Showing posts with label #garden design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #garden design. Show all posts

Friday, April 29, 2022

Our Trees are Stars of Film, Poetry, & Books: Arbor Day Tree Tips to Grow Inspiring Native Trees at Your Home

 Avatar tree, Forest landscape, Avatar movie

Hands down, my favorite tree as a main character in the Avatar film is The Tree of Souls, the giant willow tree that is the Mother tree, that is the sacred soul ~ the connection to spiritual and guiding forces. 

There were also those magical floating trees. Ahhhh… 

It was pure heaven for me. And seeing it in 3-D is about as magical as it gets for a tree and nature lover like me. 

Ents are trees in Lord of the Rings. Their leader is Treebeard of Fangorn forest. They are similar to the talking trees in folklore around the world. 

In researching my homage to trees for Arbor Day this year, I learned more about The White Tree of Gondor that stood as a symbol of Gondor in the Court of the Fountain in Minas Tirith. 

There are the apple trees in The Wizard of Oz, the Whomping Willow Tree in Harry Potter and the Tree of Life in The Lion King. 

Why do trees so often inspire not only filmmakers but poets, fine artists, musicians and well, all of us? 


Tuesday, January 16, 2018

I See Green & A Bit of Decay





There’s no getting around it. 
The past year has been overloaded with the dramatic diversions brought about by climate chaos that resulted in such extreme swings of toooo hot and toooo cold and tooo wet and -- well, tooo much. 
One would be forgiven for thinking this was a Goldilocks scenario straight out of a Grimm’s scary fairy tale.  
Grim indeed…

But while no place on earth is spared their own creeping misfortunes, I am most fortunate to once again be in a “plant paradise” - in Ecuador - at Hacienda Cusin - that for all the world seems to be a pocket of miracles -- where hummingbirds the size of sparrows flit among the Fuchsia and Lily of the Nile.
I think I can safely say that I have learned their marked chirp and can better anticipate their presence.  Doesn't help that they are so fast in terms of getting a video.  
I implore them, "Why do you have to zoom away like a fairy when you know how beautiful you are and we just want a moment. Or two. Or a photo...?)  
They don't stick around to explain.  
But I'm happy for the fleeting moments I can get.



Llamas are lawn mowers,  




And the Andean snow-capped mountains are terraced up with agricultural farms that look like a green-hued quilt. 

  

The Sierra, where I am - at Cusin - is noted for its dairy products - and roses. And volcanos.



The plants here are as excited to see me as I am to reacquaint with them. Check out this plant action from the welcoming committee - a big green wave! 


Did you ever see a cuter ladybug? It looks like a mini VW bug taxi – all yellow and black and so cute you just want to "hug the bug. "   


The blossoms here come in a riot of fiery, fierce bold colors – and soft, sweet hues.  
Can you name them?

  

Each bloom and its plant could be a postcard....  I cannot stop taking photos of them! 


   

        
Look at those freckles! 



Hacienda Cusin - and its gardens especially - is a magical place that fills me with wonder and awe.  

In terms of good garden design, I believe that every garden needs a bit of aesthetic decay -- that sense of mystery that if walls could talk... or the unshakeable sense that there is a story hidden in the garden - be it romance or a darker, brooding tale.  
The hardscapes and the plants conspire to whisper such a narration... 
In essence, that's why gardens captivate our imaginations and our hearts... Because every great garden tells a story. 

At Cusin, there is a sublime, intoxicating sense of artful decay: a blend of the heart-pounding, vibrant beauty and the true arc of decay; haunting, symbolic culture as nature and time transport us to the other-worldly...
There is no doubt that here I experience an intimate connection with the enduring drama of nature, the peace, the harmony, the food, and the people... 

Enjoy the Green. Especially those of you in winter's embrace.  Remember, gardens are glamorous in all seasons. In every climate. 


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Thursday, June 29, 2017

Greenacre Park is a Jewel of a Garden - Like Tinkerbell, She Needs You to Keep Clapping. Fight For Light




This is a park with a pedigree.

