Timeline — our story in pictures

Dear Fruit Tree Enthusiasts,

Welcome to Orchard of Flavours — a botanical garden dedicated to warm-climate food trees.

Discover our journey of vibrant landscaping, rare tree collections, eco-friendly irrigation, and our first subtropical harvests. With the help of volunteers and scientific advisors from around the world, we dare say we’re creating something special.

Join us for tours, workshops, or simply to share your passion for fruit trees and food forests.

Warm regards from Tavira, Algarve, Portugal,

Miguel Cotton
Founder

Travel in time using the links below:

Now! ——> 2024 ——> 2023 ——> 2022 ——> 2021 ——> 2020 ——> 2019 (the Beginning)

Another one of our yearly drone videos, this one recorded on July 2025.

April — June 2025

Creating our perennial edible flowers bed.
Plant selection — a consultancy for another big project in Western Algarve.
Unpacking the newly arrived rare food trees from all over Europe.
Preparing our Food Tree Academy one-week course.
The class for the One-week course of our Food Tree academy.
Training gardeners who joined another big orchard.
Preparing the signs for our newly-planted trees.
Rare food trees still in the quarantine area.
The beautiful cranberry hibiscus (Hibiscus acetosella).
Preparing the Jewels area (for planting Jabuticaba and rare Eugenia).
Our first Eugenia involucrata producing delicious cherries...
The new Jewels area, fully planted with Jabuticaba and rare Eugenia species.
Preparing the soil for our new Mango Project.
Lots of Eugenia uniflora, the pitanga or Surinam cherry.
A young visitor enjoying the fruit of a Himalaian mulberry.
The long fruit of a Himalayan mulberry tree (Morus macroura).
Planting with style and joy! Always well protected from the sun.
The first mango tree planted in the brand new Mango Project area.
Planting and mulching with vetiver grass in the Mango Project.
The last few square meters of the Botanical Garden are now full!
The one-month food tree training program.
Taking care of a rare eugenia, adding a stone wall for protection and acidic substrate.

January — March 2025

Fruiting after just 2 years! The incredible Ice cream bean.
Marco de São Vicente, the Portuguese artist who donated the Wish tree to the Orchard.
Harvesting bananas all year long with 3 gardener trainees.
Exotic fruits harvested in January!
Our weekly potluck lunch with volunteers and patrons of the garden.
The fava bean plants (green manure) being incorporated into the soil.
Nitrogen-fixing nodules on the fava bean roots.
Maintaining our hardy banana plants.
Sending soil samples from the botanical garden to the laboratory.
Maintenance of our edible lotus pond.
Adding a much needed veranda to our Kiwano bar.
Our quarantine area with the to-be-planted soon babies.
Recording the newly arrived edible plants onto our database.
The strange fruit of Tabernaemontana elegans, the toad tree.
The edible leaves of our Beef and Onion tree (Toona sinensis).
Our office, a multi-purpose room, painted by the young Portuguese artist Le Funky.

October — December 2024

Preparing the foundations for our Wish Tree.
Ripening fruit on a gin berry tree (Glycosmis pentaphylla).
A Cocoon Food Forest with a Mango Tree at the center, one month after planting.
Peruvian apple flowering (Cereus repandus), before yielding a fruit very similar to the dragon fruit.
Capparis inermis, a thornless caper after one year of planting. So delicious on pizza..
Another private guided tour at the Botancial Garden.
The giant Ensete ventricosum, or Ethiopian banana plant.
One month and a half after planting, a Cocoon Food Forest around a dwarf Madeira banana plant.
So good and so strange: the Akebia quinata, also known as chocolate vine.
Annona glabra, a strange Annona fruiting after 2 years.
Marco de São Vicente, the Portuguese artist who donated the Wish Tree art piece to the garden.
More and more papaya ! We love them so much that our botanical garden’s logo is a papaya !
October is the best month to visit the Orchard. Come and try a bunch of different fruits.
Wednesday is Volunteer's day at the Orchard. Join us and enjoy a potluck lunch together.
Angela, the Belgian engineer who wrote the articles about food trees and salinity. We miss her a lot.
The dragon fruit flower (Selenicereus undatus) that we pollinated by hand.
The flower of the Ensete ventricosum (Ethiopian banana) after just 2 years.
The Wish tree being installed.
The Orchard of Flavours first Online Course, completely free, teaching our Cocoon Food Forest approach.
In November, we had 5 full days of hands-on learning, including our first week-long intensive course.
Time to fertilize all our food tress with compost and horse manure.
Micha, the German photographer focused on climate change who volunteered with us.
Lucas, our agronomist training a Portuguese gardener to use the most efficient irrigation technique.
Isaac, a Nepalese gardener being trained by our team.
New rare babies for the 2025 food tree collection.
Milan, the garden manager training a new gardener at the Orchard.
The botanical garden is training 3 gardeners who will soon develop a beautiful orchard.
A visitor from Taiwan left this comment on our Wish Tree.
New year’s Eve with the team of gardeners that the botanical garden is training.
Our Wish tree, and the preferred fruit of one of the Orchard’s young visitors.
The brand new Food Tree Academy tent was full of Fruit Tree enthusiasts eager to learn.

