We have started our adventure with land left unmanaged for a good number of years, a lot of which was ex-forestry mono-crops of pine and eucalyptus. This has been complicated by the invasive acacia creeping in after the 2017 fires becoming significantly difficult to combat. 

Our vision is to turn this land back to sustainable agricultural, horticultural and arboricultural uses. We are starting from the ground up. The soil. This means tackling the forest monocropping effects of allelopathy (a plant mechanism that inhibits the growth of competing plants and species) that has impoverished the soil’s complexity. Over time, forest monocultures deplete the soil’s nutrients, reduce the diversity of organic matter, and minimize microbial communities and the rich insect and animal life that feeds the land. Depletion of soil moisture and the areas’ water table (believed to be another problem of excessive monoculture plantations) creates a hotter surface environment for life to flourish, not to mention increasing the fire risks. 

We started this work in the poorest quality area of ​​land; rocky terrain with considerable soil erosion. It is also the area closest to the village and important to keep as clear and as managed as possible for fire prevention. Firstly, after fencing a section, we cleared the land (lots of rock rose and Spanish gorse) using goats, then mules. The livestock have successfully broken down surface rock just by their footfall, and their manure and urine has infiltrated the dry, barren, denudated surface, breaking it down and encouraging increased microbial activity. It is exciting to now see insect and plant life becoming more complex on land that appeared unusable. 

As we rotate the animals to a different section, we are planting areas in various ways. We have begun a small food forest and seeded an area with mixed grass seeds. Growing on this exposed and still low quality area of ​​land is a challenge, but plant life is important to regenerate the land and minimize further soil erosion. The area is, of course, being fed naturally using our horse, mule and goat manure and managed to reduce erosion through some graduated, natural dead hedge terracing.

The planned track system for our horses and mules will eventually circle around regenerated plots that will be managed as agroforests, meadowland or permaculture crops. This will take several years to develop. 

References;

Corsa Lok Ching Liu, et al., “Mixed-species versus monocultures in plantation forestry: Development, benefits, ecosystem services and perspectives for the future” Global Ecology and Conservation, Volume 15, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2018.e00419.

Belete, Tegegn, and Eshetu Yadete. “Effect of mono cropping on soil health and fertility management for sustainable agricultural practices: A review.” Plant Sci 11 (2023): 192-197