Give us a hand in our lush garden on Santa Maria, Azores, Portugal

Details

• 

  Description

  We’re a young British/ Dutch family who have recently moved to Santa Maria Island, Azores. We live in a traditional home surrounded by a beautiful, 7500 sq m garden, filled with fruit trees and year round blooms. It’s incredibly calm, surrounded by green and close to some of Europe’s most beautiful beaches. We work in arts, culture and media, recently founding Meander Magazine, a magazine for regenerative living. Our work and toddler keep us busy, so we’d love a helping hand in the garden, which in the long run we hope to develop into a kitchen garden and food forest.

• 

  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects
• 

  Interests

  

  Vegetarian or vegan

  

  Sustainability

  

  Events & social

  

  Culture

  

  Art & design

  

  Music

  

  Books

  

  Languages

  

  Gardening

  

  Performing arts

  

  Nature

  

  Yoga / Wellness

  

  Water sports

  

  Cycling

  

  Hiking

  

  Beach
• 

  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  As a young family with a 2.5 year old, much of our life revolves around food and coffee! We have backgrounds in design, print media, and in community-facing arts programming which we're happy to share more about. We have a deep interest in regenerative practice and through our magazine Meander are building a global network on the topic, which we also love talking about.
  Throughout your stay you'll have your own place to cook and eat, but we'll make sure we share many meals and coffees to make the most of our time together.

• 

  Projects involving children

  This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.

• 

  Help

  We predominantly need a hand in the garden. Depending on your interests and experience this can be anything from general maintenance - pruning and helping to remove invasive plants - to helping with landscaping and helping to set up raised beds for a market garden.
  If it's of interest, we would also love help with light diy and carpentry, e.g. building outdoor furniture, improving parts of the guest accommodation.
  This is the first time we're taking care of such a big space, so we're very open to learning from and/ or together with our workaways, with the aim of in the long run developing a permaculture garden and food forest, and would like to replace many of the non native species with endemic ones. We're very open to any ideas visitors bring!

• 

  Languages spoken

  English: Fluent
  Dutch: Fluent
  Portuguese: Beginner

• 

  Accommodation

  You will have your own studio apartment, with a bathroom and a basic kitchen.
  The apartment has a double bed, so it's ideal for a single person or a couple. If travelling as friends, we can arrange for a second separate (single) floor mattress.
  We will provide ingredients requested so that Workaways can cook their own meals at a time that suits (our mealtimes with a small child are on the early side) but we also hope to share a few meals per week with the Workaways.
  There is a desk and office chair for anyone doing remote work, plus a yoga mat.

• 

  What else ...

  Weather in the Azores in spring is unpredictable, it can be sunny and warm, or cold, rainy and stormy. The surrounding nature is gorgeous whatever the weather, there are several beaches driving distance, and many great hikes in the vicinity, including straight from the house.
  We can drive you places to drop you off and pick you up, or you can make use of the car to explore the island.
  
  We still have desk jobs with meetings at fixed times, plus a daily school run, meaning we might not always be readily available. We therefore do also expect a degree of independence and taking initiative.

• 

  A little more information

  • 

    Internet access

  • 

    Limited internet access

  • 

    We have pets

  • 

    We are smokers

  • 

    Can host families

• 

  Can host digital nomads

  There is a desk with an additional screen in the studio apartment for digital nomads to use.

• 

  Can possibly accept pets

  This host has said they are willing to accept those travelling with a pet.

• 

  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

• 

  My animals / pets

Website Safety