July — September 2024

Cooking with Moringa oleifera young pods. Highly nutritional and so tasty!
Starting a Cocoon Food Forest implementation, with a very efficient irrigation system.
Planting one of our first Cocoon Food Forests.
Freshly planted Cocoon Food Forest.
Having a deserved rest, in the sheltered nursery.
The Orchard's Visitor Hut, from where you can start your self-guided tour.
One of our two-year-old Moringa oleifera (Moringa) trees.
Kids learning how to propagate fruit trees with Marie, one of our friends and volunteers.
One of our visitors trying to grab an Apple banana, part of our collection of frost hardy bananas.
A delicious papaya grown in one of our Food Forests.
Planting one more of our resilient Cocoon Food Forests.
Freshly planted Cocoon Food Forest.
Another day of mulching with the amazing Vetiver grass.
Volunteers with Cajanus cajan (Pigeon pea) seedlings.
Cocoon Food Forest after three weeks of planting.

A promotional video we made for our educational Botanical Garden, a true gem in the Algarve! (July 2024)

April — June 2024

Marie, Claire and Miguel at São Brás Plant Fair, April 2024.
Wednesday is volunteering day at the Orchard.
Morus alba "King's White", one of the best mulberries in the world.
Almancil Rotary Club visiting the botanical garden.
Planting in the Dry Orchard trees that can rely only on the rainfall level of Algarve.
Our quarantine area, with many new fruit trees that will soon be part of the Botanical Garden collection.
Half a day with the students of Lycée Horticole of Brive la Gaillarde, in France (campus du végétal).
Our Foundation Course about Food Forests in Mediterranean climates.
Potluck lunch with the team and a few volunteers.
Preparing the soil in our one-hectare extension. Decompacting and adding compost.
Removing mealybugs from a young plant's leaves, using cotton buds and alcool.
Claire and Brian harvesting the pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan).
Harvested Cajanus cajan (Pigeon pea) pods.

January — March 2024

Dror Avital demonstrating pruning techniques, during a Food Tree Care Workshop.
Luís AFONSO and Ana Laura CRUZ teaching a Mini Food Forest Workshop.
Ripe fruit during the first harvest of one of our Coffea arabica (coffee) plants.
Orchard of Flavours map, showing the different paths of our themed self-guided visits.
Earthworks for our Dry Orchard Experiment.
Fava beans (Vicia faba) growing as green manure, on our Dry Orchard Experiment.
Hosting a Biochar Workshop, taught by Martijn JAGER, of Carbon Conscious Creations.
The Orchard of Flavours’ new propagation center.
Open black sapote fruit (Diospyros digyna).

