Our Permaculture Orchard slope / Year 1

You may have followed our orchard slope project that we started a year ago here in Alentejo, Portugal. This is how it looked in December 2024.

Now we are happy to celebrate its first full year. We went through the 4 seaons and we can now make a first meaningful review. You can watch it here :

So it was mostly very successful. We are so happy that most of the trees made it and that we got the chance to enjoy the first fruits. As we had 4 trees dying, we now replaced them with 2 Fig trees, a Plum tree, and an Apple tree. We have also added few Pomegranate trees. So this is how the orchard is set up now in December 2025 :

Swale 1 :

Fig (unknown cultivar) / Plum (Mirabelle) / Apricot (Nelson) / Fig (Lampa preta) / Mulberry (Morus alba)

Swale 2 :

Peach (flat peach) / Fig (Pingo de mel) / Plum (Reine Claude) / Apple (Pink lady) / Peach (Tardibelle)

Swale 3 :

Apple (Pink lady) / Plum (Sao Bras) / Fig (-) / Plum (Reine Claude) / Fig (-) / Oak tree

Swale 4 :

Kaki Persimmon (Fau Fau) / Nectarine (unknown cultivar) / Apricot (unknown cultivar) / Pear (Conference) / Medlar (Tanaka)

Because our free range hens made some damage by scracthing and digging on the berms, we also had to spend some time for a little maintenance. We fixed all the spots were the berms were damaged, but we also filled up the swales with more organic material, like branches, even trunks, and more mulch.

The next step for us on our orchard slope will be to plant even more. Planting more Pomegranate trees in between the main fruit trees, and also adding some aromatic plants and other bushes between all the trees. This is what we want to do since day one but sometimes you cannot do it all at once. One thing at a time!