8 Gardens, Mexico and Cuba
8 Gardens, Mexico and Cuba
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00:00I believe that a really good way to understand a culture is through its gardens.
00:08This is an extraordinary journey to visit 80 inspiring gardens from all over the world.
00:13Some are very well known, like the Taj Mahal or the Alhambra, and I'm also challenging
00:19my idea of what a garden actually is.
00:22So I'm visiting gardens that float on the Amazon, a strange fantasy in the jungle, as
00:27well as the private homes of great designers, and the desert flowering in a garden.
00:33And wherever I go, I shall be meeting people that share my own passion for gardens and
00:38my epic quest to see the world through 80 of its most fascinating and beautiful gardens.
00:57This week, I'll be visiting two countries.
01:06One is Cuba, a Caribbean island where, in the middle of the crumbling colonial grandeur
01:12of its urban landscape, a green revolution is taking place.
01:20The other is Mexico, a country that has one of the widest range of flora in the world,
01:26and where a rich and ancient civilisation is deeply entwined with its plant life, and
01:31where that relationship has been transformed into art through its gardens.
01:39I begin my journey in one of the world's most popular cities, Mexico City.
01:45Then I'll head south to Oaxaca, which has the most diverse flora in Mexico.
01:51Next I'll travel north to the jungle, a small town of Xilitla, and finally I'll cross the
01:56Gulf of Mexico to end up in Havana, the capital of Cuba.
02:14I'm in a cemetery in the middle of the night where a vigil is being kept as part of the
02:19celebrations for the Day of the Dead.
02:24On the Day of the Dead, every grave and home is decked in a blaze of orange marigolds,
02:30orange being the colour that the Aztecs believe the dead most easily recognise, to guide and
02:35welcome the returning deceased, so that the whole family, living and dead alike, are reunited
02:40again for just one day of the year.
02:44This strange fusion of Catholicism and pre-Hispanic ritual has its roots in one of the richest
02:49and oldest gardening civilisations of the world.
02:53Five hundred years ago, what has now become modern Mexico City was the epicentre of the
02:58Aztec civilisation.
03:04The Aztecs built their huge city on a great saltwater lake, but via a sophisticated drainage
03:10system that removed the saltwater and channelled in fresh water, transformed the landscape.
03:17But even before the arrival of the Aztecs, the Xochimilco people had built islands or
03:21floating gardens, which became one of the most productive methods of cultivation known
03:26to mankind, and the earliest perennially flowering gardens.
03:40Just an hour's slow drive from the centre of Mexico City are the floating gardens of
03:45Xochimilco.
03:55I first heard about these about 15 years ago, and I actually came to Mexico intending to
03:59see them and didn't manage to get them.
04:02So I've wanted to see them for a long time, partly because the idea of floating gardens
04:07discovered by the Spaniards, this incredible civilisation that had made gardens for agriculture
04:14and flowers on a lake, is such an interesting idea.
04:19But also because I feel I start here and get a grip on these ancient, ancient gardens and
04:25the history of the place, and that's the right way to begin this journey.
04:32The original floating gardens are at least 2,000 years old, and at the peak of the Aztec
04:37empire there were some 50,000 acres under production.
04:41They became the agricultural hub of the great Aztec civilisation of Tenochtitlan, which
04:46was a city of over 200,000 people, and at the time the largest conurbation in the world.
04:56They're called floating gardens, but they're not floating at all, because they go down
05:00to the bottom of the lake, but they're built up in layers of vegetation and mud, like a
05:06cake, and then they're fixed to a degree, partly you can see the revetments along the
05:11side that's paling, but also the trees along the edge.
05:15The roots go down into the lake and hold the whole thing like a basket.
05:20Trees also provide a little sort of microclimate.
05:24But the scale of it, when you think there are tens of thousands of hectares, to do all
05:29that by hand, it's beyond imagination.
05:41These beautiful white herons or egrets, I'm not quite sure which they are, standing sentinel
05:54on the side of the banks.
06:12During the period leading up to the Day of the Dead, tangerine fields of African marigolds
06:16dominate many of the gardens.
06:22Many of the floating gardens, or chinampas, are still cultivated using traditional methods,
06:27and Dr Erwin Stefanotto is the director of a special ecology park that aims to preserve
06:32this unique and endangered ecosystem.
