Greetings from Andalusia

Hey everyone!

We are Chris and Petra, and after spending a few years in the Canary Islands, we have been developing our small paradise in Andalusia since 2023.

We are passionate about permaculture, regenerative fruit and vegetable growing, and natural building techniques such as domes, earthships, and cob structures. Our goal is to create a regenerative space where we can grow food, share knowledge, and live in harmony with Mother Nature.

We’d love to connect with like-minded people in Andalusia, especially those interested in hands-on permaculture, regenerative gardening, or natural building projects. We noticed that there’s even a member in the province of Granada, which is very exciting!

Looking forward to exchanging ideas and learning from this amazing community

Hi Christian and welcome to Permies. I'm always curious how people do thing is similar climate to mine. Can you tell us more about what you grow and how (irrigated/dry farmed/greenhouse, etc)?

Cristobal Cristo wrote:Hi Christian and welcome to Permies. I'm always curious how people do thing is similar climate to mine. Can you tell us more about what you grow and how (irrigated/dry farmed/greenhouse, etc)?

Hi Cristobal,  

thank you!! We have a small farm of about 1.5 hectares, and in addition to vegetables, we currently have the following planted (from memory, so this is not a complete list):  

Apricot  
Peach  
Nectarine  
Plum  
Quince  
Avocado  
Hazelnut  
Walnut  
Mango  
Papaya  
Cherry  
Banana  
Pitahaya  
Almond  
Olive  
Pear  
Apple  
Carob  
Pink Pepper  
Grapevine  
Persimmon  
Pomegranate  
Fig  
Orange  
Lemon  
Mandarin  
Kumquat  
Pistachio  
Grapefruit  
Strawberry  
Raspberry  
Saffron  
Capers  
Gooseberries  
Currants  
Elderberr

We are located at around 750 meters in the Alpujarras, and fortunately, we have a great water supply, because irrigation is a big topic here. Only certain trees like almonds, pistachios, grapevines, loquats, and some olive trees require little or no water in our conditions.  

The slope is also a major factor, though most of the land is already terraced. Our project is still in its early stages and hasn’t progressed as much as we would like, mainly because our manpower is limited and our first season was spent working just the two of us, without any volunteers. On top of that, we also manage a small business during the week, which we plan to gradually reduce. Another house is already on site, and in the medium term, we plan 1–2 additional houses once the right people for a small community are found.  

At the moment, our biggest challenge is finding enough biomass for mulching. We are planning to plant Leucaena to see what’s possible. We also have several greenhouses on the coast, but we don’t want to bring material from there, as it would likely be treated, even though it would be faster and we could get it by the truckload. Currently, we have a small greenhouse on site.  

We certainly don’t lack project ideas or vision, so there’s plenty to work on!  

Edit: It seems like the list function is not working. Did we do anything wrong? We tried using [ list]…[ /list] (without blanks), but maybe additional tags are needed? Also, is there a way to hide or collapse a long list so that people can expand it if they want, instead of scrolling through the whole thing?

Thank you! It's an amazing variety. How do you manage to grow bananas/mango together with gooseberries and currants? In my location it would be too cold for tropicals and too hot for ribes.

Cristobal Cristo wrote:Thank you! It's an amazing variety. How do you manage to grow bananas/mango together with gooseberries and currants? In my location it would be too cold for tropicals and too hot for ribes.

Tropical fruits are really borderline here. We need to find the perfect spots (just a few meters can make a huge difference) and we protect small plants with fleece over winter. Papaya probably won’t survive outside anymore, so we planted it in the greenhouse last season. Currants and other ribes (like gooseberries and Japanese wineberry) grow along a stone wall, mostly in the shade, as do strawberries and raspberries.

Hi Christian. Welcome to Permies!
What a great variety you have planted already.
We live in Murchas, Valle de Lecrin. So we are somewhat neighbors.
We have a house with a small plot, around 900m2 with fruit trees and a vegetable garden.
Would love to meet you guys in person.

Many thanks, Benjamin! Some dear friends of ours live in Albuñuelas, and we visit them regularly. We’d love to drop by next time if you’re around! And of course, you’re always warmly welcome to visit us.

PS: We live about 1.5 hours from you, in Murtas. Funny how similar our town names are!

Hi everyone,

My place is in the Pyrenees, but to meet people like you, I don’t mind coming down to see you… and when the heat really kicks in, you can come up here.

I love seeing that there’s movement here!!!