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The library

Look things up: plants by their task in the system, the trees of Sardinia, the people who paved the way, and every article by theme.

168 articles

Plants by their task

Nitrogen fixers and helpers

They feed the soil, give shade and make room for the plants that come after them.

Fruit trees for the Mediterranean

Fruit that copes with long dry summers once it is established.

Subtropical fruit on trialon trial

Fruit that can grow in the frost-free climate of Sardinia's east coast. Whether it proves itself at Sa Medada is a trial, not a promise.

Useful and medicinal plants

Plants with many uses in the kitchen, the garden and everyday life.

Trees

Trees of Sardinia

The old and native trees that shape the island's landscape.

The pioneers

People whose work shaped permaculture and the renaturation of land.

Every article by theme

Each theme in the order it reads best: from understanding to doing.

Soil and life

What works below the surface: humus, fungi, bacteria.

  1. HumusFoundation
  2. Soil StructureFoundation
  3. Soil Food WebFoundation
  4. Mycorrhiza
  5. Rhizobia
  6. Nitrogen-Fixing Plants
  7. Biological Soil Crust
  8. Indicator Plants
  9. Spade Test
  10. Texture by Feel
  11. Soil Analysis
  12. Soil Water Holding Capacity
  13. Soil Compaction
  14. Soil Water Repellency
  15. Soil Erosion
  16. Mulch
  17. Sheet Mulching
  18. Living Mulch
  19. Rock Mulch
  20. Chop and Drop
  21. Biomass Plants
  22. Dynamic Accumulator
  23. Cover Crop
  24. Green Manure
  25. Compost
  26. Composting toilet
  27. Hügelkultur
  28. Biochar
  29. Terra Preta (Amazonian Dark Earth)
  30. Soil Bioengineering
  31. Vetiver Grass

Water and slope

How rain is held before it runs off.

  1. Infiltration
  2. DesertificationFoundation
  3. Regreening & Reversing Desertification
  4. Rainwater HarvestingFoundation
  5. Keyline Design
  6. Swale
  7. Terracing
  8. Dry Stone Walls
  9. Microcatchment (Negarim)
  10. Half-Moon (Demi-lune)
  11. Zaï Pit
  12. Retention Pond
  13. Water Retention Landscape
  14. Roof water and cisterns
  15. Greywater
  16. Olla Irrigation
  17. Drought-Tolerant Landscaping (Xeriscaping)

Food forest and growing

Food in layers, modelled on the forest.

  1. PermacultureFoundation
  2. Polyculture
  3. Plant GuildFoundation
  4. Food ForestFoundation
  5. Syntropic Agriculture
  6. Agroforestry
  7. Silvopasture
  8. Herb Spiral

Trees of Sardinia

Oaks, olives, macchia and the trees of tomorrow.

  1. Maquis (Mediterranean Scrubland)
  2. Holm Oak
  3. Cork Oak
  4. Monumental Trees
  5. Millennial Olive Trees
  6. Service Tree
  7. Climate-Adapted Trees
  8. Assisted Migration
  9. Planting a tree on a dry slope

Nature in transition

Succession, restoration, and people as part of it.

  1. Mediterranean climateFoundation
  2. Ecological SuccessionFoundation
  3. Pioneer Plants
  4. Nurse Trees
  5. Ecological Facilitation
  6. Ecological RestorationFoundation
  7. Rewilding
  8. Reconciliation Ecology
  9. Fire-resilient landscape
  10. Transhumance
  11. RehumanizationFoundation
  12. Mediterranean Diet
  13. Blue Zones

Plant portraits

What already grows at Sa Medada: fruit, nitrogen fixers, trees.

  1. Leucaena
  2. Inga (Ice-Cream Bean and Pacay)
  3. Coral Tree
  4. Tephrosia
  5. Moringa
  6. Fava Bean
  7. Bambara Groundnut
  8. Banana
  9. Papaya
  10. Mango
  11. Avocado
  12. Cherimoya
  13. Guava
  14. Feijoa
  15. Passion Fruit
  16. Dragon Fruit
  17. Lychee
  18. Black Sapote
  19. White Sapote
  20. Surinam Cherry (Pitanga)
  21. Tamarillo
  22. Pawpaw
  23. Persimmon
  24. Fig
  25. Citrus
  26. Apricot
  27. Sweet Cherry
  28. Apple
  29. Monstera
  30. Tulsi (Holy Basil)

Pioneers

People and places we learn from.

  1. P. A. Yeomans
  2. Masanobu Fukuoka
  3. Bill Mollison
  4. David Holmgren
  5. Emilia Hazelip
  6. Sepp Holzer
  7. Ernst Götsch
  8. Wangari Maathai
  9. Elinor Ostrom
  10. Tony Rinaudo
  11. Yacouba Sawadogo
  12. Geoff Lawton
  13. Brad Lancaster
  14. Art Ludwig
  15. Tamera
  16. Herdade do Freixo do Meio

Closing the cycles

Water, nutrients, carbon, energy, material and seed: where cycles break and how to close them.

  1. Cycle thinking in permacultureFoundation
  2. The Water CycleFoundation
  3. Water balance: when rain exceeds evaporationFoundation
  4. The Nutrient CycleFoundation
  5. Carbon and humusFoundation
  6. Biomass and material
  7. Energy: The Flow That Drives Everything
  8. The Seed Cycle

Designing with permaculture

Ethics, principles and tools: the journey through permaculture.

  1. The three ethics of permacultureFoundation
  2. Observe and interact
  3. Catch and store energy
  4. Obtain a yield
  5. Apply self-regulation and accept feedback
  6. Use and value renewable resources and services
  7. Produce no waste
  8. Design from patterns to details
  9. Integrate rather than segregate
  10. Use small and slow solutions
  11. Use and value diversity
  12. Use edges and value the marginal
  13. Creatively use and respond to change
  14. Mollison's design principlesFoundation
  15. The design processFoundation
  16. Design methods
  17. Base map and overlays
  18. Element analysis
  19. Zones in permacultureFoundation
  20. Sectors in permaculture
  21. Scale of permanenceFoundation
  22. MicroclimateFoundation
  23. Stacking in space and time
  24. The Mediterranean garden year
  25. Bees and pollinators
  26. Chickens in the system
  27. Managed grazingFoundation
  28. Farmer managed natural regeneration (FMNR)
  29. Seed saving and exchange
  30. Vermicompost
  31. Ecosystem services
  32. Invisible structuresFoundation
  33. CommonsFoundation
  34. Sociocracy
  35. Community supported agriculture (CSA)
  36. Local Currency