We have planted several new permanent beds this winter mostly by students and volunteers participating in this year’s food forest course. A permanent bed is one that requires a lot of extra work up frot, up but shouldn’t need to be tilled, dug or have as much work in the future. It also usually consists on perennial edible plants. There are many techniques which we experiment with including sunken beds, raised beds, woodchip beds and polycultures.
These are my principles to set up a permanent no dig bed:
- Remove the weeds by either sheet mulching for a year or cutting them back, then digging them in with compost and biochar and then sheet mulching before planting.
- Plant perennial vegetables or trees in the beds
- Plant smaller perennials between them
- Include supporting plants such as nitrogen fixers, mineral accumulators, pest repellers and beneficial insect attractors
- Plant annuals in the spaces to get an extra crop in the first year out of the spaces until the perennials grow to size
- Mulch with lots of compost
- Further Mulch with cardboard and hay or wood chips to suppress weeds
This is still a new project, we took over the land two years ago and it was left abandoned, we have grown annual vegetables until last year where we started to prepare soil and install permanent beds. Once all our beds our complete I plan to mulch all the paths with cardboard and then pine bark, however until then i am sowing cover crops and wild flowers in the paths which i chop and drop with a strimmer to further build soil.
These are our new permanent beds planted in 2019. A big thank you to everyone who has helped prepare compost, woodchips and the beds.
Some of our existing beds include many polycultures in our food forests and and sunken beds
To join one of our food forest courses please click here
Other posts about our food forests:
Permaculture Apprentice Portugal – paid job
Keela Permaculture Farm is seeking a Permaculture apprentice who would like to gain experience teaching and hosting Permaculture courses wanted
Yoga Immersion with Sudhir and Anya plus Intro to Permaculture
26th May -2nd June 2024, Keela Permaculture Farm in central Portugal. Yoga Immersion in Nature In 2024, we are excited to combine our retreat hosts into a Yoga immersion. A fully authentic experience with two yoga teacher trainers and a certified permaculture educator to introduce you to Permaculture. Sudhir Rishi will join us from Sthira […]
How much work is it to manage an Agroforest
The easiest part of managing an agroforestry is raising the funds to plant it and then planting it. The real work comes later, with maintenance year after year. This article discusses the maintenance we must do each autumn in our organic agroforest in Portugal.
Useful shops in Fundao portugal for farm life
This page list some useful shops people living near Keela Permaculture Farm in the Fundao area
Fundao agriculture festa with a organic and regenerative tent – 5th-8th Oct 2023
A four-day agriculture festa in Fundao is organised by the Município do Fundão with multiple areas, including an organic and regenerative agriculture tent where laurence from keela yoga farm will be presenting alongside a massive lineup.
Septmeber in the vegetable garden in Portugal
What to plant in September in the vegetable gardens in central Portugal
August in the vegetable garden in Portugal
What to do in August in the vegetable garden in Portugal. Which seeds to plant and which plants to plant out. As part of our efforts to keep up with our veg boxes, we need an excellent gardening plan for what seeds to plant and when. So I am finally documenting and sharing our data […]
Organic veg boxes for sale from our permaculture farm
We have extended our summer garden of vegetables and are now selling veg boxes to local customers. Each week customers buy a box or €10 or €20 worth of vegetables. Laurence packs each box with what is available that week instead of the customers choosing their vegetables.
Shop at Keela Yoga Farm
Please visit our in-house and online shop at Keela to support our small farm. As a Permaculture Farm, first and foremost we are producers. One important part of being a permaculture farm is to produce more and consume less.
Video from our Summer 2023 Permaculture Design Course
Check out the video from our Summer 2023 Permaculture Design Course showing some of the things students get up to during a summer course at Keela Yoga Farm. To find out more about our permaculture design courses please click here
What is Permaculture part 2 – The 12 principles of Permaculture
I like to define Permaculture as a philosophy that follows three core ethics with systems designed based on twelve principles. Permaculture combines natural systems that mimic nature while incorporating modern technology. It aims to create a more sustainable future by producing more, consuming less and working together.
