Agroforestry brings many of these relationships together. Trees, shrubs, crops, animals, water and soil biology are deliberately integrated rather than treated as separate enterprises. Different vegetation layers capture sunlight at different heights. Roots occupy different depths. Animals recycle nutrients. Trees provide shade. Shrubs provide habitat. Ground cover protects soil. Fungi connect roots. Water moves through the whole system.
At Quinta Picapau and Raízes da Montanha, this may eventually include combinations of cork oak, managed eucalyptus, fruit and nut trees, medronho, myrtle, herbs, cover crops, native grasses and carefully integrated livestock.
“The objective is not to create a complicated collection of species. It is to create useful relationships. The highest expression of agriculture may be a productive landscape that increasingly behaves like a healthy ecosystem.”