Flores Permaculture

After expanding the farm for the last five years, I am finally satisfied that Zones 2 and 3 are producing well enough to feed us through the winter!  This summer I turning my gaze again to Zone 0. The first step was to install a new zip-line to get materials to Zone 0 from our Zone 4 drop-off point.  The limitations of our summer-only dirt road dictate that heavy construction be done in the dry summer months only.  I asked my good friend Augusto to build me a new and improved post with a return wheel to bring the empty wheel and hook back after sending down a batch of building materials.  He used a recycled trike wheel as the base of his design that includes a brake to control the speed of the descent down the mountain.  Odin and Mitra love to help operate the brake! The first job is to build my boys their own private bedroom.  The original stone house had two dividing walls inside to create two bedrooms and a kitchen.  Those wall...

Last year I had a good Sweet Potato harvest, but not nearly enough to keep my family fed through the winter.  This year I have cleared more land and planted about 500 slips of 5 different varieties. Above the forest trees are cut down and then the exposed roots are cut to kill the tree.  As it dies and rots it will feed the soil for me. Above is an experimental patch using recycled cardboard as a pathway mulch and fresh cut grass to mulch the Sweet Potatoes.   Another forest patch above. Above is the Super Bowl garden with Figs and Banana on the hillside and Sweet Potatoes on the drier level areas before the land drops into a boggy Taro garden. A row of a new experimental variety is above. The tools of my trade.  I am an OG (original gardener) .  A mattock and a hoe are all I need to take virgin forest land and transform it into fertile beds, just like my ancestors before me. A steeper garden cut into the m...