Organic Seeds and Trees Portugal
A list of places to buy trees, seeds and general shops for your homestead for people living in the Fundao area.
What is Permaculture Part 1 – History and Ethics of Permaculture
I like to define Permaculture as a philosophy that follows three core ethics and systems designed based on twelve principles. Permaculture combines natural systems that mimic nature while incorporating modern technology. Permaculture aims for a more sustainable future by each of us producing more, consuming less and working together.
Planting a salad garden
This blog post is to help you plan, design and maintain your salad garden for a continued supply of salad all year. This article was published in our monthly gardening peace in the Central Connects Magazine.
Planting Cover crops in the vegtable garden
Welcome to the first edition of the monthly gardening blog that will feature in Central Connect magazine in Portugal. The focus of this article and future articles will always lean towards the edible garden, known in portuguese as ‘A Horta’. To download your copy of the magazine, scroll to the bottom.
December in the Garden or Farm in portugal
Here is my December gardening article for the central connect magazine. Summer has ended, the rains have started, and the cold is coming. This brings new tasks in the garden and on the homestead. Here is what we are up to at Keela Permaculture Farm this December.
Tropical Strawbale Greenhouse Shower Room
In addition to our outside shower, we have an inside wood-powered shower in our greenhouse. This gives the beautiful feeling of showering outside in nature but inside in the warmth of the greenhouse. The hot water heater heats the greenhouse, and guests stay nice and warm.
Photos from Permaculture Design Course Sept 2022
Photos from our September 2022 certified two-week Permaculture Design Course. Week 1 had two theory classes per day and two practical classes per day. On the weekend, students had the opportunity to visit another local farm for a work exchange. On week two, students were split into design groups; each had to complete a permaculture […]
Photos from Oct 2022 Natural Building Course
Photos from our 5-day natural building course in October 2022. Students got to experiment with various Natural Building methods, including wattle and daub, earth bricks, earthbags, cordwood, cob, earth plaster, lime plaster and straw bale. Please take a look at the photos below from the five-day course. You can also check our video from our […]
How to harvest grapes for wine-making
We run a small co-op where we make wine collectively together at Keela. This post is to help those who are picking their grapes for us to make wine but will apply to anyone who is picking grapes.
Planting trees in the summer
Planting trees in the summer is never ideal but sometimes we just need or want to do it. Ideally, we plant trees bare-rooted trees in Automne (or spring for more frost-sensitive trees). However, we have moved big olive trees and planted potted trees in the summer and this week we planted 21 and this is […]
How to make a sheep skin rug – Easy and quick way
A lot of homesteaders chuck away the sheepskins when the process lambs and so this is a wonderful free resource that anyone can get and turn into a high-quality natural rug. We have been making them for a few years now and are perfecting the method so I thought I would write a blog post […]
Natural Building Applied Technology
Here are some of the technologies that can be used alongside Natural Building Techniques. To join our natural building courses please do check out this link.
Natural Building Techniques
List of different Natural Building Techniques that can be used in a Natural Building.
Natural and Sustainable self build building Principles
Here are our principles for natural building.
Permaculture Diploma Portugal
If you would like to start or continue your Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design with the Permaculture Association you may do this at Keela Yoga Farm. We have opportunities as Teaching apprenticeships, teaching assistants and design work experience at our Permaculture Farm with Tom Henfrey, the only official registered Diploma teacher in Portugal. Diploma in […]
Thomas Henfrey – Permaculture Design Educator
We would like to introduce Thomas Henfrey. Tom is a co-teacher at Keela Yoga Farm’s Permaculture Design Courses. He is the only certified Permaculture Diploma tutor in Portugal. He is an author of various permaculture and ecology books and has 20 years of experience in Permaculture and Ecology.
Registering Sheep in Portugal
We have been through the process to get a licence for sheep and register sheep in our area of Fundao in Portugal and should apply to any area in Portugal I thought I would type up the information to share as it was quite confusing for us and would like to make it easier for […]
