An edible food forest in Portugal - "Benjamim garden"

Over the past few months, changed have happened, and I have left the life I had in Iceland and moved back to Portugal.

Much warmer climate, much better possibilities to grow my own food smile emoticon

Five days of work and we have created our swale, raised bed, with about 30 species of edible plants, some aromatic or medicinal, many of them perennial, some are nitrogen fixing trees, some are less known edible roots, plus some species in risk of extinction (part of our conservation work, part of our food forest). Abundance and sustainability!

• medicinals like angelica, valerian, marshmallow, burdock, comfrey and berberis
• aromatics like scots lovage, wormwood, wild garlic and calamus root
• annuals like miners lettuce, siberian kale, chioggia beets, durum wheat and quinoa
• permaculture trees like leucaena, honey locust, eleagnus, casuarina, date palm or princess tree,
• endangered species like jubaea chilensis, clianthus puniceus and dendroseris litoralis, 
• edible perennials like good king henry, yacon, chinese artichokes, skirret, perennial rye and perennial leeks.

Swale and raised bed. Many edible species planted. An edge of garlic and wormwood will deter any pests. Comfrey nearby. Also many nitrogen fixing species. Perennials like good king henry, chinese artichokes, yacon, perennial leeks and perennial rye. Medicinal herbs too. Hopefully abundance will follow

Happy smiles after half of this bed/swale completed. More to follow smile emo
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If you are iterested in buying some of my seeds, please go to http://greenspot.ecrater.com :)

Pest repellent plants

HERBS TO DETER ANIMALS

Several plants are known to repel moles. Daffodils, frittalary, scilla flowers, castor bean, garlics, and caper spurge.

To deter mice: peppermint, perennial sweet peas, muscaris, and again daffodils and scillas. Also wormwood and garlics.

To deter cats, besides laying barriers with thorny sticks, rue is a good herbal option. For deer, russian sage is said to repel them, but nothing is as effective as tall fences. For rabbits, garlics and mexican marigolds. For racoons, try placing cucumber near corn, but best is to use old nets or thorny shrubs. For squirrels, frittilary seems to work.

HERBS TO DETER CERTAIN PESTS

For brassica clubroot: your soil is probably wet and anaerobic, hence acidic. Correct pH to 7.2 or higher, add calcium. Build hugelbeds to attract fungi that controls clubroot.

For tomato and cucurbit mildew, have plants in well-composted beds near swales, to have plants very healthy and non-stressed. Keep good ventillation and avoid damp conditions. Avoid lack of calcium. For strawberries, grow alpine varieties.

For cabbage worm, plant borage nearby. Cabbage maggot is repelled by thyme. Cabbage looper (caused by larvae of a butterfly) is repelled by catnip, dill and garlic, hyssop and mint, nasturtium. Cabbage white butterfly is also repelled by tansy, wormwood in addition to many of the others. Wormwood is an excellent companion for cabbages. As are garlics, tansy and thyme.

Slugs. Plant fennel nearby.

Carrot fly is repelled by garlic family, chives for example.

For mosquitoes, plant lantana, citronella, lavender and basil. Have ducks or fish in the standing water.

To repel moths: wormwood, lavender and spearmint,

Some herbs deter really many pests! Examples include wormwood, chrysanthemus, dill and garlic, but also mint, nasturtium, thyme, and tansy.

Spider mites are said to be repelled by coriander and dill. Neem is definitively an excellent repellent. This pest appears when plants are stressed; give them the best conditions! Ventillation, air moisture and good plant health are essential.

Aphids are repelled by chives and garlic, fennel and mints, nasturtiums. Wind and washing plants also work.

In SUMMARY, a fence of garlics, frittilary and daffodils, wormwood and thyme. Fennel for slugs. Lavender for moths and mosquitoes. Possibly tansy, dill, borage and mints.

A new food forest in Portugal...

In January I moved from 4 years in Iceland, back to Portugal.

A new start for my permaculture dreams!

It's March, a beautiful spring sun, full moon, and together with Benjamim Fontes we are making on countour a raised bed and swale, and so far we planted out 30 species part of our future "forest garden".

We included medicinals like angelica, valerian, marshmallow, burdock, comfrey and berberis, aromatics like scots lovage, wormwood, wild garlic and calamus root, annuals like miners lettuce, siberian kale, chioggia beets, durum wheat and quinoa, permaculture trees like leucaena, honey locust, eleagnus, casuarina, date palm or princess tree, endangered species like jubaea chilensis, clianthus puniceus and dendroseris litoralis, and edible perennials like good king henry, yacon, chinese artichokes, skirret, perennial rye and perennial leeks.

Pics to follow in soon.

A glimpse of our "food forest" in progress

In the next weeks, I will also hopefully join other people to start similar projects. Next food forest will be started with Pami Sami in central Portugal, this month. It has a lot to do with experimentation towards creating exciting permanent food sustainability, ecological care and lots of fun, on practice.

Whoever is interested, please let me know so we start similar projects.