Vila Calipo is a rural tourism project in Eastern Portugal. The project is focusing on art, music, culture, and sustainability, and aims to create artistic residencies, concerts, festivals, and art expositions in the future. The property consists of a hotel, with pool area and restaurant, will have a music studio, as well as a number of historic structures like a palace, chapel, and wells. Aside from the infrastructure the property possesses a large olive grove and areas that used to be cultivated gardens.

GrowBack began supporting this project in January 2022 and realized the installation of an Agroforestry system that will provide fruits and vegetables to the guests and restaurant in March 2022. Since then we have accompanied the Agroforestry system's development and helped to recruit a team that is responsible for the maintenance of the agroforestry system since February 2024.

After the successful installation of the agroforestry system GrowBack began with the planning of a diverse and edible landscaping concept for the Hotel, Parking, Restaurant, and Pool areas. The first phase of this project was realized in June 2024 and the second phase is due for realization in August/September 2024. The goals of this diverse landscaping project are:

Create a diverse and attractive Landscape for the guests but also for biodiversity
Strategically integrate fruit trees, fruiting shrubs, aromatic herbs, and medicinal plants so that guests can pick fruits and herbs in their surroundings
Focus on native plants with a high value for biodiversity, but that also require less maintenance and are drought resilient

This has been one of the biggest projects for GrowBack and we are very thankful for the trust and support the Vila Calipo team has offered us. We look forward to developing more areas of the landscaping and agroforestry plan within the coming years at this inspirational place.

Below there is a series of pictures which show the transformational process that has occurred on the properties landscape since we began to work there.

Vila Calipo

January 2023 (Wet season)

These pictures were taken during the first site evaluation that occurred before the installation of the first agroforestry system. The site consisted of an unpruned olive orchard with a spacing of 7 x 7 m which sheep were grazing.

March 2023 (Wet season)

In March 2023 we began the installation of the first agroforestry system at Vila Calipo. The agroforestry is roughly 4000m2 includes 6 varieties of peaches, 4 varieties of figs, 4 varieties of table grapes, pomegranates, 2 varieties of walnuts, 2 varieties apples, 3 varieties of pear, persimmon, thornless blackberries, raspberries, Logan berries, 600 artichoke plants, asparagus, and about 4500 support trees and shrubs.

Below one can see pictures of the soil preparation which was realized with a retro excavator with subsoiler attachment, and the finished beds with all plants already in the ground.

June 2023 (Dry season)

In June we returned for the first management of the young agorofrestry system. We were very impressed by the fast and healthy development of the fruit trees and vegetable plants.

August 2023 (Dry season)

Within only 5 months the entire landscape has changed..

September 2023 (Dry season)

These images show the continued development of the agroforestry system.

September 2023 (Dry season)

These images show the initial state of the landscaping areas. The pictures were taken as a part of the preliminary study for the landscaping plan.

July 2024 (Dry season)

After the implementation of the first of the landscaping project in June 2024 the site looked like this in July 2024. Additional images show the current stage of development of the now 16 month old Agroforestry system.