Why we chose poplar, pomegranate, fig, and flowering beds for our regenerative food forest on São Miguel. Tiago walks through the design logic behind every species.
In Episode 5, Tiago walks us through the design logic behind the food forest we're planting at VIVA Quinta — and the thinking behind every species going into the ground. Successful agroforestry isn't about planting random trees. It's about building a living ecosystem where every plant has a purpose and contributes to the health, productivity, and resilience of the whole system. Tiago breaks down the planting pattern and explains why we chose the specific species we did.
The backbone of this section of the food forest is Populus deltoides — poplar. It's not a tree we'll harvest fruit from. It's the tree that makes everything else possible.
Poplar acts as the biomass engine of the system. It produces large quantities of organic matter that we chop and drop to build soil. It cycles nutrients up from deep layers of volcanic soil that fruit trees can't reach on their own. It improves soil structure, feeds beneficial microorganisms, casts the shade younger plantings need to establish, reduces erosion on slopes, and accelerates the regeneration of land that's been resting for decades. Without poplar doing the underground and overhead work, the rest of the food forest would take twice as long to thrive.
"Every species has to earn its place. Poplar earns its place by feeding everything else."
Once the soil-building species are doing their work, the productive trees go in. We chose pomegranates and figs because both thrive in the Azorean climate without coddling, both produce reliably, and both contribute to the ecosystem beyond their fruit. Pomegranate flowers feed pollinators. Fig trees host beneficial insects and birds. Their leaf drop adds to the mulch layer the system is built on.
These are trees you'll see on the property tour. They're also trees whose fruit will end up in our kitchen — in the cooking classes, in the Sunset Farm Experience dinners, in breakfasts on the patio. The connection between what's growing and what's served is short and direct.
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Between the trees, we're planting flowering beds. They aren't decorative. They're a habitat strategy. Pollinators and beneficial insects are the unpaid labor of a regenerative farm — they handle pollination, pest control, and the maintenance of biodiversity that synthetic systems would otherwise need chemicals to replace.
Design the habitat correctly and the workforce shows up on its own. That's the whole logic. Every species in the food forest, from the biomass trees to the fruit trees to the flowering beds, is part of a system designed to let nature do most of the work — so we don't have to.
VIVA Quinta is more than a farm. It's a living ecosystem where regenerative agriculture, hospitality, food, and community come together. The food forest we're designing now is the foundation for the experiences guests will have here for decades — the food on the table, the walks through the gardens, the cooking classes, the farm tours, the simple act of waking up on a property that's getting healthier each year.
Episodes like this one are the chance to show the design thinking underneath all of that, before the trees fill in and the system disappears into itself.
Watch Episode 5 above. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to follow the food forest as it grows.