7 stationsFrom soil to forest
How living soil grows step by step into a food forest.
TerraWiki
TerraWiki: The Terra Humana Lexicon
A curated lexicon of the ideas behind our work, ecological and human restoration explained in plain language.
Not an open wiki; each entry is written and reviewed by the foundation.
39 terms · 5 themes · 3 learning paths
Photo: Sa Medada, Jerzu
Themes
Five ways into the same landscape.
Soil and life
What works below the surface: humus, fungi, bacteria.
8 terms
Water and slope
How rain is held before it runs off.
7 terms
Food forest and growing
Food in layers, modelled on the forest.
8 terms
Trees of Sardinia
Oaks, olives, macchia and the trees of tomorrow.
8 terms
Nature in transition
Succession, restoration, and people as part of it.
8 terms
Learning paths
Read in order, each idea builds on the one before.
7 stations6 stationsHolding water on the slope
From the dry season to the terrace: working with every drop.
7 stationsTrees that stay
From the macchia to the first tree we planted at Sa Medada.
Recently added
Trees of Sardinia
Cork Oak
A Mediterranean evergreen oak whose thick insulating bark can be harvested every decade without harming the tree, and which survives fire.
Water and slope
Desertification
The creeping loss of fertile land in dry regions: soil loses its humus, water and life until it can barely carry anything at all.
Water and slope
Dry Stone Walls
Walls built from stacked stone without mortar, held together by the placing of each stone and the friction between them.
Nature in transition
Ecological Facilitation
The ecological principle that plants can help each other: one species measurably improves the living conditions of another instead of merely competing with it.
Project Eden · Sa Medada
See Project Eden Tested at Sa Medada
What these entries describe, we try out on our own slope. The captions say what each picture shows.
Solar aspect map of Sa Medada from LiDAR data Assisted Migration
At Sa Medada we are trialling banana, mango, avocado, cherimoya, papaya and moringa on a nearly frost-free south-facing slope.
To the term
Aerial view of Sa Medada with the property boundary Ecological Succession
At Sa Medada all four life-span stages of a staged planting are occupied: fava bean and Bambara groundnut for a season, Tephrosia for a few years, coral tree and Leucaena for ten to fifteen years, Pacay and Inga edulis for the later canopy.
To the term
Young planting with mulch beneath an old olive tree at Sa Medada Food Forest
At Sa Medada the food forest begins beneath olive trees that are already there.
To the term
View across the Ogliastra hills from Sa Medada Nitrogen-Fixing Plants
At Sa Medada Tephrosia, around seven Leucaena, coral tree, Pacay, Inga edulis, Bambara groundnut and fava bean are in the ground, all so far without inoculation with root-nodule bacteria.
To the term
The Sa Medada farmhouse among old olive trees Nurse Trees
Our first nurse at Sa Medada is a Leucaena: it is now two metres tall and shades two avocados.
To the term
The valley of Sa Medada near Jerzu, Sardinia, with olive grove and macchia Service Tree
The service tree is the first tree we planted at Sa Medada, in 2024, deliberately in the hottest spot of the south flank.
To the term
All terms A–Z
Glossary A–Z with short termsA
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See these ideas at work
Terra Humana turns these principles into living land at Project Eden in Sardinia.
Explore Project Eden