It surely was kismet when a Rockefeller helped create a pocket-sized, jewel-box of a public park in Gotham back in 1971.

Creating a park in that era was an investment - a sign of hope for the future of a city that some thought wasn’t worth it -- even the American president in 1975 offered a kind of Bronx cheer to the citizens of New York City.



Today, NYC can truly be thought of as the “shining city on the hill” that other American presidents from Kennedy to Reagan emphasized when referring to America.

But we really are that city! Everyone who moves to New York City comes with a dream. To be the best. To feel that urban frisson and work with all kinds of people. And contribute to our shared community.

Greenacre Park is a beacon. Yet, its own light is slowly being snuffed out… We can’t let that happen.

Greenacre Park

Recently, I was privileged to be part of a garden tour with our Metro Hort group - the “association of professional horticulturists in New York City and the the tri-state region.”

I so appreciate this working group of professionals - we meet at the Fifth Avenue/Central Park Armory in the winter for lectures and how-to’s and bonhomie - in order to increase our knowledge and skills, and in the warmer months, we tour outstanding gardens and parks, organized and led by the respected hort professional, Sabine Stetzenbach - who I had the honor to work with at The New York Botanical Garden

First up this season was the outstanding public garden: Greenacre Park.

I think I have it right that we were the first professionals to be invited and accorded a full tour by the Greenacre Foundation staff who manage, operate, and maintain this urban arcadia. Our Greenacre hosts were Joe Renaghan and Lois Cremmins.

I’m kind of embarrassed to say that I never visited this park previously. Don’t repeat my mistake. This is a must-see; trust me.

In an elevated, theatric sense of style, you enter this garden space by stepping up into it. You alight upon it. There is that sense of arrival -- leaving the street and - like crossing a threshold - entering another world. It’s indeed one of the more glamorous gardens I’ve seen - and I mean to compare it estate gardens, as well as parks and parts of botanic gardens.


In addition to the sheer delight taking in the trees, perennial plants, and that majestic 25-foot waterfall over granite that makes living in New York -- or any urban environment where one is delighted to discover so much dramatic nature and beauty - (just as in New York’s Central Park) - it’s important to note these urban oasis’ are a designed and built environment.

While I’m not entirely sure, I do think that many New Yorkers - and others - believe the parks - and for that matter - the botanical gardens - are preserved remnants or remains of what was once a more native landscape.

However, the truth is, all of our parks and gardens and public spaces have been professionally designed. With love.

Don’t Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth

Given all the jewel-like references to Greenacre Park, it seems quite appropriate to learn this gem of a park had a woman steering its creation and design. A rich woman too.

Abby Rockefeller Mauzė - granddaughter of the industrialist John D. Rockefeller Sr. gifted the park to the people of New York in October of 1971. With love. And she dedicated the park to her brother Laurence and his associate Allston Boyer, for their help in getting the park created.

She directed the cobbling together of three lots via the Greenacre Foundation that continues to manage the park today. Gail O. Caulkins, the president of the Greenacre Foundation is Mauzė’s granddaughter.

As part of our tour of this “vest-pocket” garden park, the Metro Hort members sort of clung to the hosts and speakers like so many hens and chicks - clinging to the mother plant - to absorb the privileged news and inside, first-hand information and lore. (And to hear over the roar of the waterfall.)

Don’t you just adore garden history? It’s all so precious with its links to money, heritage, locale, and politics and personalities.

The story unfolded… In the 1970’s, there were lots of empty lots in New York City.

Hard to believe it now when there is so much over-construction - (more on that later.)

With a desire to create a public garden, Abby Rockefeller Mauzė established the Greenacre Foundation to fund and maintain a very special space: roughly 60-feet wide by 120-feet deep.

Greenacre describes the space as “slightly smaller than a tennis court.” We’ll take the tennis “love.”

See, good things do come in small packages…

So it’s all the more dismaying to later learn that this gift to the people of New York is being besmirched in that harm will come to the jewel box after developers steal the light.

