Young beds at Finca Hierbawena facing the forest
Biological agriculture · organic · Panama

We started without soil. We are raising it.

The land arrived with topsoil and subsoil stripped. We make compost. Compost makes habitat. Habitat partitions niches. Food comes after.

The craft

Stripped land → compost → habitat → niches.

We are a soil-creation project on a tropical farm.

The farm plot with topsoil and subsoil removed: graded ground and forest at the edge
01 · StrippedPhoto of this plot. Topsoil and subsoil removed. There is no soil to “improve.” It has to be raised.
Compost piles beside the farm garden
02 · CompostPiles on this farm. City residue fermented here. That is how a horizon is invented.
Straw-mulched terraces on the farm
03 · HabitatMulched terraces. Shade, moisture, pores. A room for whoever will live in the soil.
Garden beds with living cover
04 · NichesGarden, canopy, root, pile, water. Each stratum a job. Food is the consequence.

F. H. King: they returned to the field what left the table; we threw it in the sea. Here residue becomes a microbial body again.

Energy

The sun comes in. Residue is not thrown away.

Drawn with photos from this farm, not an abstract circuit.

  1. Lettuce beds in the sun
    SunEnters garden leaf and canopy.
  2. Organic garden
    PlantSugar, shade, litter.
  3. Organic tanks arriving at the farm
    ResidueTanks, pulp, peels.
  4. Compost piles
    MicrobeThe pile is a habitat.
  5. Soil with roots and hyphae
    SoilAggregates, pores, rhizosphere.
  6. Pepper harvest
    AgainFood, bird, next leaf.

Odum: the ecosystem is the unit. A plot that only produces one crop is a poor system.

Illustration

Niche partitioning

One plot, many jobs.

Canopy, understory, surface, rhizosphere, piles, water and dead wood. No one does the same work at the same time in the same place.

Illustration of farm niches: canopy, garden, compost, water, dead wood and roots

Farm road

Where we were. Where we are. Where we are going.

Soil first. Now niches and vegetables. Then sales. Then the table and tourism. School last.

Scraped land on day one 1
Already done

Scraped land → compost → habitat

No topsoil. We invent a horizon with piles, mulch and pores.

Garden niches on the farm now 2
Now

Niches and domesticated vegetables

We partition habitats. We domesticate greens in living beds. Here we are.

Harvest toward production and sales 3
Next

Production and sales

Stable volume. Harvest leaving the farm. Direct link to whoever cooks.

Farm restaurant and tourism 4
Later

Restaurant and tourism

The table on this soil. Visits and food born here. Not bookable yet.

Field school on the farm 5
Further on

School

Hierbawena teaches the craft: soil, compost, niches, no poisons.

Done · soil originNow · niches and vegetablesAhead · sales → table → school

Manifesto

True intelligence is not creating waste, and raising the soil that will feed us.

Hierbawena teaches the craft without poisons, in plain language. Residuos Dinámicos brings the city’s organics. Neither is the house: the house is this soil.

Contact

Want to walk the farm, compost or learn?

WhatsApp +507 6030-1022. Utivé, Pacora, foothills of Cerro Azul, Panama.