Do you want to see an in-depth video on each of the trees we planted in the food forest? Let me know in the comments below! Here's the swale article I mention in the video: www.rootsreconnected.com/articles/swales-101

This was the video I've been waiting for. Its awesome to see the difference from when you first dug the swales and how well they are doing... It would be cool to see a tour of the swales during a big rain and see how they well they work.

Very envious of this garden. What a nice thing ! And just 2 years.

Hi Dutch Farmer. I salute you for your efforts and enthusiasm. As a Portuguese ex-farmer in one of the driest and hottest regions of Portugal, I know exactly how incredibly difficult your task is and will be in the future. You seem pretty resilient and you will need a lot of resilience to succeed in your endevours. I will not patronise you or give you lessons, you seem to know your stuff, but allow me to offer you some positive inputs from my experience (these are no rules, just reports from my experience): 1) Use the Eucalyptus as windbreaks instead of your pioneer tree. Find the prevailing wind, specially in summer and plant rows of Eucalyptus to shelter your property or crops as much as possible. The dry wind is the most dangerous aspect. As pioneers they will use all the water available for your crops and you will have to irrigate a lot more. There are also some concerns about allelopathic effects on other plants. 2) Plant your trees a bit bigger. They are too small to compete and to be able to seach for water efficiently in the lower layers of soil. If you plant so small you will have to irrigate without stoping all summer long. 3) Clear the green vegetation around your new plants, dig a shallow pit with the tree in the middle and mulch heavily with large chunks of woodchips. Avoid using fine compost as mulch, it gets hydrophobic as it dries and you need all the water you can get. At those high temperatures, all the carbon in the soil tends to be mineralised fast by the microorganisms and I believe this is the limiting factor for soil improvement. Feed the soil with as much carbon as you can get and consider using molasses in your irrigation water to improve carbon content in the soil. Good luck!

As a farmer like you, I am happy for your persistence in restoring the land by collaborating with nature.

Your effort to support your local environment is so beautiful. The food forest already looks fantastic and healthy! May your property continue to prosper!

I love the boulders right next to your property. It makes me want to climb them

Love to see y'all thriving, best wishes!

yes please!!! I would like to hear about all of the plants!!!

I want to thank you for this video. I am not a person who regularly comments but now I have the need to. Seeing how working smarter and not harder can impact the environment we are sharing with the rest of the flora and fauna really did inspire me. You inspired me to change my garden to implement more native plants and plants that are not native, but due to climate change, are drought hardy which is now a must have. You are one of the persons that really makes a difference, in nature , but also you can change a way of thinking for a simple viewer that stumbles on your video. Videos like this really are a teaching treasure, and the way you explain every step in your reasoning of doing things really resonates with a lot of people.

I live in Austin and I am totally fascinated what you are doing. Because of this video, I looked up Mark Shepard and am going to order his book from the library.

These videos are great. Especially for us beginners. Keep them coming. May God continue to bless you and your family.

It feels like just weeks ago you were showing the eucalypts and other support plants going in, and now to see the HUGE trunks and see the next stage of succession starting to grow next to them is SO exciting! Absolutely love seeing this beautiful project moving into it's ne t stage already! Yall are doing fabulous work on this land!

Such a difference 2 yrs makes.

My parents both immigrated to Canada from Holland when they were young. I could listen to you your accent all day 😅. Beautiful eco system you have developed. A joy to watch it flourish

You and your wife are giving your land a Beautiful Love Offering. I am very excited for your Family 💜🦋

Yes, yes, yes! Your journey is so amazing. Thanks for sharing the process!

Good job. We have the same goal of letting nature express its potential, luckily you have two years head start, which provides me with an excellent source of inspiration

Best ever definition of 'gardening'. It sits well with the definition of "weed" .... "Dig everything up and whatever grows back is a weed". Het boek van Sepp Holzer is twee dagen geleden aangekomen.... Hartelijk dank voor de aanbeveling.❤

Fantástico trabalho, obrigada por escolherem Portugal, obrigado por estarem a restaurar a terra, obrigada por estarem a cuidar do planeta no nosso querido país 🇵🇹 que Deus vos abençoe e proteja sempre 🙏✨

The food forest is already "manifique". We lived in Botswana for many years and paw-paws grew wild in our garden. Our variety was the tastiest fruit you can imagine. The food forest with it's bio diversity is fantastic. "Vous assurez un avenir merveilleux à votre famille". Wishing you guys all the luck in the world....❤

You seem to be more successful than a few other homesteaders

Your property landscape is beautiful with different elements, shapes, and levels. You have done great transformation to the land, it looks happier and will surely give back happiness to you, family, and community.