Garden Design
The look of the park, designed by Sasaki -- Sasaki, Dawson, DeMay Associates with Masao Kinoshita as lead designer and Hideo Sasaki and Tom Wirth - has remained true to the original design. It’s a classic, cultural landscape.

We learned, too, that Mr. Sasaki is still alive and visits the park. He made a surprise spring appearance and contributed to the spring pruning!

The park is comprised of three levels:

  • The rear wall at the lowest level is punctuated by the 25-foot waterfall
  • The central area, paved with russet brick and layered with tree canopy and seating
  • A raised terrace along the west wall with a trellis roof of weathered steel beams and transparent acrylic vaults. There are heating elements there, built into the trellis roof. 
There are 12-foot honey locust trees in the center of the park -- six on each side of the runnel brook that navigates the length of the park from the sidewalk to the waterfall.

These sturdy yet delicate trees provide the much-needed and enjoyed “dappled shade” that visitors embrace and the designer planned for.

We learned these trees are living in giant container pots under the hardscape!

It’s a very unique design, described Lois Cremmins, Executive Director, Greenacre Foundation. “There are large pots beneath us, each with its own irrigation system.”

More magic beneath our feet.

Accessorizing the interior design of the park are mid-century Knoll tables and chairs.

Park goers can arrange them to create their own conversation pods and reading nooks.

We were told that visitors also come to practice yoga, propose marriage, and all kinds of connections.

I asked what the funniest things were that happened in the park -- after all, it is New York City. “There was the time a woman tried to wash her hair in the waterfall pool; and the lady in the winter of ‘72 who dove in the water in her dress -- only to be outdone by the woman who stripped naked to dive in… Ah, the theater of a public park…



We were told that from a construction standpoint, the park is unique because it was built from the “inside out.”

There was a crane on 51st Street that dropped in the granite back wall for the waterfall first, with three pumps. We were told it’s an imperative to keep those pumps in tip-top working order because it would be very cost prohibitive to replace the pumps.

Next, the blocks went in. The stone is gorgeous and dramatic too; a kind of stone art on the walls.

Trickles of water collect from the base of the highly textured ashlar masonry of the east wall and feed into the runnel.

On the west side, the higher terrace, is covered by trellising and acrylic domes, to provide a protected overlook down into the garden.






It’s a lovely perch to view the lower level of the park. And it shows what good garden design can do in spite of the size.

The designers created a sense of movement within the distinct “garden rooms” and offer elevation and movement with the different levels.

It’s a very transporting experience - a delight for the senses.

There’s no doubt the crowning glory of the space is the Greenacre Park waterfall.

The roar of the falling water is a kind of “white noise,” designed to block out ambient urban noise.

The Foundation is testing LED lighting for the waterfall now to replace the previous ones corroded five years ago. The Fisher Marantz lighting designers will complete the work by November. All the evening lighting is managed with a timer.



Here I am with Greenacre Park manager, Joe Renaghan. When I asked him what he did with the Park and he told me he was the manager I looked skeptical, saying I’d never met a park manager who worked in a suit. Without skipping a beat he told me, “I work for the Rockefellers.” So there you go. Gotta love a gentleman urban farmer / gardener!

Plants
The hardscape design creates the framework for the garden-like park. The plants are the fashion statement creating the alluring style and romance.

There is Boston Ivy clinging to the walls.


There are ilex shrubs as part of the evergreen plant portfolio. There are other low-light shrubs, including azaleas, rhododendron, andromeda - Pieris Japonica , Japanese Maple, Star Magnolia, to name a few. “We see what plants do well, “ added Cremmins. I especially enjoyed the crape myrtle, the Japanese umbrella pine and mock orange.

Sabine and her team from Town & Gardens are tasked with selecting the annual plant palette in the bowl and upright containers. They change out the plants two times a season, refurbishing the soil, pinching, pruning and providing plant love.

The colors and the textures just pop!

While the T&G team does the heavy hort work, Charlie Weston is the resident park maintenance guru for the park and has been there since the park opened! Talk about committed passion for a garden…



.








Can You See Me Now?

