The Project marches forward, as Salvatore returned this week to push us onward toward the Celestial City...aka phase I of a food forest.
We had the excellent fortune of entertaining two guests for an extended period in March. Matthew Greenwald, my cousin from Boulder and fellow Permaculture graduate, was here on Spring Break to enjoy Mexican culture, sun, beaches, beauty in general, and help us out a good deal! It was a highly productive week, as we purchased some trees, built a spiral herb garden, and mapped out and dug swales (for those who don't know, swales are on-contour ditches which hold and absorb water). We also were fortunate to have the company of Denny Storer, a retired political science professor from Hastings College, and a good friend of Sascha's. They certainly kept each other entertained and had some Mexican adventures.
Thursdays are special days here, because we get the help of the gardeners for about four hours. I always feel a tiny bit like this is cheating, as I feel the physical labor part is an important piece of what I should be learning, but they dug approximately 50 tree-sized holes in hard-pan, so I'm not going to complain too loud. Although I have to take a moment here to brag about my improving ground pick skills. Matthew, if you're reading this...sssssshh. I tend to be a bit more gentle on the gardeners than Salvatore, but it's his money, so that's understandable. Barring time spent in Spanish lessons, I believe I spoke more Spanish last Thursday than I have on any previous day, as a go-between from Salvatore to Antonio and Fermin. I am certainly not on professional translator level, but I felt pretty good about it. We have our food forest laid out, approximately half an acre in a bowl-shape, with five swales and the afore-mentioned holes for our brand new trees!
Insert related thought here>> I think Salvatore and I work well together because I am a focus-on-the-details, use what we have, keep it low budget kind of person, while Salvatore is the big picture, buy whatever we need and some what we don't, access the advice of experts kind of person. In the end, we keep each other on a straight path.
Back to the story>>Yesterday we drove over to the San Pancho vivero (nursery), the site of our class, and met with two men, Luis and Alan. Luis does bird-tours and also works at Emerald Coast, the investment agency which sponsored the now abandoned vivero. Alan is a biologist who helped design the botanical garden in Puerto Vallarta. We showed them the design which Salvatore and Dianne put together in Boulder with the help of Marco Lam, in which the fruit trees are planted in the center of a cluster of other trees, called nursing trees, which serve the purposes of mulch, canopy, and nitrogen fixing in the soil. They recommended trees, bushes, and groundcovers for us and were all around genial and generous (and Alan is guapo!). Quinn, the caretaker of the vivero, came to help us dig out trees, and we took home around 15, some of which we can take cuttings from. We also went to Alan's home, where he made us a Chaya drink, leaves from several of our new trees which have medicinal value. Alan has a lovely garden with many varieties of plants, where we took our first Noni fruit home, where it promptly ripened by turning to jelly and stinking up the apartment (apparently this means it's ready). I continue to learn heaps and this experience definitely reminded me that I am still in love with gardening!
We have about three more weeks of work to finish all our projects, including phase I of the food forest, finishing our cob benches, and making sure our giant compost bin is in good working order.
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