For forty years I lived inside machines. Then I decided to go and live inside a landscape instead.
Hello again, BlogChain
This is not my first time here. Some of you may remember me as 
Who I am now
I'm a former IT professional with four decades of experience behind me. At some point I chose a very different path: I became a farmer and a land regenerator, and I moved to the hills of Cagli, in the Marche region of Italy.
There I run Ca' Paradiso, a farm and agriturismo that I fell in love with at first sight.
Website: www.caparadiso.com
Why I do it
I believe the purpose of this incarnation of mine is simple: to leave this stunning place better than I found it. Better for the people who come after me, and for the soil, the plants and the animals that share it with us.
Regenerating land is slow work. It's the opposite of shipping code on a Friday afternoon, and I'm learning to love that.
How I work: three lenses on the same land
I don't follow a single doctrine. I borrow from three, and let the land decide what works.
| Approach | Core idea | What I'm doing at Ca' Paradiso |
|---|---|---|
| Permaculture | Observe first, design with the land | [water harvesting, food forest, hedgerows] |
| Natural farming (Fukuoka) | Do less, and do it well | [no-till areas, living mulch, seed balls] |
| Electroculture | Test, measure, report honestly | 3 test plots plus untreated controls |
1. Permaculture: designing with the land, not against it
Permaculture taught me to observe first and build later, like reading the codebase before touching it. On a hillside, the first question is always water: where it comes from, how fast it runs, and how to slow it down so it soaks in instead of carrying the soil away.
Projects on my list:
Water harvesting: [swales / keyline contours / small ponds, add what you're actually doing] to slow, spread and sink rainwater
Soil building: permanent mulching, compost and "chop and drop" pruning, so that nothing leaves the farm as waste
Food forest and plant guilds: [species to be defined, 1 Ha area], with trees, shrubs, ground cover and nitrogen fixers supporting each other
Hedgerows and habitat: corridors for pollinators, birds and beneficial insects
2. Natural farming, after Masanobu Fukuoka
Fukuoka's "do-nothing" farming is really the art of doing much less, and doing it well. His four principles are no tillage, no chemical fertilizer, no weeding in the conventional sense, and no pesticides. He worked with nature's own processes rather than trying to override them.
What I'm bringing into the fields:
No-till and permanent ground cover, with clover and other living mulches
Seed balls (nendo dango): seeds rolled in clay and scattered, letting each plant find its own place
Minimal intervention: watching before acting, and accepting that a "weed" is often a soil doctor in disguise
3. Electroculture: my engineer's experiment
This is the one where my old life meets my new one. Electroculture explores whether natural atmospheric and earth energies can influence plant growth, using passive tools such as copper or zinc antennas and coils.
I want to be honest: the scientific evidence is still thin and results are mixed. So I'm treating it as an experiment, not a belief. I'm setting up 3 test plots next to untreated control plots, same crop, same soil, same watering, and I'll log the results, including the boring or negative ones. If it works, we'll see it in the data. If it doesn't, you'll read that here too.
Slower evenings, same hills. This is what the "better than shipping code on Friday" line is about.
What you'll find here
You can follow me for:
Honest field notes on regenerating land, mistakes included
Trial logs from the electroculture experiments, with controls and results
Everyday life on a working farm in the Marche countryside
The view of a lifelong engineer who now debugs nature, which is far less documented than software
Proof of life
Handwritten note: "@CaParadiso, 20 September 2026"
A hello to the curators
A special hello to some of the curators who help newcomers find their feet on Hive: 
Where I'm going
Over the coming weeks I'll share the projects underway at Ca' Paradiso and what the land is teaching me, season by season.
If any of it resonates, follow along. I answer every comment, so tell me who you are and what you grow, build or dream about.
Thanks for reading, and it's good to be back. 💯🙏🥰
Matteo