October — December 2023

Probably the most beautiful Arbutus in the world, Arbutus unedo x andrachnoides ‘Marina’.
Our Neem tree (Azadirachta indica) flowering after one year of planting.
A nice big pomelo from our Citrus maxima ‘Red Madoka’. Can you find a bigger citrus fruit anywhere?
Milan preparing the new signage for each of our plants, with QR codes leading to our database.
2023 was a year full of papaya. And trust us, many more like this will come.
A full classroom during one of our Food Tree Propagation workshops.
Installing the new signage in the botanical garden, providing accessible information for future self-guided visits.
Adding information boards all over the Orchard of Flavours botanical garden.
Our first longan (Dimocarpus longan), also known as the Eye of the Dragon fruit.
Milan and the Orchard of Flavours stall, at the Estoi Mediterranean garden fair.
A flowering Pereskia aculeata, also known as “carne do pobre”, or Ora pro nobis.
Great mango harvest this Fall. Already more than 15 varieties are growing here.
Miguel Cotton showing a giant pod of the amazing Inga edulis (Ice cream bean tree), during a Workshop for the kids of Nobel International School.
Fruit ripening on our Gin berry tree (Glycosmis pentaphylla).
Our Curry tree fruiting… (Murraya koenigii).
Our preferred banana, Musa chini champa, with a lemony taste.
The rare and beautiful yellow stripe sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum 'Ceniza Bengala').
A fruit from Solanum abutiloides, our Dwarf tamarillo, growing in our Miyawaki-inspired Organised & High Density Food Forest.
Testing “Kirmiz kabub”, one of our many pomegranate (Punica granatum) varieties.

The video of a new flight over the Pomar dos Sabores diverse edible garden, in December 2023

July — September 2023

DAY 7: Our 3rd Miyawaki-inspired Organized & High Density Food Forest experiment, on July 7th. Complete planting of around 110 edible plants.
DAY 21: Our Miyawaki-inspired Organized & High Density Food Forest experiment, on July 21st.
DAY 45: Our 3rd Miyawaki-inspired Organised & High Density Food Forest on August 14th. Moringa trees are almost 2 meters !
Garden Steward Milan NEPALI removing the shade cloth off our 3rd Miyawaki-inspired Food Forest, now 2.5 months old (September 13th). Many trees have reached 2 meters easily.
Black sapote, or chocolate pudding fruit (Diospyros digyna).
The fruit Tree Academy: Luís AFONSO and Miguel COTTON teaching a class during a Food Forest and Island of Fertility workshop.
One of our many many varieties of pomegranate (Punica granatum), in this case, the “Red acco”.
Milan NEPALI and Luís AFONSO pose for the photo during the preparation of the first Biggest Mini Forest, on August 1st.
The first Biggest Mini Forest on August 16th, two weeks after planting.
The first Biggest Mini Forest, on September 5th, a bit over a month after planting.
The first Biggest Mini Forest, on September 16th, a month and a half after planting.
The fruit of Peanut butter tree (Bunchosia argentea).
Introduction of biological predators, in this case, the Rodolia cardinalis ladybug beetle, to help us control attacks by mealybugs.
Cotton candy fruit tree (Muntigia calabura), one of our Central American species.
Group picture at the first Food Forest & Island of Fertility workshop, on July 1st.
Planting Coffea stenophylla at the first Food Forest & Island of Fertility workshop.
The Fruit tree Academy: starting a Food Forest & Island of Fertility workshop with a guided tour of the Orchard of Flavours, with founder Miguel COTTON.

April — June 2023

Our July 2021-planted Miyawaki-inspired Wild & High Density Food Forest, our first experiment.
Drone picture taken of the Orchard of Flavours in May 2023.
A few new additions to our edible bamboo collection (Phyllostachys praecox and nuda).
Kids jumping on the Orchard's huge flexible water tank, by Citerneo.
We don’t resort to pesticides, of course, but we occasionaly use net bags to protect the fruit hanging on trees.
The first Food Forest workshop we held at the Orchard of Flavours, in May 2023.
Plant measurements of a young Eugenia anthropophaga.
A 2-year-old flowering Rose-apple (Syzygium jambos).
Garden Steward Milan NEPALI planting a Coffea stenophylla.
Starting planting the new Miyawaki-inspired Organized & High Density Food Forest, mid June.
Our young Nelumbo nucifera edible lotus starting to flower (planted only 6 weeks before).
New Miyawaki Edible Forest covered in shade cloth.
One more Orchard of Flavours tour, guided by Miguel Cotton.

