Hi, you all - little announcement - I am in the process of making a mini-course on stratification or plant layering. Meaning the way plants arrange themselves in nature according to their needs of light and how we can use this principle to accumulate the most energy, - photosynthesis therefore biomass therefore topsoil in one's system. These videos will be "whiteboard" style teachings with clear examples and identifications of plant stratas. While in the process, I am still open to receive feedback to make this course even more valuable for you. Any suggestions, any doubts for some of you that still have an issue understanding the basics of stratification properly ? Share them here and we can have a good talk about it !

After a design lesson I taught to some Spanish students a few days ago, I thought I’d share some insights: 7 lessons for beginners when it comes to designing. From the start, people often think designing is some complicated process only consultants can handle. I’m here to call bullshit on that. There’s too much of it in this space. Designing is something we can do ourselves -without paying someone half your monthly salary for a single day of their time. Let’s empower each other to design! Anyone who gatekeeps this knowledge, making it seem more complicated than it is so you remain dependent on them, is a con artist. I’ve dealt with those people and I don’t want you to. They stunt progress in this space and actively disempower others. That’s where I come from when it comes to designing, and yes, a bit of a rant - but it matters. With that in mind, here are 7 lessons for beginners: 1 – Design should be practical, not theoretical. Start with what’s actually around you. What plants grow in your area? Don’t assume you need one perfect species - especially if you haven’t seen it thrive in your conditions. Experience matters far more than fancy spreadsheets or theoretical plant lists. Don’t get bogged down in the theory - learn by doing. That's difficult for us nerds out there - and yes I'm a big nerd to when it comes to technicalities. Step away from that even though it's hard. 2 – Use powerhouse plants. Don’t shy away from fast-growing plants. Eucalyptus, acacias, or other “aggressive” species are often the most effective for your system. Growth rates in the Mediterranean are much slower than in subtropical regions so keep that into account too . If you’re hesitant because a plant grows quickly, that’s usually a sign you should use it. 3 – Focus on early-stage species, not later succession species; Your main concern should be the placenta and early secondary species. Later succession species can be planted once you understand your site better. Trying to plan everything at once often leads to frustration and failure. Early-phase gaps have a bigger impact than gaps in later succession.

Olive groves are everywhere in the dry Mediterranean zones. And yet many ancestral groves still keep this 10x10m spacing. Now it's going more towards the 6x6m or 7x7m spacing but still it shows that this idea of planting at maturity spacing is highly unefficient. You're not gonna get any return from this planting for decades. We can use these spaces in a much smarter way ! Here's what we've done on a 150m row !

I’ve never seen such a wet January — it’s often the driest winter month here in Andalucía. Here’s a screenshot of the meteorological records for my area for January alone — nearly 400 mm! That’s almost what we usually get in a whole year, since the annual average is around 450–500 mm. If we add the rainfall since Autumn 2025, we’re probably already over 600 mm. It looks like we’re in the middle of a La Niña influence. I’m no meteorologist, but here’s what my gut tells me: - The last two years, aquifers have been able to recharge more than during the previous drought years. - We seem to have perfect conditions for larger-scale plantings, thanks to the rainfall. This is one of the reasons why, after seeing the heavy autumn 2024 rains, and the total rainfall of 2025 we went ahead with a large syntropic planting (~6000 m²). Doing this is especially important when water is limited - mind you, we’re on a hill where wells dry up faster than in the lowlands. So why is this the right time to plant? El Niño and La Niña cycles don’t happen from one year to the next. Each phase usually lasts 2–7 years, because ocean and atmospheric systems take time to shift. This creates clusters of wet or dry years, rather than a perfect alternating pattern. For planting, this is crucial: if we’re at the end of a wet phase, it’s a great opportunity to plant. The soil still has moisture, the aquifers are recharged, and there’s a high chance of more rain during the rest of winter and spring, maybe even into early June if we’re lucky. Let the trees and the soil soak up that rainfall, we'll end up with deeply taprooted trees that will grow more vigorously than in drought years, it's the perfect opportunity - the timing couldn't be better !

Guys, sell your backyard woodchippers - they are useless and expensive. Watch the video before reading. Here's Pedro the man cutting through the branches like a knife through hot butter ! About a year ago, my colleague and I hit a wall. We needed mulch for new syntropic plantings, but first we had to deal with 1.5 km of agroforestry lines planted with carob and bridal broom - Retama monosperma - our main service species. We prune these lines every couple of years. Until then, we’d just leave the biomass on the ground — but in this climate it decomposes painfully slowly. On top of that, we have to strim the lines once a year, and strimming around woody branches is a nightmare. So last year we thought: let’s woodchip it. Spanish broom is insanely fibrous. After one hour of chipping, the machine had already clogged five times. We’d advanced maybe 20 metres. At that pace, finishing the job would’ve taken 100+ hours. Let’s do the math: - ~120 litres of petrol - ~150 € in fuel - 2 people × 100 hours × 10 €/h = 2000 € in labour That’s ~2200 €…👉 just to make mulch. And that’s only the beginning. Then you need to gather it up and mulch the lines. So we went with the obvious solution instead: we called a guy with a hammer flail mower. We lined all the branches along the row, and in about one hour the job was done. Cost? 40 € per hour, plus a bit of fuel and his commute - let’s say 60-80 € tops. That alone would have justified half a day of woodchipping, easily. So yes - there’s no point in backyard woodchippers. Ours cost 3,500 €, and in hindsight it’s just money thrown away. Even on small systems, the economics don’t work: - constant repairs - bolts loosening from vibrations - frequent clogging - painfully slow - awkward, impractical designs when they jam - gulps up fuel For agroforestry and syntropic systems, they’re simply the wrong tool. We're selling it now. Here’s how we do it this year to maximize efficiency and save money: We prune everything we need - olive trees, bridal brooms, pines, carobs - and line up all the prunings. Then we chainsaw out the bigger trunks that won’t fit through the flail mower. Once all the pruning is ready, we call in the flail mower guy.