Alo Land

Nitrogen fixing plants for central Portugal

Here is a list of the nitrogen fixing plants we have in our garden. They are present in order, according to the following: short herbs, climbers, bushes, trees. Trevo branco anão, Dwarf White Clover, Trifolium repens This perennial doesn't grow beyond 10 cm tall, but spreads up to 1 m.

thoughts

Farewell, Squirrel

They miss daddy, but they are a beautiful family of strong explorers. Soon, they will be running, from pine to pine tree, quick as their father.

Aerial imaging for permaculture

We wanted to get updated images as the project progressed but had to find a way to do so at a low cost.

Spring recap

We do what we can, remind ourselves to enjoy the ride, and keep observing.

spring

The promise of Spring

The expectations are still low, but there will be a huge celebration if we get to make a single portion of fruit salad.

Low stress, no waste sourdough starter maintenance

Baking sourdough bread necessarily involves obtaining and maintaining a starter culture. After experimenting with several ways of doing it, I settled on the lowest effort yet still effective one I found: the NMNF ("No Muss No Fuss") starter [https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/40918/no-muss-no-fuss-starter], courtesy of dabrownman on The

The wind: a new challenge

Most of the time there is a noticeable breeze here. We're learning a new lesson: many of the young trees don't like it.

permaculture

Making Milk Kefir

While it might seem a bit overwhelming at first, milk kefir is really easy to make. After a few attempts, it will take you very little time and energy to prepare.

Making Olive Leaf Powder

Olives are such special trees. They live long, are full of meaning (religious and not), they have character and make any plot look wonderful. Some people like to let them wild, others prune reasonably, while others are turning them into bonsai projects. In any case, the fruit is widely desired

baking

Baking adventures

Baking sourdough bread was a fascinating craft to explore. It can be a thoroughly enjoyable hobby for anyone who enjoys eating bread.

Getting ready for Spring

The Winter has been unexpectedly dry, but it has been cold, particularly at night, hovering 0ºC. Some plants are showing bugs and blossoms, or new leaves. The ground cover has taken on very well in some parts of the plot, although some areas still present a very exposed soil. With

(Not quite) Instant Garden to kick off the growing season

We are totally sold on no-tilling and avoid disturbing the soil as much as possible. We believe that it helps the soil life thrive and while we don't get fertility boosts, we benefit from a steady soil growth, season by season. To support this ongoing improvement, we add organic matter.

Winter drought

The situation is expected to continue well into February so we need to water now, somehow.

The joy of crafting imperfect things: chess set

It's been surprisingly enjoyable to embrace the imperfection of the results. Building things with my hands and learning something at every step – it doesn't get much better, if I let go and accept "good enough".

permaculture

Winter Chop And Drop: Seeking a balance between cover crop growth and protecting young trees

The cover crop has grown tremendously, creating a lot of biomass and... shade! They are thriving so much they became taller than the young trees they are surrounding, leaving them shaded for most of the day.

education

Friendly mothers...?

I am a little excited. This afternoon, a mother with her two kids is coming to visit. We haven't met before, but wanted to meet other families and children to befriend our own. This must be somewhat similar to what blind dates feel like. Some signals indicate that we might

Getting started with mushrooms

Mushrooms seem like an integral part of what we're trying to do, so we planned to cultivate some to supplement the wild ones from the garden.

Observation: Looking for succulents for fire protection

As part of our fire protection strategy [https://alo.land/fire-protection-strategy/], we have plenty of succulents in our site. While they don't prevent a fire and should not be used as an insurance against fire, we use it as an additional tool in a vast toolkit to minimize the fire

Plantar árvores — um guia

No início do nosso projeto de Permacultura, plantámos cerca de mil árvores e arbustos. Para quem esteja a pensar fazer algo semelhante, mesmo que seja apenas uma mão-cheia de árvores, partilhamos o procedimento que seguimos: Materiais Serão necessários os seguintes materiais: * Estrume de vaca * Estrume de coelho * Biomassa (aparas de

Rites of passage

What next? Just be.

permaculture

The Power of Observation: an example during early Winter

Observation is a design tool that you keep going back to in order to keep improving your site.

Burnout

I would sit at my desk, look at the interesting topic in front of me, and blank out. It was time for a more radical change.

Wildfire protection strategy

As we learned and observed more the risk seems higher. We planned and implemented several measures.

Happy anniversary - 1 year in Portugal

It has been a year since we moved here, which is very confusing. Because it was so intense, it feels like we just moved here, and we are just starting to get a sense of our whereabouts. At the same time, because so much has happened, it seems like many

One year at home in Portugal

This time I'd like to stay and grow roots here.