Finally, Serena and I have landed in the new house and have cleared enough mental space so I can get back to blogging. There is more than a ton of things to do, and I'm hampered by the lack of wifi--my only electronic connection to the outside world is via a somewhat dodgy 3G signal from my tethered phone. As with everything in Brazil, options are limited, expensive, and slow to locate and obtain. Thank you, thank you, for bearing with me!
The exciting thing is that now, I can finally start the real deal, planning my forever tropical potager. One of the most basic tenets of good garden design is to know what you are starting with. Although I might stick some cool crops into the ground (peas, spinach, and the like) into the ground before the spring hits, I'm not doing anything big before I do my homework about the site: space, light/shade, temperature, water, wind, critters, and my own needs, and other considerations.
The exciting thing is that now, I can finally start the real deal, planning my forever tropical potager. One of the most basic tenets of good garden design is to know what you are starting with. Although I might stick some cool crops into the ground (peas, spinach, and the like) into the ground before the spring hits, I'm not doing anything big before I do my homework about the site: space, light/shade, temperature, water, wind, critters, and my own needs, and other considerations.
Below is a picture of the house a few days after I moved in. It actually doesn't look all that different to the untrained eye, but believe you me, I have been working my tail off! I will blog later about the changes going on inside, but here's the functional center of my garden. The property around the house was clear-cut to facilitate construction and, in a particularly Brazilian fashion, to keep the dirt, insects, and other things outside the house. I hate the appearance of the gravel and used to wonder why people put it down around the house... now I know. It's cheap, keeps the weeds and dirt down, and is actually environmentally friendly in that it allows the passage of water through to the soil when it rains.
Here's a panorama shot I took this morning that best shows the range. Imagine the driveway being straight, though... The property is long and narrow along the axis of the driveway, 5 acres (2 hectares) total. Although it's flat where the house is, "in front" of you in the photo, it drops off quite a bit down to my access road and then to a creek that borders the property. I have three natural spring wellheads! The well water is my drinking water, and it's delicious. The property extends just a bit to the left (which was an orchard in the past and will probably be again, though the old fruit trees are gone) and all the way to the top of the ridge on the right!!! Woot! Most of the property (~90%) is protected and it's illegal to cut most of the trees without a permit.
The view down into the mini-valley, though we are partway up a mountain. The property below is owned by descendants of the original German settlers that came here over 100 years ago. The keep cows and I hear their mooing all the time. Although my house is new, there are vestiges of settlement all over my property.
Here is the charming little house built by my neighbor's settler forebears. The brother of the family, nicknamed "Tomate" (Tomato) for reasons neither I nor he knows, told me the house was built in 1921. These types of houses are architecturally protected and can be quite ornate in details.
And, the majority of my property is heavily treed. This is a shot upwards from the curve down to the lower part of the driveway.
The forest has bromeliads on practically every tree. This is an especially beautiful sight to see in light of Brazilian history. Because bromeliads trap rainwater, they were suspected of supporting breeding mosquitos and were nearly eradicated in the wild. I believe this happened after WWII, but I'm not sure. For the record, no, they do not support breeding mosquitoes and should be left alone.
The property is filled with Australian tree ferns,
Dicksonia antarctica
. Why they thrive here and are called '
antarctica
' is a very good question.
There are so many marvelous details to be seen in the wild areas of the property. Here is a fern piggybacking on a bromeliad leaf.
A wild passiflora (passionfruit) growing on the side of the road. I hope to get seeds from this guy!!!
A misty morning sunrise. Today, actually.
For more photos of my property, please check my Instagram feed. I try to post at least every day! I'd post more photos here, but the 3G is acting up.
Beijos,
COURTNEY HELENA
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