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Grow With Us
Alo Land Strategy Summary
Alo Land is a regenerative initiative by us – Petru and Inês. We are former tech professionals who moved to Portugal with our two children. We currently manage a 1-hectare plot with a food forest and own an additional 2.5-hectare undeveloped plot nearby.
Vision and Goals
- Land restoration using regenerative practices
- Supporting holistic well-being (physical, emotional, spiritual)
- Cultivating eight forms of capital (financial, material, living, social, intellectual, experiential, spiritual, cultural)
- Building community resilience
Current Challenges
- Overwhelming workload maintaining the food forest
- Potential for more social connections, particularly for the adults
- Gaps in food production despite potential
- Restrictions on travel due to land care responsibilities
Strategic Approach
The family has shifted to an incremental growth strategy that focuses on:
- Leveraging existing resources and activities
- Attracting people to the land (as participants or volunteers)
- Creating a volunteer pipeline
- Thoughtful development of their 2.5-hectare plot
What's with the name?
From Wiktionary: alō (present infinitive alere, perfect active aluī, supine altum or alitum); third conjugation
-
- I foster, I nourish
- I raise (as a child, an animal, etc.)
- I feed, I maintain, I develop
From our visual diary...
Replacing some of the sprinkler heads.
Replacing some of the sprinkler heads.Violet ones need more pressure and don't allow two zones to run at once. The new pump needs to run more than one zone, otherwise it'll keep turning on and off.
Moved the Muscovy mommas house again. The previous spot was getting bare and poopy.
Moved the Muscovy mommas house again. The previous spot was getting bare and poopy.Vegetation cover for one of the irrigation lines led to an unfortunate mishap that will need to be fixed...
We had to put down one of the goslings.
We had to put down one of the goslings.They've all been quite clumsy and falling over sometimes, but this one was much worse and getting worse every day. Once on its back, it wouldn't be able to stand up without help. This morning it couldn't stay standing and wasn't...