06:35We have here about 1,400 hectares of chinampas.
06:40The chinampas are quite small, aren't they?
06:41Quite small.
06:42So thousands and thousands of them.
06:44Thousands of them.
06:45So these canals that we see are actually just the remnants of the lake?
06:50Sure.
06:51And they say that in 1850 there were about 70,000 boats going every day to the centre
07:01of the city with the products of the area of Chalco and Xochimilco.
07:10Is everything always grown on these raised beds?
07:14Yes, this is the original way of growing chinampas.
07:19First they bring a special mud from some parts of the lake, of the canal.
07:24They leave it one day, they dry it out, and then they make the little squares.
07:29If it's a big plant, you have to make bigger squares.
07:32These are small squares, and with a finger you put the mud, and then you put the seed.
07:39Then you put the vegetation on top.
07:41In three weeks you have the plant already grown.
07:43In 12 weeks you have about 25 to 30 centimetres.
07:48And you transplant it to other warm beds.
07:51In this warm bed that's called almacigo in Spanish, you can have 18,000 little plants.
08:00This mud looks beautiful.
08:04The nutrients are so high that we don't use any kind of chemicals for this.
08:11This is organic, everything.
08:12Everything organic.
08:13Everything is organic.
08:14That's good.
08:15Why? Because you can have six harvests a year.
08:20The chinampa is, by osmosis, always wet.
08:25You don't need the water.
08:27Whenever it rains it's okay, otherwise you take it from the canal.
08:30How fantastic.
08:34I think that these floating gardens are not just beautiful,
08:39but they also have a truly potent atmosphere.
08:42There's a kind of psychic energy that's stored in the place,
08:46like a battery that comes from 1,000, 2,000 years of people
08:50tending it in the same way across century after century.
08:55And I'm sure that works.
08:56I'm sure it's a really powerful thing.
09:00And it's all part of my understanding,
09:02not just of the ancient Aztec civilisation,
09:04but also the modern Mexican culture that coexists with it.
09:11Mexico City is a vast urban sprawl,
09:14inhabited by some 20 million people.
09:16It's a polluted and chaotic place, full of colour and energy.
09:23The floating gardens were absolutely fundamental to the old city,
09:28but modern Mexico City is a vast place.
09:31It's unruly, noisy and seemingly unregulated.
09:35And one of the truly great architects of the 20th century
09:38lived right in its middle.
09:40His name was Luis Barragan.
09:43And he made thoroughly modern houses and gardens,
09:48but he believed that all of them should reflect
09:50the true spirit of Mexico,
09:52which is why I'm on my way to visit his home.
09:58Luis Barragan is recognised
10:00as one of the 20th century's most influential architects.
10:03But he's less known for his gardens,
10:05which are also modern, but rooted deep in Mexican culture.
10:11And I consider his gardens to be so significant
10:14that whilst I'm here in Mexico City,
10:16I'm taking the opportunity to visit three different ones.
10:21He lived here, at Casa Barragan, until his death in 1988.
10:26The garden now seems very overgrown
10:29and probably doesn't resemble Barragan's original vision for the space.
10:37I've seen pictures of gardens and buildings by Barragan,
10:41but this is the first time I've ever been in one.
10:44And I remember reading that he said
10:46that a garden should be a place where people can come together
10:50and that he said that a garden should be a refuge,
10:52it should be a place of stillness.
10:54This is completely enclosed.
10:56In fact, the walls are so high, it's like being in a shard.
11:08The roof terrace is a revelation.
11:10It is dramatically filled by shimmering colour,
11:14sunlight and crisp shade.
11:16To discover more about Barragan,
11:19I met up with Mario Shetman, a fellow landscape architect
11:22and friend of Barragan's for over 20 years.
11:25There have been discussions, whole discussions, seminars,
11:28saying Barragan is not a landscape architect,
11:30because he doesn't work with plants, no?
11:32He works with... No, it's nonsense.
11:35It's about sky, it's about light,
11:38and it's about the notion of connecting the sky
11:41with the horizontal, with the ground.
11:44That's landscape architecture.
11:47There's one element missing, and that is the human.
11:49Yes, the human aspect.
11:51You do need the human aspect.
