Mount of Oaks

Informações gerais

We are based here in the foothills of the beautiful Gardunha mountain range at about 350m above sea level. We are about 40km from the highest mountain range in Portugal - Serra da Estrela with a max height of 2,000m.

Our land is about 5 hectars of terraces. Before we came here the land had been abandoned for many years - so we were really lucky that there were no signs of chemical use and the soil was in good shape! We have different soil quality in different parts of the land - this is useful for our different needs. Good soil for the garden; more loamy soil in the terraces below which have lots of water; and a good mix of clay for building - we used it for plastering our strawbale house! A main priority for us is to build the soil quality by mulching the gardens and around trees - we have a donkey who poops a lot - we use his waste as a valuable commodity, and we are about to try the hugelkulture raised beds - we are super excited about this!

As for water, something that is often a question here in Portugal, we are really blessed with two drinking water springs and a huge pond/small lake at the top of the land - which collects rain and also has a spring.

As for trees...here we go with a sort of inventory of our trees.....the land has about 65 olive trees - we are really lucky as these are a very old variety which produces amazing olive oil - organic!!! We have lots of citrus fruits, including oranges; different qualities of tangerines and mandarines and lemon. We have figs; apricot; pears (old variety); nêspera; plums; mimosa (which in a controlled way we have been using as productiively as possible - for fire wood, building and fencing); as our name suggests we also have LOTS of oaks and cork oaks; ash; willow - salgueiro; we have a few pines and a few eucalyptus. We are intending to graft the wild grapes we have found growing all over the place. We planted in the last years some new cherry trees, medronho (strawberry tree), apple, almonds, chestnuts, hazelnuts, birch, feijoa, nashi pear, lime, walnut, elderflower, weeping willow, planes. Finally we also have several large cherry trees - again of an old variety, both sweet and sour. This region, near Fundao is known throughout Portugal as the premier area for growing cherries - there is an annual cherry festival here in May time.

As for buildings, when we arrived there was only an old small ruin - where the cows lived - this is currently the common kitchen space. The land has permission for more buildings, and this is a real bonus. We constructed a super duper compost toilet which also acts as a library. Other structures include a common shelter where workshops take place - this has a broom roof! We have a bathhouse with a solar shower and a fire bath. Our donkey has a house - which is also our recycling center! There is a guestroom made from wood, a tool shed and finally we have a strawbale pantry house. This building was constructed during a workshop lead by Lesley Martin. In all our building we seek to use local material - mostly what we can find on the land, and as we dont have much money we also have to pace ourselves and wait for the oportune time to start. We are lucky in that we have had help coming from other places when we most need it! We have a caravan for guests and a bus where we (barbara and emma) live.

As for projects, we have many and we try to take it day by day - setting our priorities by the season and the design we have for the place. Our gardens are based on designs incorporating companion planting, intercroping and stacking - heavy on the mulch throughout the year. We started an experimental forest garden in 2012 which we are observing and improving. In the near future we have plans to renovate the current common kitchen space and add a second floor for better guest accomodation - with a downstairs space to run workshops in the winter. Soon we will have chickens which will live in the mobile house so we can move them around to help prepare the soil before planting seeds.

Here at the Mount of Oaks we have successful held 5 PDC's and look forward to hosting more every year.

Please get in touch if you would like more information - about the project or about a PDC.