The project contains five gardens spread across the rural landscape surrounding the village of Senan, Spain. We call these parcels gardens because they are actively managed to improve the capacities of the site’s living system of soil, bacteria, insects, plants and animals. The increased performance, diversity and resilience produces unexpected forms of beauty which will define the gardens of the future.

Prior to the project, these were marginal areas that were not profitable to farm using contemporary methods, either due to the quality of the soil, the steepness of the slope, the small size of the parcels or problems with access. Covered with a forest dominated by Pinus halepensis, the plots retained signs of previous agricultural use, such as the hand-laid stone walls, which created terraces and allowed the land to be cultivated. It is possible to see the difference between the current situation and the previous extent of production in these images. The increase in the forested area from XXX to now is a result of abandonment.

Taken together the gardens occupy __ hectares. The large scale and the limited project budget mandates an extensive management approach. The gardens will be systematically grazed by horses following the Voison Rational Grazing method, which we expect to build the fertility and biological activity of the soil over time. In order to do this, each garden is divided into a series of parcels of approximately 1,000 m2, each of which will provide sufficient food to the horses for one day. The parcels are separated by fences which distinguish the gardens from adjacent land. 

Since they are dispersed rather than concentrated, each garden has a different history, microclimate, soil and plant community. These distinct characteristics are recorded and translated through fieldwork, which then informs the management strategy for each site. The fieldwork documents the existing condition, which contains the potential for future transformation. The management that will take place over the next 5 years is simply a process of revealing this potential. This record will also allow for a rigorous comparison between the modified and existing conditions.