I Remember reading an account of an early settler to North America. As they moved into the land to select a good place to settle, they found forests of various kinds of nuts that had obviously been cared for and cultivated by the indigenous peoples before them. When I thought of how long it would take to grow and care for these kinds of mature food forests, it saddened me to think of the expansion of the Europeans on the land, their not knowing the value of the forests and their clear cutting for other kinds of agriculture. I am so buoyed by the optimism and long term thinking of your videos. Thank you for creating these fascinating and informative pieces. More, please.

Gosh, what labour and brains can accomplish in just two years. Amazing as well as educative.

Thank you so much for these videos. So exciting to see the speed of the transformation from a barren land to lush abundant landscape. Do keep the updates coming!

Man, can't imagine the amount of satisfaction one can feel when they see the seed they planted slowly grow into a giant tree ❤❤❤

Yes please dive deeper! I don't mind a 2 hour long video, I would love it!

Planting pawpaw trees in Portugal blows my mind. They're native to my area, yet rather hard to locate out in the forests. I have tasted the fruits, though, and they're exquisite.

Wat een prachtig landschap zo en heel inspirerend om te zien al die variaties in fruit bomen. Het landschap is steeds meer in zijn element. Echt prachtig wat jullie gedaan hebben. Hard werken maar heel slim aangepakt. Ga zo door, love it!

Absolutely fascinating! You are miles beyond the normal homesteader! I love all your videos!

I really like the amount of information you put out. Good timing of how much info u put out. Awesome gardening Project

Thank you… don’t let it be too long between videos… Love it… amazing

that cockerel cry at the end was just perfectly timed. It looks AMAZING

It's really fun to see all of your work and the progress. So many of these youtube channels just show the destruction and start, but your planning and continuous work show what this can really be. Love seeing it! I also love your sentiment of providing food for more than just your family with the forest for the wildlife.

It's a huge difference in s short time, and great to see the perspective of it all. I think it can be disheartening for some to think it's not happening fast enough when you're in the thick of it, but regeneration takes time. This shows that actually nature is working with you with what she has.

What a huge transformation!!!! From almost desert to a beautiful young forest!! You Dutch farmer and your family have quite planned very well of your plans for the transformation and executed even better than your plans!!!!👏👏👏 Very well done!!! Can't wait to see your next episode!!

As much as I love you showing us what you accomplished, I'd also like to see your day-to-day life and how you go about living in the moment. So, smaller scale.

Well done! I love how wild your plantings are in sum.

Your vision, hard work, and your growing knowledge because of your efforts to transform this land are truly inspiring. Recognizing that you are not just an owner of the land, but more importantly, you are a steward of it is very wise. We should all follow your example by being stewards of our planet, our fellow humans, and all of the animal and plant life on earth. Whether we live in a cramped city apartment or in a wide open land, we are all part of this garden of Eden and we are all capable of helping it thrive in big or small measures. Our reward is living in our garden of Eden and being able to share in its bounty. I keep watching your videos just to remind myself of this.

lf memory serves me right, you had a topographical study of your land before you embarked on any development. That topo study made you conscious of the natural waterflow of your land, thus helping enormously in your decisions.

Amazing work ! The results are already looking formidable

We grew up with about 10, 100+ year old mulberry bushes along the driveway (these were at least 6-8 feet tall). Every year we would pick them all the berries and eat as many as we could then use the rest to make mulberry syrup. Which is still my absolute favorite syrup, even better than maple syrup. If you ever get any extras, I highly recommend you try it.

Love to hear you talk for hours and hours about the system. Super fascinating and I feel like people are learning a lot.

Your hard work and enthusiasm inspire me to do more with my own garden. I love following the development of your little pardise.

You are an amazing couple!!! I could watch a video of you every day ☺ and never get tired. There is so much knowledge and hardwork AND progress in your work, it is surreal. What an awesome experience and example for your kids.

I could listen to you for hours! Its just amazing what you have done!

This is an amazing project! I have just now discovered your site. I too have been growing pawpaw trees; looking forward to see how this turns out. I look forward to following the progress of this wonderful venture. Amazing to see what you have done with a treeless barren landscape in just. Two years.

So beautiful from senegal

Love your passion for your chosen path, your vision, and your stewardship of the Earth. Obrigada!

*I'd love to see more about your food forest. Loved that there was next to no bare soil anywhere, the abundance of flowers and grasses plus all the food. Several other youtubers in Portugal constantly talk about the fire risk and laws concerning grasses and other things that dry out and become a fire risk, is that something you could maybe talk about a little bit?

it's awesome, just don't stop planting, and you'll see the macro ecosystem within your property in the next couple of years.

Nature is generous, when we treat it correctly...

