followed by another water soak. Sow all the seeds, even those that remain small as they may germinate much later (perhaps years later), the seeds are very long lived and can remain viable in the field for many years.

Sow in pots or seed trays of good quality compost at a depth of about 2 cm (just less than 1 inch) The seed usually germinates in under 4 weeks at 15-20°c. It is important that temperatures or not greatly higher than this or germination will be reduced. Seeds can also be sown in prepared seedbeds outside and can quickly develop into strong thorny seedlings."

Speaking from experience and having a farm that is not at my home, I would move to the property if I were you. It’s so much easier to maintain, identify and control pest issues, and save plants from death if you are there rather than having to drive hours to get there. We live two hours away from our property and visit twice a month for a few days at a time, we would be much further along with less financial investment, if we lived there.

Travis Davis wrote:Speaking from experience and having a farm that is not at my home, I would move to the property if I were you. It’s so much easier to maintain, identify and control pest issues, and save plants from death if you are there rather than having to drive hours to get there. We live two hours away from our property and visit twice a month for a few days at a time, we would be much further along with less financial investment, if we lived there.

I agree. But life happens

It has been a while since my last update, so here I have some news. First, we moved to the property, and are working in renovating the house, so this is a challenge. We still have our jobs in the city, but we are travelling every other week and that is it for now. The trees planted last year are going okay, except 4 or 5 citrus that I think that might be having some over watering problems. We had a heat wave, and being all the trees in the same row, while some were suffering from direct sun, others were suffering the opposite (when I decided to give drip irrigation a big go). For the last two months we had some heavy raining, so it is difficult to let the trees to dry and survive. Well, we will see.

At the moment I am planting 8 new tree rows. 3 are in between the previous seven, and 5 in a new plot. It is being more difficult than last year. I decided to hire a tractor in order to subsoil and make the planting easier, but heavy rain made me stop half way. I planted all the fruit trees, but half of the support trees are still waiting. Also I ordered 80 different berries to test wich can go better in the mediterranean… and I am still waiting.

Being there, we are going to give some impulse also to the vegetable garden. As I am occupying my uncles property, I think that is safer for us. I also planted trees, but my first idea was 100% trees and now I decided to mix it. If one day one uncle decides to divide the property, losing the trees might be a big damage, but you can always find where to plant veggies. As I am paying nothing for the land, our idea is to keep on working this area as a training camp, and when we feel ready we might get some other land without being worried for relatives or whatsoever

Great project Antonio and I see you have already put a lot of effort in it.

I have a somewhat similar project along the coast of Southern Murcia, although I am not that far yet 😊. I have planted many of the same species as you list. A few other plants I have good success with so far and which you could consider to add are passionfruit (had 2 harvests this year and over 150+ delicious fruits from just 2 plants (vines), lemongrass (smells good and great for Asian cooking), blackberries and Chinese gooseberries. Also, Moringa trees grow very well and fast here and the leaves are super nutritious.

If you like we can meet once and swap some seedlings.

Jones Green wrote:Great project Antonio and I see you have already put a lot of effort in it.

I have a somewhat similar project along the coast of Southern Murcia, although I am not that far yet 😊. I have planted many of the same species as you list. A few other plants I have good success with so far and which you could consider to add are passionfruit (had 2 harvests this year and over 150+ delicious fruits from just 2 plants (vines), lemongrass (smells good and great for Asian cooking), blackberries and Chinese gooseberries. Also, Moringa trees grow very well and fast here and the leaves are super nutritious.

If you like we can meet once and swap some seedlings.

Hola!

I do have passionfruit. Not massive amounts, only three plants. I am eager to harvest them. Lemomgrass I have not tried, can be a great idea! Blackberries I have several, and some gooseberries (although not chinese)

Moringa I placed many seeds but nothing has come yet.

I’d love to meet, of course

Hello guys!

