Flores Permaculture

About 5 years ago, we installed two tubes that allow the water in our ravine to flow under the roadway that connects our house to the nearest dirt road.  You can view the project at http://magnusandkonswan.blogspot.pt/2010/10/road-building.html  . Both tubes got blocked with debris and thousands of liters of rainfall diverted down the road and into our gardens around 5 am following thunderstorms. According to  Flores Weather Archive , we received between 25-37 mm steadily throughout the entire day of October 13, 2015.  When the drains work, no problem, it was the 3 am blockage the wreaked havoc until daylight allowed me to clear it. Nothing like being woken up in the dark to the sound of a mudslide in your backyard. The morning after! Our safety fencing slowed the mudslide and kept our roof from being buried. Our stairway is gone completely!  Big stones vanished. The water is back where it belongs now, sliding down the ravine walls. The worst damage is to

Pepper harvest continues and new ways to store them are experimented with. Fire roasted turned out very well and tasty. Tomato canning for the coming winter months. Lacto fermented peppers are great too. Squash harvest begins. Banana harvesting takes place year round, but we always have surplus at this time of year for alcohol and vinegar production. Our compost bins are filling in the foreground and cooking for spring application in the second bin. Fig trees, grape, and   Robinia pseudoacacia  waiting to be planted in freshly cleared forest lands of Zone 3. Final eggplant harvesting takes place and seeds are saved for next year. Here is a permaculture garden with figs, taro, tree tomato, peanuts, mulberry, squash and citrus. The fencing keeps the chickens out and provides a dry place for the fruit to hang until harvest.

Our humble home and surroundings. The Guinea Fowl are thriving in their new habitat. Pepper harvest begins. Eggplant harvest begins. Tomatoes keep rolling in.

Micro greens. Purple Taro. Chicken forage area with citrus and figs.  Green Taro patch. Our second wwoofer arrives. Our wwoof-er home, dry and cool with the water flowing under the roadway. Tomato harvesting begins in earnest.

We had our first wwoof-er this June.  We had a great time and worked hard together. We arranged a work exchange on a friends farm to harvest potatoes, as he has a large flat area to cultivate. The children really enjoyed having a new friend to live with them for a few weeks. Konswan is bringing supplies from the 'nursery' near our house up the mountain to our fruit orchard site.    Behind her are the blocks for our shed project. Konswan's precious cargo of comfrey, figs and grapes.  These are clones we made ourselves and can continue to propagate until all of our land is full of edibles. Our first guinea chicks hatched, along with more chickens.

Because of the irregular terrain created by volcanoes and subsequent erosion of the valley, our zones stretch and contort in curious ways. Zone 0 House and Immediate Surroundings (~5 meters radius around house) Compost Bins Nursery Greenhouse Window Sills Potted plants on front porch awaiting planting Zone 1 Area Above Canal and Below Roadway (~25 meters radius around house) Fruit Trees in Zone 1 Banana x 7 Lemon x 1 Grapefruit x 1 Tangerine x 1 Mandarin   x 1 Sweet Orange (bahia?) x 1 Raised Bed Gardens Below House Raised Bed Gardens In ‘Bowl’ South of House Raised Bed Gardens Behind/Above House Greenhouse/Retaining Wall Chayote Patches Zone 2 Area Below Canal, Along Roadway, Julia Land and Chicken Orchards Fruit Trees in Zone 2 Banana x 150 Apple   x 2 Fig   x 7 Loquat x 5 Plum x 3 Custard Apple x 5 Chestnut x 2 Tree Tomato x 5 Lime x 3 Valencia Late Orange x 1 Blood Orange x 1 Sweet Orange (bahia?) x 3 Lemon x 3

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