Greenacre has organized a “Fight for Light” campaign backed by the Municipal Art Society; New Yorkers for Parks; Gale A. Brewer, the Manhattan borough president; and City Councilman Daniel R. Garodnick, whose district includes the park.

Why? Because the simple reason is there is too much high-rise building approved that will produce so much shadow that the park will lose light.

Light for people; light for plants; light for life.

I read that as part of the Greenacre Park’s dedication by the City Parks Commissioner, August Heckscher said, the Greenacre “... places no burden on the city, which makes no demands, which asks of us only that we cherish it.”

Why don’t we cherish it now? I can only speculate. Greed comes to mind…

Here is my kinda garden rant:

Look, horticulturists and garden lovers understand that change is a matter of course.

Nature and time change things. We get that. And so just like that, neighborhoods change too.

But there needs to be an element to managing a sustainable change. Let’s not wholesale sell our neighborhoods away to building and real estate and the promise of profits for a few.

Let’s be realistic.  Don’t you think there should be shared “sacrifice” so to speak?  We can’t allow the few to be “Takers.”
And make no mistake, if the continued construction of these huge buildings continues, there is a quality of life that will be taken -- taken away forever from the people who live and work in the neighborhoods.

There is some cosmic comedy at play that is traces the thoughtless “Takers” in real estate development and city government and the “dark side” because of their ability to permanently create dark spaces in our life.

Don’t let this happen.

To continue to use the metaphorical - I hope that we can effectively combat the forces of darkness to preserve the light -- and the beauty of our gardens and parks.

Don’t get me wrong - I adore “Shadow Art.” So much so that I have a Pinterest board devoted to the interplay of light and shadow. But that s a natural, ephemeral, moment of beauty.

What we’re being subjected to in the case of Greenacre Park is the permanent “shading” of the space - as in “pulling the shade” and “lights out.”

Let there be Light

There isn’t a living soul who isn’t charmed by the romance and beauty of this garden park. Tourists, locals - residents and office workers.

So why smite those who only asked us to “cherish the space.” Why indeed?  Again, all signs point to selfish greed.
Building bigger and higher. For what? Half the time people don’t permanently live in these structures.

Paley Park has lost light as you can see in the photos below. I adore Paley Park - I ate breakfast and lunch there for so many years… It was a gift everyday to find a spot and soak in the ambience of water, oxygen, people and light.
I deplore the deliberate, calculated destruction of its environment just as I do that of Greenacre Park.





Think of this destruction of our parks as similar to that of the Amazon rainforest or the wholesale change in habitat in Africa or our seas.

Environmental destruction is a kind of creep. It catches us all unawares.
Next thing you know there is the man-made horrors of the Dust Bowl or the famine in Africa due to clearing of the trees…

We need to get mad - get angry enough to change this creep from occurring.

Nothing gets between a New Yorker and our parks. Remember when Bette Midler organized protests against the Giuliani administration to prevent them taking away community gardens? The running joke was that Rudy could bust the mafia but he couldn’t break the gardeners’ will. He bowed to the green enthusiasts. Bette created the New York Restoration Project that continues to honor art and beauty in our city.

If these gigantic buildings are allowed to continue - it has truly giant ramifications - not just for Greenacre Park but for other parks, for community gardens, for our quality of life.

Rezoning should be an issue that we all have a voice in. We need the power to control the element of light in our lives.

What to do?
Care enough to make a difference for Greenacre - and other parks.

  • Like and follow Greenacre on social media - @greenacreparkny
  • Join their mailing list to receive alerts. 
  • Text GREENACRE to 22828 to get started.
  • Go to www.FightForLight.nyc and send emails to Mayor Bill de Blasio urging him and his administration to preserve the sunlight
  • Commend Borough President Gale Brewer and Councilman Daniel Garodnick for their support of the Fight for Light
You can make a difference.

Think of this like Tinkerbell in Peter Pan. If we stop clapping - or caring -- the light. Goes. Out.

I tell my own garden clients and often say at speaking engagements I’m privileged to talk at - that healthy plants need three things: water, sun, and love.