The new drone video of the Orchard of Flavours botanical garden in Tavira, Algarve. Taken in May 2023.

January — March 2023

We welcomed Milan NEPALI, our new Junior Garden Steward.
Fruit from one of our 3-year-old avocados (Persea americana).
The beginning of a collection of mulberry trees (Morus genus).
The finished result of our new method for mulching with vetiver grass.
WWOOFer Leonardo setting up an archway for vine growing, on our new Miyawaki experiment site.
Starting soil preparations for the new Miyawaki Organized and High Density Food Forest experiment, our third!
Planting an in-vitro propagated female Medjool Palm tree (Phoenix dactylifera).
WWOOFer and Milan NEPALI working on the planting area of the new Miyawaki Edible Forest experiment.

October — December 2022

Loads of Star fruit (Averrhoa carambola) on our 3-year-old tree.
Our brand new accreditation from BGCI (Botanic Gardens Conservation International) as a Botanic Garden.
Our first real Pomelo (Citrus maxima).
Harvesting the Jujubes from our Ziziphus jujuba tree.
Our first Miyawaki-inspired mini Food Forest, 14 months after planting.
A beautiful three-year-old, 6-meter-high Moringa oleifera tree.
The new map of Pomar dos Sabores, now including the one-hectare extension.
First plantings on the new extension (using our new Food Forest planting protocol).
Achiote fruit from the Lipstick tree (Bixa orellana).
Beginning of our research on the root systems of fruit trees.
Our first Garden Fair, in Estoi Algarve, October 2022.
Our new protocol for planting fruit trees in the extension of the Orchard of Flavours botanical garden. We put it into practice by planting our Miyawaki-inspired Organized Food Forest.
Enthusiastic WWOOFers Leonardo and Luís trimming the vetiver grass to use as mulch.

July — September 2022

2-hour-long private guided visit with tree lovers from Switzerland, South Africa, Germany and Portugal.
Landscaping the new plot and adding compost and horse manure to each planting bed.
First Ice cream bean pod on 2-year-old trees (Inga edulis).
Finally we found a Neem Tree (Azadirachta indica)!
Microcitrus australasica (Citron caviar or finger lemon fruit) growing on the tree.
First fruit ripening on a Litchi chinensis (Lychee) tree.
Brian planting one more variety of Mango (Mangifera indica “Palmer”). The garden now has a collection of 10 different varieties, with many more to come...
Landscaping under progress, on the most recent 1-hectar plot.
First Macadamia nut on a three-year-old tree.
Installing the irrigation system of the extension plot.
Quarantine area of the newly arrived fruit trees.
Visit of Mértola’s Terra Sintrópica team to the Orchard of Flavours.
Three-year-old Mango tree, full of fruit.

April — June 2022

A beautiful happy Nanking cherry (Prunus tomentosa) loaded with sharp red berries.
A productive Solanum muricatum with quite a few ripe melon pears, ready to be picked.
Pea pods of a Pigeon Pea (Cajanus cajan) shrub, a legume family perennial which provides nutritious peas while fixing nitrogen.
A delivery of compost on the new plot of the Orchard of Flavours project, the Second Phase.
Welcoming new rare fruit trees to the project, among which many types of Eugenia, like selloi, involucrata and pyriformis.
The Orchard of Flavours is growing. A new planting area is prepared on the one-hectar extension.
White sapote fruits rippening on our Casimiroa edulis, planted under 3 years ago.
One of our happy and productive papaya plants (Carica papaya).
The beautiful and delicate flowers of the Ice cream bean tree (Inga edulis).
The seeds of the lipstick tree (Bixa orellana).
The delicious fruits of the Japanese loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) are usually the first ones to fully ripen, in early Spring.
The banana plants at the Orchard of Flavours are always hard at work producing some delicious bunches for us.
Yet another example of how productive and diverse an orchard in the south of Portugal can be. And we’re only getting started!