11:53Absolutely. That's why landscape architecture and gardening
11:56are an art.
11:58And yet, it's the most human of all arts,
12:01because you inhabit it.
12:03It's not a picture.
12:06It's not a sculpture.
12:08You are completely surrounded.
12:11For instance, this marvellous terrace in his house,
12:15it's not about a single pot or even a single furniture.
12:18It's about the space itself.
12:21It's about the void and the connection with the sky.
12:24And then you can only barely see the tops of trees.
12:28And once I asked him,
12:30you talk very much about mystery in your work.
12:33And he said, well, mystery is very simple.
12:36Mystery is a tree behind a wall,
12:39because it intensifies the notion
12:43of what's behind that wall.
12:45Is there a beautiful woman?
12:47Or is there a beautiful patio?
12:50Is there water in that patio?
12:52So the beginning and the end of high art is in the garden.
12:57In many ways, BarragĂĄn was a maverick,
12:59and his work was widely denigrated
13:01by the Mexican architectural establishment at the time.
13:04His desire to break with convention
13:06certainly led him to build houses and gardens
13:08in improbable situations.
13:13El Pedregal de San Ăngel is a volcanic area
13:17which was formed when the Hitler volcano
13:20erupted 2,500 years ago.
13:22The remains of some of the landscape
13:24has been used here to create land art on a giant scale.
13:30This boiling, smeared landscape at El Pedregal
13:35inspired BarragĂĄn to buy land for...
13:41..amounted to a housing estate in the mid-1940s.
13:45At the time, the Mexicans thought he was crazy.
13:49And it didn't make him any money,
13:51but there was a sort of inspired artistic craziness
13:56that BarragĂĄn tapped into,
13:58that he needed to break the mould to move forward,
14:02and it was on this landscape
14:04that he developed a new style of house and garden.
14:11He created a series of extraordinary gardens here,
14:15like surreal volcanic orchards,
14:17using the quality of the rock and its textures
14:20to contrast with strategically placed trees and shrubs.
14:26Today, the area has changed dramatically,
14:29with only a few of BarragĂĄn's gardens remaining.
14:32I've come to Casa Pireto to meet Eduardo Pireto,
14:36the grandson of the original owner.
14:39His family has lived here ever since it was built in 1950,
14:41and really what I want to see is what's it been like
14:44to grow up in and still to live in a BarragĂĄn house and garden
14:48rather than just visit one as a work of art.
15:03It took BarragĂĄn two and a half years to build Casa Pireto.
15:09But he designed the garden first.
15:18Does it work as a house to live in?
15:21It works because I'm used to it.
15:23I don't know if the scale
15:27is something that other people can live with.
15:30The house itself has a very open plan,
15:32and then there's these huge windows
15:35that make it seem like you don't know
15:38where the house ends and where the garden starts.
15:40I suppose that the house was pretty revolutionary when it was built.
15:44It was breaking new ground.
15:46It was for city life,
15:48but it also has a lot of Mexican tradition
15:52in its proportions and in how people live in it.
15:56It's sort of very solid to the outside,
15:59but to the garden it's very open.
16:01And this is how people live in the, sort of,
16:04in the countryside in Mexico.
16:08At Casa Pireto,
16:10BarragĂĄn drew his inspiration
16:12from the traditional Mexican hacienda.
16:15Rural pots, sculptures and his obsession with horses
16:19were all integrated into the architecture and landscape.
16:24Across the city is my third BarragĂĄn garden,
16:27where he continued to develop his style
16:30of balancing massive volumes of colour, light and shade
16:34fused with very Mexican motifs.
16:38This is Casa Galvez,
16:40the last of the BarragĂĄn houses I'll be visiting.
16:43And immediately you come in,
16:45you've got the trademark BarragĂĄn pink
16:47leading you to the front door,
16:49but he's lowered the ceiling, sort of confining the space.
16:52And then the courtyard,
16:54you've got the BarragĂĄn pots and the colours,
16:57but it is quite formal in these massive walls.
17:00And I guess in summer this fig tree
17:04would be a very shady, bulky green.
17:07And you come round the corner
17:09and immediately, brilliantly, it's transformed
17:12because the white becomes pink,
17:14it's a private space,
17:16and this great wall, you realise,
17:18exists to block off access to the window.