Can you show the love?

The Greenacre garden / park is open from the first week week in April to early winter.
You can get to the Park via public transportation: take the 4,6 and get off at the 51st Street station or the E, M to the 53rd Street station.

Monday, January 18, 2016

Garden Design in Ecuador: How Fragrance & Edible Gardens Add to Garden Magic at Hacienda Cusin

Hacienda Cusin Chef Romano & Jefferson in the new Edible Garden bed

As many of you know, I’ve been completely smitten with Ecuador, and Hacienda Cusín especially tugs at my heartstrings ever since I first embraced this fairy-tale kingdom last year working with a group of professional gardeners, or I should say, jardineros, whose link is the New York Botanical Garden Landscape Design Alumni Group.  I wrote more than a few posts last year chronicling our work on the ornamental gardens: Creating Garden Border Beds - in Ecuador - at Hacienda … If Walls Could Talk: Garden Design in Ecuador's Hacienda …


So given the opportunity to return, I was very keen to dream a bit in order to contribute our talents to add to the magic and mystery and charm of Cusin.

First, I needed to assemble my team as Cusin preferred two smaller groups this year rather than one bigger group. In addition to Linda Tejpaul, Magnolia Design, who was part of the Cusin team last year - the invites were a slam-dunk/no-brainer for me. I immediately asked the ever-talented, dynamic horticulturist, landscape architect, NY Parks Horticulture Manager at Randall's Island, and founder Live Rice - EunYoung Sebazco --who is also the first person to grow rice in New York City -- along with Sarah Owens, who I worked with at Brooklyn Botanic Garden where she is the former curator of the Cranford Rose Garden, and has just launched her super-successful Sourdough: Recipes for Rustic Fermented Breads, Sweets Cookbook, inspired by the botanicals.
As luck would have it, Sarah was going to be in Central and South America beginning in December, so she could meet us there. Sarah and EunYoung had also worked with me for years as part of the Duchess Designs fine gardening team. So we all knew and admired one another’s horticulture and passion for the garden -- both ornamental and edible. All replied an enthusiastic “yes!”

Garden Designs

Fragrance Garden

It was then time to come up with a plan for this year’s Cusin garden design. Reflecting on last year’s experience and recalling the picture perfect landscaped gardens that bejewel the colonial elegance that is Cusin, I thought there really isn’t much to improve or change or modify… We of course do a ton of garden “editing” and fine gardening that involves pruning, weeding, creating new compositions - especially as the plants grow so fast here. But I was looking to contribute in another way too. One of the elements I thought was missing was the sensual element of fragrance.

The gardens here are so sensory: igniting one’s sight, touch, and hearing -- given the birds that orchestrate a sweet serenade during the day and the tree frogs offer a kind of syncopated cantata at night. But fragrance - while here and there - could be amplified. Thus the concept of a Fragrance Garden came to be. I asked the team to research fragrant plants that are native to Ecuador and/or that would do well here. Bonanza! I also did up a quick garden design rendering (not to scale) to share with Nik, Cusin’s owner to better demonstrate our design concepts.

The location of the Fragrance Garden is next to the Biblioteca (where I’m writing from now), adjacent to the Edible Garden - and opposite a suite of rooms/cottages where I stayed last year for a week. The fountain is in the center of a four-quadrant axis with the garden beds lining those paths. I thought we could make this more of a destination garden rather than a pass-through visual -- with the fragrant plants enticing both guests and pollinators.

Edible Garden

There’s no denying that I believe edible gardens both rival pure ornamental gardens for their beauty but also offer the best tasting food. A double delight. Again, last year I discovered this astonishing fruit and vegetable garden, visiting it many times during my work holiday here - even getting a tour from the head gardener: Luis. I took a kind of inventory in order to research and learn more about the plants. That list became useful this year.

