The New Paradigm, It's not Agriculture

Progress Report No. 1

What you see is the Formentera family, plus Mentor. Together we are reforesting the Philippines… BELIEVE IT OR NOT!

It’s time to mark the terraces and to plant along each marking to delineate the upper side from the lower side. At this time there is no excavation. Little if any excavation will be utilized.

The demarcation line is marked on the same slope as would be the upper and the lower terraces. With each marking, a Mulberry cutting is planted.

We mark the line. Plant Mulberry cuttings about 125 centimeters (4’1”) apart. Later, in the near term, we will plant Vetiver grass in-between, two sprigs planted about 30 cm inside from the Mulberry.

>Mulberry, Vetiver, Vetiver, Mulberry<.

The Vetiver characteristically grows a very thick set of fine, fine roots that extend as deep into the soil as four meters.

This grass will hold the line and also the Mulberry which grows extremely fast, fruits, and provides leaves which the rabbits crave. In China, the young leaves are fed to the young silkworms. At HMF we grow them primarily for the fruit which is my favorite jam. Once we started raising rabbits we found that of all the foliage they like best the Mulberry leaves, both young old leaves.

When the Mulberry and the Vetiver take hold then the work begins on each terrace’s surface to reduce some of the slopes on both the upper and lower sides of the developing terrace and make walking and moving about a bit easier and practical. How that is accomplished we will find out when we get to that point.

Each terrace line is about 110 meters in length and so along with that line the topography changes which means that the slope also changes. Therefore, how we deal with the flattening of each terrace will vary. We are not using an earth moving approach that would be artificial and require us to install concrete or similar barriers at great expense, disruption and would cause too much-existing vegetation to be removed, only to be replaced. Why not work around the existing vegetation as much as possible and keep as much existing soil as possible too.

There will be 20 terraces, 4 sets of five terraces.

How can this one family, which is reforesting one hectare and turning it into a bio diversified commercially productive and sustainable forest, lead the way to reforest the entire Philippines? Join in and learn the answers as we proceed.