17:21And so the pool and the pink landscape
17:24is primarily designed to be viewed
17:27from the inside of the house.
17:30But when you come through the house
17:33into what is the completely private space,
17:36everything just explodes out
17:38and you get these vast walls of colour.
17:42The walls, of course, which create the privacy,
17:45but the effect is that you get a sense
17:48of what's going on in the house.
17:50You get a sense of what's going on inside.
17:53You get a sense of what's going on outside.
17:56You get a sense of what's going on inside.
18:00This garden is one of complete generosity
18:03of light and colour and space.
18:18This garden at Casa Galvez
18:20does pull together all the elements of Barragan's work
18:23and put it into a domestic setting.
18:26And I guess for most people
18:29that means that the gardens are attached to homes.
18:32But it actually doesn't lessen my opinion
18:35that the distillation of his work,
18:37the essence of it,
18:39is to be found at Casa Barragan,
18:42on that roof terrace,
18:45where you just have light,
18:48volume,
18:51colour
18:53in its purest form.
18:58Barragan chose to live in the middle of Mexico City,
19:01but he drew much of his inspiration
19:03from the Mexican countryside and its traditions and folklore.
19:07So I'm now leaving the city to learn more about the landscape,
19:11culture and history of this huge country
19:14through the medium of its gardens.
19:17I'm going south to Oaxaca,
19:19the historic home of the Zapotec and Mixtec peoples,
19:22which contain 157 indigenous languages
19:25and has more than 1,000 species of plants native to the region.
19:33The landscape here is dominated
19:35by the fluted stems of organ pipe cactus,
19:38and these cacti form an integral part of the local culture.
19:55I've just taken a few minutes off on the road to Oaxaca
19:58to stretch my legs here in the CuicuatlĂĄn Valley,
20:01which is apparently the place
20:04that holds the biggest range of cacti anywhere in the world,
20:07and they're everywhere, tiny ones to these beautiful, vast ones.
20:11And it's a strange sort of surreal landscape.
20:17Very beautiful.
20:20MUSIC PLAYS
20:25The scale of these gnarled and scarred plants is truly breathtaking.
20:37But I'm carrying on further south
20:40to the magnificent mountaintop ruins of Monte AlbĂĄn.
20:44It is an astonishing, awesome sight.
20:47This was the Zapotec capital between 200 and 900 AD,
20:52and for over 700 years,
20:54this was the centre of a sophisticated, powerful culture.
20:58But then it was abandoned by 1000 AD, and no-one knows why.
21:04The levelling of the mountaintop to create this plateau
21:07is an astonishing feat of engineering.
21:11The ruins here are on a scale as monumental as Rome or Athens,
21:15and it doesn't seem fanciful to me
21:17to see the shapes and scale of BarragĂĄn's work in these ruins.
21:22The reason that I've come here in particular,
21:25as if the beauty wasn't enough, it is staggeringly beautiful,
21:29is to get this sense of an ancient culture,
21:34a culture that was as sophisticated
21:37as practically anything that's happened in the West thousands of years ago,
21:41a culture that understood gardens, understood plants,
21:45and applied it to their lives.
21:47And you get this mix of plants in a landscape
21:51and humanity and history all coming together.
21:55And if you get that feeling in a place,
21:58then you're really armed and informed
22:01and can get much closer to the modern gardens.
22:06Although the conquistadors plundered and pillaged their way across Mexico,
22:10it seems that the Spanish never discovered Monteal,
22:13and so, thankfully, it has remained relatively intact.
22:17And it's not just historical landscapes that are part of the culture.
22:21In the small town of Chulé, just outside Oaxaca City,
22:24is an ancient botanical monument I've always wanted to see.
22:28I've stopped off to see this, which is the chula tree,
22:32which is a Montezuma cypress,
22:34and is reckoned to be the biggest tree in the world,
22:37and certainly one of the oldest.
22:39I have seen photographs of it, and it's certainly worth a detour
22:42if not coming just to Mexico to see it.
22:44It's very, very famous.
22:46But nothing, nothing prepares you for the scale of it.
22:50And also, the thing which I haven't expected,
22:53that it is staggeringly beautiful.
23:00It is truly colossal.
23:03It's 150 feet tall,
23:06and at 190 feet in circumference,
23:09would take 30 people linking arms to hug its girth.
