Pasturelands Among the Olive Trees

We are rebuilding pasturelands among a field of arbequina olive trees. A rich, biodiverse pasture in semi-arid lands should certainly see not only different bee species thrive but all pollen and nectar consuming fauna, including butterflies and other insects, birds and mammals.

Our Pasturelands Among the Olive Trees therefore must consist of a diversity of nectar and pollen-rich plants that provide forage and habitat throughout the year including the hot summer months.

The key for a sustainable rich pastureland is soil health. 

Soil health means proper cycling of water and nutrients, the quantity of sunlight harvested all year around, the diversity of biological life in the soil, how much carbon is being stored, and how resistant the soil is to harsh sun, pelting rains and strong, eroding winds. Planting diverse grasses and legume cover crops means soil restoration, carbon sequestration, ground cover, water storage, breaking a dysfunctional nutrient cycle and thus building habitat and food for pollinating insects, birds and other wildlife that chooses to return.

In a few years the pasturelands should have richer soils with better structure. We look forward to enjoying the evolution.

We had been used to regarding the beautiful but degraded nature of the fields as normal; the compacted soil hard as brick when dry, the fields barren and desiccated in summer and unable to absorb winter rains. We have now come to realize that this is just poor ecosystem function and we are setting about helping the soil to recover and improve naturally.

By adding diversity including nitrogen fixing legumes and carbon sequestering grasses, by leaving the biomass to protect the surface of the soil from heat and wind, and by eliminating any chemical inputs by the farmers, we are fostering life; we are allowing the soil biology to thrive again. By not tilling we are allowing the mycorrhizal fungi to repopulate. These organisms have symbiotic relationships with the roots of most plants and are essential to soil health. Of course, as important in the arid Mediterranean climate is restoring the soils ability to capture and store rain water, as well as the nightly dew that rolls in off the sea.  But first and foremost, it’s all about collecting as much sunlight as possible through photosynthesis and cycling more carbon into the soil through root exudates that feed the soil microbiota.

Plants

The pastureland shrubs include myrtle, thyme, rosemary, lavender, sage, oregano, wild artichoke, capers, fennel, nettles, English broom, hibiscus, arboreal alfalfa, plumbago, lantana and caña brava, and a variety of indigenous and hardy grasses.

Olive Trees

The pasture will lie among a field of arbequina olive trees, a Spanish cultivar that produces a suave olive oil in years when there is a harvest. Olive trees tend to be alternate bearing so every other year there is a big harvest for friends and family.

S’Hort Gran d’es Palmer favors trees that are most adaptable to our natural soils, climate and available water. The arbequina olive certainly is a champion. 

Bees

Mallorca’s flora is varied, with producing trees and sub-canopy plants that are well suited to the needs of bees and other pollinators. However, dramatic changes in availability of nourishment have come from the last century of monoculture and the practice of a long fallow summer season during which the land is left hot and barren. So, planting bee forage to rebuild and secure the food base for pollinators is a major objective. I am sure that we will find that abundance of flowering plant species that depend on bees for pollination will promote the abundance of insect pollinators. 

And it’s a two-way street. Insect pollinators facilitate the reproduction of the world’s wild-flowering plant species and therefore are essential components of sustainable ecosystems.  So, we expect that both pollinator populations and the pasture’s plants will thrive through increasingly rich and undisturbed habitats like the S’Hort Pasturelands Among the Olive Trees. In contrast, the mono-crops or low-diversity stands of the past invariably reduced insect species richness.