See, I thought we might augment the edible garden, adding more local or native plants that, in turn, could better inform Cusin’s menu and recipes. I was thinking big here, I know. But given that my book: The Hamptons and Long Island Homegrown Cookbook-- was prompted as a way to explore how locally-grown ingredients inspire chefs, along with my food and drink writings for Garden Glamour and the Examiner - you can’t blame me for thinking that in some small way, we might kickstart an effort to embrace more of a cultural cuisine - making Cusin a culinary destination - to celebrate the flavors and bounty of Cusin -- along with its other charms. Besides, I’d reported on and/or have food friends who have contributed to their own country’s culinary culture ascendence, including Brooklyn (I know, but Brooklyn often does think of itself as a separate country), Denmark, Spain, and Peru. If they can do it, I figured why not us and Ecuador.

The team - that by that time the reception staff at Cusin had nicknamed, El Grupo Duchess, because of my Duchess Designs -- enthusiastically jumped in to research local Ecuadorian recipes and the plant ingredients found in their recipes. This was exciting!
Duchess Designs: Angel - Cusin's driver picked up our group at the airport in Quito
















I knew right away I wanted to include the market treat I’d had last time: figs in honey with a kind of mozzarella cheese on homemade bread… mmmm.

(By the way, the local treat is guinea pig -- but I’ll have none of that, thank you! But a man on our trip to see the raptors and Condors ordered up one and Cusin accommodated. What an Instagram moment. Culinary? Not so much…)
Guinea Pig entree!

However, there are so many delicious recipes that use the bounty of this rich land, including potatoes, fruits, edible flowers, and sugar cane (panella), along with rice and dairy. Otavalo, where Cusin is located is a dairy - and rose-growing area - so the milk and yogurt are especially good.

Still in New York, the team produced a list of plants for the Fragrance Garden and the Edible Garden, along with herbs and companion plants. And recipes to illustrate how the plants can be used in the menus.

With these and the two garden design renderings, we were “ready” to meet with Nik the owner.

Fragrance Garden - it's actually on the axis - but not bad considering I did  it from memory! 

Edible Garden












Long story short here - he approved! Nik gave us the confidence and a plan on how to make it all work. Happy Day! Oh - and we planned to do fine gardening and add to the beds around 25 - a casita/cottage that is at the far end of the Edible Garden. I did my morning yoga on top of this room last year. What an inspired view. Well, really, the vistas from most any spot are heart-clenching, breathtaking, and tranquil at the same time.

Working in the Garden

Let me add that we are one of two teams of gardeners who will work here this “winter.” The Mel team that comes after us is the team Linda and I worked with last year. So once Nik approved the project plan, I shared with them.

Travel arrangements were made: Linda, EunYoung and me flew out from JFK direct to Quito via TAME airlines. Nice flight. We met Sarah at the attractive new airport where Angel, from Cusin, met us. It’s a twisty, turny, not-so-long drive to Cusin. Beautiful scenery that astonishes at every point: volcanoes, nature, and the clouds…

We hit the ground running on Friday morning. We met with Cusin’s brilliant manager, Cesar.
Cesar, Cusin's incredible manager
I had a set of plans and plant lists to review with him. Nik had already briefed him, so we set about determining how to implement the project plans. Cesar was very supportive for everything and challenged us to create the homegrown dinner menu for Thursday night guests, using the ingredients from the garden and the market. It couldn’t get better! He also asked that we look to include herbs and medicinal plants for a kind of physic garden element. We also planned our nursery shopping to get some of the plants to produce our proposed designs.

We were honored to have the project accepted and looked forward to making them proud. Cesar walked the gardens where we would be working our designs, pointing out the area where we could create the new edible garden bed, along with confirming the gardens that were part of our design proposal.

Next it was work in the gardens. Finally, getting into the rich Ecuadorian soil. As I mentioned, plants grow really fast here. In addition, pruning is a horticultural art - especially so here because every garden is a showcase - guests are always exploring the gardens - so no luxury of hard pruning because there can’t be any “holes” or cutting back hard. No problem for EunYoung - she took a leggy “wall” of fuschia and had it looking healthy and magazine-worthy in no time.
"before" pruning of fuchsia 









"After" artful pruning - now guests can see out to the Edible Garden & wall 



EunYoung divided the liriope too.
Meanwhile, I weeded and transplanted and divided the strawberries there in the pathway bed.
"Before" 25 Garden Bed path




Sarah & Linda pruning 



EunYoung & Sarah transplanting Alstroemeria











Austrian guests at Cusin: children love gardening!  This lad picked up the trowel & was an El Grupo Duchess team member before I could say, "Guten Tag!"