I just had to sell my 10 acres because of some health stuff. To see what you've done in 2 years gives me hope to try again! I'd like to see a full tour.

Thanks & Respect for your vision of what nature is about, it sound's like a deep breath of nice & fresh air .....respect.

Thank you for this video. So many lovely comments here!

Thanks for sharing and explaining your planting system. What an amazing project!

go ahead we are with you

Beautiful work!

Great to see how well things are going and what a progress you two made. Thanks for so much enthusiasm and inspiration.❤

I could listen to you for hours and hours talking about the plants and your food forest. :)

Just wanna give you a heads up about the pawpaw; the fruits contain neurotoxins, so its a risk you will have to take into account before you plant more or even before you eat one. Idk, you might even know it already, just wanted to make sure. You are truly creating your own eden, dont even have to be a christian to agree, its beautiful, keep it up!

you have the most beautiful land... I love to see what you are growing and I also love the very big beautful rocky landscape around you.

I saw your place when you started out, so wow, its coming on so well

Amazing job. You guys are doing great. Can’t wait to see the garden all grown up in a couple of years.

Wondwerful progress. So blessed. Thank you. Delightful!!!

You and your family are achieving something wonderful. It is a pleasure to watch.

excellent job!!... Your home will be even more amazing!!!

This is amazing❤ giving back to nature

Amazing achievement. Thanks for showing.

I love seeing all your progress! Congratulations!!!

amazing video, it's so cool to see how much the land has evolved

Beautiful and I so appreciate all of your videos. I wasn't surprised to hear you mention Mr Shepard too. Love all!

Goed gedaan, jochie!!!! Ben trots op jullie.

amazing work was donee

Commercial and best practices for pawpaw in N. America is to have shade for 2 years then full sun. Mature plants bear best in full sun. I used a similar approach. Planted seedlings under sumac. I planned to remove the sumac after a few years. I did and now the trees are doing very well in full sun. In case you didn't know, pawpaw uses different pollinators than other flowering plants, so you may want to create a microhabitat. I put the pawpaw near each other and near slow moving water. Better habit for pawpaw pollinators-flies etc.

You have done an amazing job.

Love the view over the valley!

Yes, please go into depth about the various plants/trees! Love what you do and how you do it! Peace from Northern California.

Amazing well done

Love your videos thank you

spring in Portugal is nice and look so much advanced than here i am in Ile de France. But i'm happy anyway my garden is blossoming and the vegetation growing nice since mid march, despite a lot of rain. Trees are amazing, for exemple i have planted my cherry tree taken from a random seed growing from my compost 3 years ago, and i never seen a tree growing so fast, i has grow 4 meters in 3 years and start flowering nicely this year, the trunk already 8 cm in diameter at his base. Around i did a no dig culture with a lot of horse manure each winter as cover.

I am especially interested in how the soil will be built up higher and higher. It will be awesome to see the entire landscape rise over the years and store more carbon.

Yes please! Would love a deeper dive! 🥰

Ja, leuk om meer te zien van wat er groeit. Kom maar op met jullie verhalen.

1:34 plant a circle of garlic all around each fruit tree, plus an outer circle of thyme. Plant companions help a lot. The garlic and thyme discourage fungus and bugs. Get the book by Louise Riotte, called, Carrots Love Tomatoes. Are you in Spain or Portugal? It looks exactly like where my grandparents are from. So beautiful. Best of luck on your projects 🌱👍

Amazing work well done

Fabulous progress in such a short time!

It's filling in one tree at the time! It looks beautiful! Blessings!

I really love those general Update videos.

My wife and I would love a video deep diving into the various plants you've chosen and the successions you have in mind.

If you're struggling with slugs you need hedgehogs or ducks...

Thank you for this video!

Thanks for sharing 👍

Que increíble video! Me encantaría que nos compartieras los avances de todo lo que han creado en estos dos años, no solo los arbilitos sino un vistazo en general pues el cambio es asombroso!! Felicidades 💚

Personally I love to hear you talking about your land and all that you have planted and what is coming up on its own. Many of the different things you talk about are new to me coming from Ohio years ago and now living in Normandy . I somewhat regret that I didn't choose a place further south as you have because this is definitely not the sunniest of regions but I must say my garden is quite the paradise and I love it in each season other maybe than winter. I will be looking forward to your next vlog.

Thanks for the update. I love to see the evolution, you are on the right track ! I am for sure interested to see more in-depth video's, please!

Beautiful to see the fruits of your labor.

Great video! Love from Belgium😘

Hard work ... but the rewards must probably be so awesome! Love these vlogs Dearest Dutch Family Farmers 🌿🐝🍄