Interesting things happening this last weeks. Our mate Erik Von Lennep came to live to the area and we started to conspire together to make this place a reference in the area . I am in a very interesting location, it has the bad thing of being too close to the town, but that is also a good thing for causing and impact and having other people to get inspiration.

We are working in several areas, like improving the ornamental garden and make it somehow a botanical garden, developing better the vegetable garden or making new food forest rows. For the future, introducing animals , bees, etc. And also, for the area, trying to create a hub of initiatives.

There is a fight here, this land was attacked by extreme development and altough it has stopped since 2008, many people are waiting their opportunity to strike back. We have to show that the best use for the land is this use, but we need to be more and more people doing things in the same area.

So, if anybody is around and wish to give a hand, we can share some good moments, plant some trees and share some paella and beer

Hi Antonio
Great you have help
I try to motivate other dutch permie residents in your region to read your blog
Many young people want to migrate to Spain and Portugal because of the new rules
Things are moving here as well
Groups are forming who want local organic lifestyles
I ve been going to demonstrations a lot handing out adapted seeds to people wanting to garden
Did you check out Pascal Poot his seeds?
He lives in south of France in a hot spot and grows plants without watering or chemicals for twenty years or something
He only saves seeds from disease resistant plants
I live a thousand km north but bought quite some seeds for my landrace of him
I went there his farm is at five minutes from where i took this pic
The soil was like a tennis court
If you need help with the French pm me
Cheers Hugo

Did you check out Pascal Poot his seeds?

It sounds like the kind of seeds I need!
https://www.lepotagerdesante.com/
I will keep them in mind, but we will landrace whatever seeds we already have in our gardens :o)

Hugo Morvan wrote:Hi Antonio
Great you have help
I try to motivate other dutch permie residents in your region to read your blog
Many young people want to migrate to Spain and Portugal because of the new rules
Things are moving here as well
Groups are forming who want local organic lifestyles
I ve been going to demonstrations a lot handing out adapted seeds to people wanting to garden
Did you check out Pascal Poot his seeds?
He lives in south of France in a hot spot and grows plants without watering or chemicals for twenty years or something
He only saves seeds from disease resistant plants
I live a thousand km north but bought quite some seeds for my landrace of him
I went there his farm is at five minutes from where i took this pic
The soil was like a tennis court
If you need help with the French pm me
Cheers Hugo

I knew about him, but didnt know his website. It is cool and something that we should aim for. Landracing is going to be more and more important on this times, we should plant counting on nothing. We might have no water, no resources, so we should find the best of the best for each of us

By the way, we made an instagram account (my wife made it, I dont use it) to show progress on our projects. Follow it if you feel like doing it ☺️

Villa San Jose Instagram

Hola Antonio!
I just stumbled over these many pages of you telling your story, with many wise interplanted comments from others. Truly inspiring to read! It caught my eye as I also have one foot in Denia, but the other in Sweden, with plans to progressively live more and more in Denia. We used to live in Madrid but relocated to Sweden 12 years ago. I just finished a permaculture design course where my final project was to create a combined food forest/vegetable garden at our site in Denia. It is located in Las Rotas which, as I am sure you know, is in dire need of some regenerative influencers. My husbands family is from Denia since many generations, and had their own kind of food forest in Las Rotas before everything changed in the 50s with tourism that has since completely destroyed the environment.
I also read the post of you and Erik getting together to form a network in the area. I would love to meet and be a part of that process. We will be in Denia for the most part of April. How can we connect/meet?
/Anna

Anna Sundlöv wrote:Hola Antonio!
I just stumbled over these many pages of you telling your story, with many wise interplanted comments from others. Truly inspiring to read! It caught my eye as I also have one foot in Denia, but the other in Sweden, with plans to progressively live more and more in Denia. We used to live in Madrid but relocated to Sweden 12 years ago. I just finished a permaculture design course where my final project was to create a combined food forest/vegetable garden at our site in Denia. It is located in Las Rotas which, as I am sure you know, is in dire need of some regenerative influencers. My husbands family is from Denia since many generations, and had their own kind of food forest in Las Rotas before everything changed in the 50s with tourism that has since completely destroyed the environment.
I also read the post of you and Erik getting together to form a network in the area. I would love to meet and be a part of that process. We will be in Denia for the most part of April. How can we connect/meet?
/Anna

Hola Anna!