EunYoung dividing & planting strawberries




Puppies in the Jardin! 




Puppies were cute until they started romping on the new plantings!!



We got some surprise "help" from two adorable puppies .  I name one, "Toffee" & Sarah named the other one, "Fudge!"














"After" 25 Garden Bed - Alstroemeria transplanted tall - & new color-coordinated low alstroemeria added depth to design

I love that it looks like the plants are reaching out to one another in a kind of "bloom embrace!" 




























Linda and Sarah were busy working on the entrance area to the casita - that was separated by a lovely wall from us/the side beds.
Front entrance area of Room 25 










Front entrance to 25 after fine gardening 






I also saw that the side roof prevented any plants from growing there but we needed a bit of beauty to cover what was an otherwise blank spot. I spied one container with impatiens - they grow like trees here -- and pulled that over. My design eye thought it needed another pot positioned at an angle or caty-corner so that it would better camouflage yet still get needed rain to the second pot. We got one and a palm on nursery shopping expedition. You can see the “before” and “after.”
"Before" 







"After" with pots & plants - making a lovely composition







We also cleaned up this architectural jewel - jokingly referred to as the"dry hot tub" that  was once used to cleanse the cows.  We're thinking of a folly for this beauty...

I think it was after lunch that we moved on to the Edible Garden. Cesar had already determined the space so it was left to create a design within that area. We worked out the egress from both sides and around a center tree. We managed to create two parterre-like beds and the other space was sculpted and yet allowed for more of an open bed for edibles and herbs.
"Before" edible garden bed 
The path from one main artery to another took a bit of a winding path - to allow guests to better pause and enjoy the edible plants looks and fragrance - and to allow the chefs easy access to their recipe ingredients.
"Before" edible garden bed


Sarah starting in on the new bed


Sarah, Cusin jardinero Vincente, & me
Sarah, Vincente - he lent some of their big tools - we could only bring hand tools in luggage - & Linda 


First stage: outlining/digging beds & paths







And then Linda reminded us that Japanese gardens used winding paths to thwart the evil spirits. But only good spirits in Cusin garden!

Sneak Peek to "After" with Edible Garden micrograms & pepper plants















Planted new edibles 




The next day we shopped the local nurseries for fragrance and edibles.
EunYoung, Linda, & Sarah inspecting citrus & stone fruits at the nursery

So many pretty pots to choose from


El Grupo Duchess - successful nursery buying trip


Eye Candy nursery plants in Ecuador
Not too much of edible plants were available - so being the plucky horticulturists that we are -- we determined we could get the local/natives at the market in Otavalo and grow them!


After all, EunYoung brought microgreen seeds that we started on Friday and they were sending up shoots by Tuesday.





EunYoung explaining the microgreen's propagation to Luis & Jorge - some of Cusin's top garden talent













Cusin's rich compost helped get the seedling up & growing in a week


After purchasing some chocolate mint plants (just two! -- not to take over) and some medicinal plants, we walked to where a family was selling red beans we recognized from our research, oka, and lima beans. The lima beans are BIG here. We learned so much from the family, especially given Linda’s Spanish language skills. The women were busy shelling peas while the father taught us how to prepare the seeds and oka for planting. It was a fantastic learning experience for all of us.









a kind of lima bean - to be planted after drying and yellow part turns black


Our market "teacher" shows us Oka - a kind of sunchoke.  I love this taste!


So, we secured a few Oka to plant - with direction from our market teacher




















Food market in Otavalo


More market images:



















Next post: Preparing the beds and planting.

*And if you want the plant lists we prepared, please just write me.