Finca Argayall

Location: La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
Project Start Date: 2001
Expected Completion Date: are you kidding?

Project Concept:

Improving the land use of a small community (20 people on 1.5 hectares, with a thriving guest house business - usually about 20 guests at a time). The property is in a beautiful, isolated sea-side location and has a plentiful water source. Prior to the permaculture project most of the land was covered with a monoculture of Mango and Banana.

Detailed Project Description:

Main actions were removing most of the mango trees, using the leaves and twigs to start composting pits all over the place (“sponges” – a great success as they serve to hold humidity, generate biomass and are a reservoir of soil micro fauna and flora); the sponges remain open and we throw everything compostable and not smelly into them. Followed by planting a variety of new trees, some fruits, some nitrogen fixers and a huge variety of other stuff. Some rerouting of pathways (which had all been laid out in straight lines). A couple of ponds.

7 years on and we have an exciting and diverse Jungle Garden. Full of secret corners and surprises. We are still introducing new stuff (Vanilla Orchids and Water Chestnuts are the latest experiments). Mangos, Bananas, Papayas, Chirimoyas, Avocados, are all yielding better than ever with absolutely no fertilizers or insecticides. Wildlife on the property has increased dramatically and problems with pests are minimal!

The garden supplies only a small part of the food eaten by Community and guests . However many guests take part in a garden tour where they hear about permaculture and get an idea of a different way of land use, which they take with them.

Project Duration & Schedule:

Most of the drastic work has been done, though there is still a lot of smaller scale stuff going on, on top of maintenance. As the trees planted grow and biomass increases the environment changes and so its an ongoing process of observing and supporting and tweaking.

Project Needs:

We will probably need some people in the near future as two key personnel are leaving - anyone interested?