The drone has flown above the Orchard again, showing now a more diverse garden than ever, and the brand new one-hectar extension plot, three and a half years after the project began, June 2022

January — March 2022

Happy WWOOFers Jules and Miguel, inoculating a Eriobotrya japonica with a mycorrhizal fungi biostimulant.
Miguel COTTON doing a ‘soil your undies’ test with help from a visitor during a tour of Orchard of Flavours.
Group photo at the end of a January tour, with a wonderful group of fellow fruit tree lovers.
Beautiful almond tree in bloom, solemnly looking after our fruit trees cemetery.
Preparing to inoculate our fruit trees with a mycorrhizae and rhizobacteria biostimulant.
Mulching around a Ziziphus jujuba tree using cardboard and creeping flowers.
WWOOFer Miguel collecting a baby banana tree by dividing.
Miguel COTTON showing Miyawaki-inspired Food Forest to touring visitors.
WWOOFer Jules preparing the site for the ‘soil your undies’ test, next to banana trees.
One of the ponds spread around the Orchard, allowing for the creation of an important microclimate, providing temperature regulation for its surroundings and boosting biodiversity.
Joyful visit with some friends to a local banana plantation, where we all learned about growing happy banana plants with our host Leonardo, an experienced grower.
Miguel COTTON guiding a tour of the Orchard.
Showing visitors our beautiful Bixa orellana shrub, from which the seeds were originally used both as a red body paint and as a cooking condiment.

October — December 2021

Preparation of a new well-protected plantation area for spring 2022. We already planted 3 Dovyalis caffra, the Kei apple, native to Southern Africa.
Over 100 fruit trees have now an information sheet inserted in this homemade signage system. Visitors at Orchard of Flavours can now learn by themselves about fruit trees of all warm climates.
A delicious lucuma, fruit of Pouteria lucuma, a beautiful evergreen fruit tree native to Peru, with some drought tolerance.
More big holes and soil preparation in the Coco zone (very limey and unfertile). We systematically create islands of fertility where one big fruit tree is planted next to shrubs and creeping plants and all roots received mycorrhizal fungi inoculation.
Flower of Bixa orellana often called the “Lipstick tree”. The ground seeds are widely used in South America as a condiment or to make red body paint or lipstick.
The Banana Circle at Orchard of Flavours botanical garden one year and a half after planting.
Miyawaki Wild & High Density food forest: 5 months later. From a few centimeters at planting to sometimes almost 3 meters tall…
Installation of a Meteobot agricultural weather station. It enables us to monitor soil moisture at 4 places, evapotranspiration, rainfall, humidity levels, soil temperature, etc.
Building another organic windbreak structure to protect trees from the northeast cold winds.
Brian, volunteering at Orchard of Flavours, after planting a Zanthoxylum piperitum, the famous Sichuan pepper.

July — September 2021

Mid July, planting around 60 trees, 3 per square meter in our Miyawaki-inspired Food Forest.
Three types of fruit trees: shrubs, mid-layer trees and canopy trees. Over 30 different species. Learn more about this Miyawaki food forest in Portugal.
After one month, growth is already astonishing. The densely planted trees are competing for light.
Creating a Miyawaki forest is a great opportunity to involve the local community.
Young saplings of fruit trees soon to be planted in Orchard of Flavours’ Miyawaki food forest. They will all receive a mycorrhizal fungi mix when being transplanted.
Mid July 2021, a few days after planting…
Today’s harvest at Orchard of Flavours botanical garden dedicated to all fruit trees of warm climates.
September 2021, the Moringa oleifera of the Great Wall zone has reached a height of over 5 meters in 13 months. Height at time of planting: 28 cm.
Miyawaki mini forest protocol: 3 trees per square meter or a tree every 60 cm (in temperate climates)
Definitely as good as in Thailand or Indonesia. No need to import tropical fruit if we can grow them here in Southern Europe!

April — June 2021

One more intervention of a bulldozer to create two small ponds to collect the water and avoid waterlogging of the Big Sisters raised beds.
No plastic liner, just stones.
Three varieties of sugar cane are planted around the ponds, among them the rare and beautiful black sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum “Ko Onua Lua”).
One more Inga edulis, the ice cream bean tree. Drought tolerant, nitrogen fixer, fast grower, tolerates waterlogging, can be pruned strongly, makes an ideal canopy tree, frost resistant. Maybe the ideal tree for Algarve. A tree we love a lot.
Preparation of our first Miyawaki-inspired Food Forest experiment of around 21 m². One-meter-deep soil decompaction and 6 tons of compost.

