Hey guys, had to take a little break to think of other things in the last week ! But I wnated to share with you a very good example of when planting trees alone is not an option. In poor soil like this one, that is so compacted and has 0 topsoil, planting plants at an even higher density is key, because some won't even make it. Will share an update of how this planting went at the end of Summer !

Hey y’all! I wanted to share a video filmed by some friends of mine who were here about a month ago hosting a course on the property. It’s mostly in Spanish, but you can turn on the auto subtitles ! This gives you some great drone footage and a better look at the growth of the lines and management of the grasses this spring - across the trial line and almond grove about 1.1 km linear in total. Hope you find something valuable in it! 🌱

Hey you all ! I’m starting to document all the plantations I’ve designed and planted and plan to update you every few months so you can track growth and refer back to past videos. This is the largest plantation I’ve designed and planted so far—with the help of volunteers, it covers 6,000 m². This is an almond grove with seedless grapes climbing eucalypts in between. This is what I call a “hybrid infestation – plant all at once”, as we’re really seeing the planting in two steps: 1- The placenta and secondary species - letting the myoporum, eucs, casuarinas and acacias form a continuous hedge in between the almonds. 2- Years down the line when appropriate - when almonds start producing well - coppice the acacias, eucs, casuarinas, tamarix and myoporums let them regrow for the ones that recover. Then plant the next wave of succession on a growth pulese : grevillea robusta as a long-term emergent - Planting it now alongside the eucalypts is an experiment to see if it can survive next to their sizable trunks; some may need replanting. I would also plant the low-ish strata - Main : Viburnum tinus good drought-resistance and reliable - Others: Prunus lusitanica, Ruscus apophyllum, and Acanthus mollis (testing them out) The only ick is that I have to make sure that I find a plant that can handle coppicing really well when harvesting the almonds. One challenge is finding plants that can handle coppicing well during almond harvesting. One idea is to have two people pulling nets while another shakes the tree, allowing almonds to drop without stressing the understory. The other is to use plants like Acanthus mollis, which go dormant in summer, then the ground is free to put nets down. Finally, I’ve considered seed bombs of primary forest species like carob, olive, lentiscus, Italian buckthorn, etc.. - an idea Scott Hall gave me. Birds might naturally assist with this in 5 years, but adding seed bombs then would act as “biomass insurance.” Although slow initially, with improved soil fertility after 5 years, these species should establish much faster than in the current poor soil.

Hey you all ! I'm really excited to share the progress of the oldest syntropic system I’ve designed and planted. One of the biggest lessons from this site is that trees don’t always thrive right away - even the toughest species (such as casuarina, false pepper or eucalyptus) On highly degraded land, there are a couple of key limiting factors: - Compacted or poor soil can prevent taproots from penetrating deeply - Strong wind exposure can limit tree growth. Because of this, it’s essential to plant a good density of your placenta 2 to secondary bushes such as tagasaste, tree alfalfa and your typical Mediteranean herbs. They play a crucial role in : - breaking up the soil and create channels for roots - reducing exposure and create microclimates - preparing the space for your main trees to eventually take over This plot has been a really valuable trial for me, and I highly recommend doing something similar on your land. Start with your poorest soil on site. It gives you a true reference point and shows you which species can actually handle extreme degradation. And work from there !

A little update on the trial line I planted in January 2025. It truly exploded ! Back in October I did the first management, just a small service pruning on the tagasastes mostly ! And I did not expect it to fill in again so fast. Tagasaste is a real beast of a plant, although not very adapted to heavy clay soil like we have here. And so, here I am again, at the end of March, pruning this line but this time I am doing a heavy pruning as I know if I just do a small service pruning again, the target species (olives and pistachios) are not gonna grow as much as I want them too, and will not have the framework branches that I want them to have. It's really important after such heavy pruning to water these lines a lot (no rain for all of March). So I watered these lines 3 times in the last 10 days ! They need it to recover strongly before Summer starts hitting hard ! Drop your comments, observation and questions below ! 👇