We keep our olive groves in long grass seeded with wild flowers, herbs, and grasses, which promotes biodiversity, enriches the soil, and protects the trees, which we maintain with no pesticides or chemical fertilizers. We cut the grass only occasionally, and use the cuttings to make the organic mulch that we use around the base of the trees and in our regenerative vegetable gardens.

We have various cycles of sprouting wildflowers at various times; in May, for instance, the grove is covered in bright red poppy flowers, but now in the early summer July heat it’s little purple chickory flowers and lots of white wild carrots, seen here beside the row of olive trees on the side of the house. We had to crawl around on the roof to cover six of the nine solar panels that are pumping out way too much hot water for us to practically use, and the temperature every day is above 40 degrees, but the flowers are happy.