Orchard of Flavours aerial view - May 2021

Third aerial view of Orchard of Flavours botanical garden (Tavira - Algarve) after almost two years of planting the first fruit tree.

Another drone video of the Pomar dos Sabores botanical garden, May 2021

January — March 2021

Very unusually cold winter (-2ºC during 15 days for a couple of hours every early morning in Jan 2020). All the unprotected banana plants are surviving. One Carica papaya died. The 4 meter Moringa oleifera did not suffer at all.
We weed, we fertilize, we work hard and Gulliver is meditating…
Fertilizing each tree with compost and horse manure once a year in January/February.
Our greenhouse where the most fragile fruit trees spend the winter… Soon to be planted at Orchard of Flavours botanical garden.
A short workshop about Biochar with Martijn Jager.
A Bunchosia armeniaca whose winter protection will soon be removed.

October — December 2020

Building of an organic windbreak which will also serve as a hotel for insects and a compost pile.
Planting with Rik and Gulliver a Ziziphus mauritiana, an evergreen tree giving a delicious fruit similar to the deciduous Ziziphus jujuba.
Gulliver, a small Tibetan dog from Alentejo has joined the Orchard of Flavours botanical garden team.
Piling up organic materials into our new windbreak structure.
Preparing Biochar before activating it with pee and manure…
Less than 6 months after plantation, the Banana Circle is already a very nice spot of Orchard of Flavours botanical garden.

July — September 2020

Citrus digitata or Buddha’s hand, a rare citrus whose zest is very fragrant.
Hylocereus undatus, the dragon fruit. We got fruit without hand pollination!
Third intervention of a digger to prepare one cubic meter holes and mixing the local soil with compost.
Musa “Orinoco” “Topocho”, tolerant of wind, drought and cold ! A very promising banana tree for Algarve at Orchard of Flavours.
Working on the Orchard of Flavours database where all our trees are recorded. Open unlimited access to every gardener! Hundred of hours of studying and data processing.
We are working with plant collectors and specialized plant nurseries. Newly arrived: Inga edulis, Syzygium cumini, Dyospiros digyna,…
Harvesting a mango (Mangifera indica “Sensation”)
First lychee at Orchard of Flavours botanical garden. The variety “Kwai Mai Pink” is the most "cold-hardy" lychee tree.
A delicious Surinam cherry (Eugenia uniflora). It likes cross pollination and needs to be watered regularly to be fruitful.
A small caravan will soon become our study room where we can protect the computer used to enter all the plants data into Orchard of Flavours database.
After a few weeks, the first trees around the Banana Circle are growing extremely fast.

A new drone video of the Orchard of Flavours botanical garden, now one year and a half old, July 2020

April — June 2020

Mulching the Edible Succulents Garden with sand and installing the micro-irrigation system.
We put huge stones on the northern side of the Banana Circle to protect from the cold wind and create a big thermal mass.
Painting all the zone names of the Orchard of Flavours botanical garden on second-hand wooden skimboards.
Great Wall zone will soon host more frost tolerant banana trees.
Surrounding a Macadamia tree with an island of fertility: lots of compost and mulch and a few creeping flowers.
Installing a 50-cubic-meters flexible cistern. A valuable back-up in case of water shortage.
More and more visitors start coming to Orchard of Flavours botanical garden, sometimes just attracted by the big board along the road, near Luz de Tavira.
Another raised bed with a Morus alba tree and a Carissa macrocarpa shrub.
We added more stone around the northern face of the Great Wall zone as a way to better protect against the northern winds and increase the thermal mass.
Mulching with palm tree leaves the Butia capitata, the apricot palm tree whose fruit is delicious.
Brian is happy to plant the first trees in the Banana Circle : a Musa “Orinoco” “Topocho” , a Carica papaya and a Moringa oleifera.
Installing micro-irrigation with a German WWOOFer. We use Rainbird and Netafim drip irrigation equipment.