Of course we could meet whenever you are here! Just send me a private message (or moosage as it is called here) we can change phone numbers and meet, also with Erik

I know well Las Rotas, lots of things to do there if possible!

Hola! Long time without posting, but I wanted to make a small update and replicate the first pictures I posted. Although at this moment are not the most representative of the work done, I think it is cool to see the before and after.

In this 2 years I have done many things, also many mistakes, but lots of learning and lots of fun

- The main work has been the syntropic agroforestry rows. I keep studying them, analyzing what qorked and not, the best combinations or consortiums. So far, I am happy with how it goes. We had the initial 7 rows plus 8 new rows last November

- Vegetable gardening is our work in progress. We keep improving and trying to find the best way for our climate. First we planted in the corridors between the rows. After that I tried hugel variations. Also, no dig, wich maybe has been the best. We had a decent production in spring, but in summer the heat waves have been terrible. Now I will redesign the whole thing, but at the moment I am planting in the late syntropic rows, as I have drip irrigation there, under the trees. I will redesign the whole vegetable production soon

- We introduced livestock this year. Ducks, the slugs patrol, wich are cool, and chickend, wich are evil but are providing eggs and work. We made a chickshaw that you can see in one of the pictures. With chickens we want to play and create the “Figatell race” (figatell is a chicken leaver hamburger, typical here). We had some valencian chickens , also ameraucana and plymouth. The rooster is a poor guy though. With the ducks, hopefully we could raise them and have our own magret. But the first four are the pioneers so we will respect them if we want them to reproduce

- I have been seedbombing a lot, with different results, to have the whole place crowded

- Also thanks to this forum I met Erik and Anna, so this work feels less lonely

- With Erik we are also exploring cool things of pure gardening, we want to create a subtropical garden, a dry garden and a jurassic garden in the most recreational parts of the house, wich were untouched

- We are trying to get ot propagate useful plants, following the guidance of pfaf, carbon farming solution and other guides, trying to be a living lab of chances

- And I am making collaboration with some institutions, authorities, trying to be known in the area. Denia is a difficult place, lots of urban pressure, low quality jobs , so I want to show that this is an option

-For next season:

- With Erik we will create a “milpa food forest” in the plot were I initially planted the first citrus. This is a super cool thing to do

- I will redesign the vegetable area

- With some new collaborators I will plant the rest of the property in a dehesa style, following all the principles that I have learned, but giving a good chance to oaks, and grazing animals yet to decide.

- Also I am working in more resilience things in the property, like insulating the house, solar panels, water retention etc

- The place is not super big, but I want to make some brazilian jiujitsu with the circumstances. My biggest threat is being close to the town and maybe family changing opinion about me doing things here, so I have to make that into an opportunity. In the administrative aspect, try to be a representative place, maybe a seed for bigger projects in the area. We face challenges with climate change, huge fires etc. And for the family, try to get them some benefits

I might be forgetting things, as I am doing lots of stuff!

Antonio,

I practice permaculture in the Barcelona region. I am currently trying to put together a comprehensive design for a piece of land I know for a few years where I take care of two gardens and where we have quite a bit of forest and fruit trees. I am currently bulding a wormerie, swales, water ponds...
I would like to learn more about syntropic farming/ alley cropping/ regenerative agroforestry. When do you need help the most?
David

Hi Antonio,

I live in the Jalon Valley and would love to know more about your project, as we live so nearby!  I'm trying to grow a (small) food forest too.

Helen

Hi Antonio,

How are things going at the farm?

Cheers