January — March 2020

Locally produced vegetable compost. We are using tons and tons of it! Not the best compost but almost no other reasonable alternatives.
Planting an Arbutus unedo '“Marina” whose flowers are red. Beginning of a collection of many less known varieties of this indigenous tree also called the “strawberry tree”.
Preparation of a big Banana Circle. Digging the hole to receive the organic materials, amending the soil structure with compost and horse manure.
We installed a fertigation system which will inject automatically compost juices or other organic liquid fertilizer into our micro-irrigation network.
We started the edible succulents garden with Opuntia ficus-indica (thornless variety).
Mulching with two layers of jute bags.
Two Dutch WWOOFers adding lots of organic matter in the compost hole of the future Banana Circle.
Two French WWOOFers planting a Litchi chinensis at Orchard of Flavours.
More freshly planted edible succulents, Aloe vera and Aloe arborescens.
Protecting fragile subtropical trees with an anti-frost felt.
First soil analysis at Orchard of Flavours.
Second intervention of the digger after observing the effect of heavy rains. Preparation of many more 1 cubic meter holes for future trees.

October — December 2019

“Orchard of Flavours” in Portuguese means “Pomar dos Sabores” and in French “Verger des Saveurs”.
The names of the species and the varieties of all our fruit trees are written on a local white flat stone with an oil marker.
Drawing the first map of the Orchard of Flavours botanical garden on a big board. Thanks to Alex, a Canadian WWOOFer.
We installed big wooden posts (Cosmic Antennae zone) for the climbers, like Passiflora edulis, Lycium barbarum, Vitis vinifera.
Planting a first Persea americana in the Big Sisters zone.
Naming all the zones with inspiring words: Coco zone, Ocean waves, the Wings, the Eye, Cosmic Antennae, Palm garden, Succulent garden, Little sisters, Big sisters, etc.

July — September 2019

Arrival of the first fruit trees, among others Mangifera indica “Ataulfo”.
Building the “Kiwano Bar”, located in the center of the botanical garden.
Expedition to Malaga, to the biggest plant nurseries in Europe selling subtropical fruit trees.
Planting vetiver on a few raised beds in order to reinforce them thanks to their very strong vertical root system. Read our article on this miracle grass.
Planting Rosmarinus officinalis with a Portuguese permaculturalist.
Building a dry toilet using an old chair, to be installed soon.
Preparing the sugar cane cuttings that were planted as a hedge on the east side of Orchard of Flavours botanical garden.
At last, after month of delays, we are connected to agricultural water and we can really start planting.
Planting the Great Wall zone, mostly different types of rare bananas (Musa “Lep Chang Kut”, Musa “Topocho”), a Moringa oleifera and dwarf varieties of Carica papaya.

April — June 2019

Arrival of the “Brain”, the nickname of the small container which will be the center of our micro-irrigation system.
Connecting all the water tubes. Our aim is to use water very sparingly and to use the best available micro-irrigation techniques.
Installing the electro valves and a big sand filter. We immediately installed many sectors to enable different irrigation frequencies and be more resilient.
The main water pipes are all buried at a depth of 60 cm.
First aerial view of the design of Orchard of Flavours, Tavira, Algarve.
The Orchard of Flavours botanical garden is surrounded by a few very old orchards of almond trees and olive trees and is located around 1.5 kilometers from the ocean.

First drone video taken of the Orchard of Flavours site, in the early beginnings, April 2019.

January — March 2019

Observation phase: contour lines and draft masterplan of Orchard of Flavours botanical garden.
A plot of almost 1 hectare, a few hundred meters from the ocean and close to Tavira.
Mostly uncultivated bare land, just a few old indigenous trees, fig trees, almond trees and carob trees.
First intervention of a big digger to create swales in order to avoid erosion and create terraces where trees will be planted.
A total of three full days with a digger to implement the first stage of design of Orchard of Flavours botanical garden.
On a few big terraces, we used a plastic felt to kill the very strong weeds.