23:13And it's also ancient, being at least 1,500 years old.
23:20This tree was ancient when the conquistadors came,
23:26and it was old when the Aztecs' culture began.
23:33It's seen them,
23:35and no doubt it will see our civilisation pass and fade away.
23:48The chula tree dwarfing the church of Santa Maria
23:52is one of the wonders of the world.
23:55The conquistadors didn't just bring
23:57their colonial style of architecture to Oaxaca.
24:00They also brought with them
24:02something that would affect the local people even more,
24:05their religion.
24:09Very soon after the conquistadors took control,
24:12the church came in,
24:14and exerted just as strong a control in its own way,
24:18converting the Indians and imposing themselves
24:22by building churches, some of them vast,
24:25and this is one of them.
24:28The church of Santo Domingo
24:30is one of the finest examples of Baroque architecture
24:33in Latin America.
24:35It is dazzling in its magnificence.
24:58You walk in and immediately, immediately,
25:01you have this sense of incredible riches,
25:05this astonishing wall of gold,
25:09and what it says is,
25:11this is the house of the one true God,
25:14and He is a powerful and rich God.
25:19It seems that the display of sacrificial death
25:22appealed to the duality of the Indian culture,
25:25where life and death were present in everything.
25:29Next to the church is a complex of courtyards and cloisters
25:33that was a Dominican convent from 1608 until 1857,
25:37when it fell into neglect,
25:39and it has just recently been restored.
25:47The building is, of course, wonderful.
25:50But, for all its glories, it's not the reason I'm here,
25:53because attached to it was a garden.
25:55And when they restored the convent in the early 90s,
25:58they decided to do the garden as well,
26:00and there's lots of archaeological evidence for it.
26:02But rather than recreate a monastic garden,
26:05what they've done is make a modern botanic garden,
26:08using the plants of the Huacaca region.
26:24The garden is a celebration
26:26of the incredibly diverse flora of the area,
26:29taking the visitor through thousands of years
26:32of Oaxaca's natural history.
26:38But it's more than just a collection of plants.
26:42It's also very beautiful and skillfully designed
26:45and very different from most botanical gardens.
26:48I've seen cacti used as a hedge like this,
26:51in villages, as we've driven through.
26:54But used like this, on this scale, is magnificently beautiful.
27:00And it creates a sort of wonderful cathedral-like volume of space.
27:15There's something niggling at me.
27:17I mean, it's almost irritating me.
27:19It's like walking round an art gallery rather than a garden.
27:22And it feels, to be honest, a little bit cold.
27:27The fact that this feels a bit more like a gallery than a garden
27:30may be because it's designed by a painter called Luis Zarate,
27:34and this is his first garden ever.
27:37What really interests me is how you, as an artist,
27:42creating a work of art,
27:44relate to all the problems of a garden like this.
27:48The problems of a garden, a garden that grows and changes.
27:57First of all, I had to resist my own artistic ego
28:01and concentrate on bringing out the intrinsic beauty of the plants instead.
28:10I want to say more about the plants than simply botanical facts.
28:16I try to communicate poetically with the visitor,
28:19to try to give the architecture and the layout of the plants a poetical feeling.
28:27The artistic challenge was not the only struggle Luis faced in creating the garden.
28:36The government wanted to turn this into a hotel
28:40and the old botanical garden into a car park.
28:43At the same time, we, the painters of Oaxaca,
28:46started to work out what we could do with it.
28:50Then we started to fight against the government
28:53to stop this place being turned into a car park.
28:57So the reclaiming of Santa Domingo is an achievement of the people of Oaxaca.
29:02There is a way of working called el tequio,
29:05meaning working for free, working for the community.
29:14I said earlier that I found the garden a bit cold, beautiful,
29:19but I wasn't really connecting to it.
29:22And I now realise that I was completely wrong about that,
29:26that this garden is just bursting with humanity.
29:30I was very moved by the way that, in the teeth of sort of corporate brutality,
29:35that the local people wanted to make in a garden
29:39something for the public to appreciate, their culture, their history,
29:43and indeed their future.
29:51But I'm now leaving the mountains and deserts of Oaxaca
29:55to find a garden lost in the Mexican jungle.
30:10Xilitla is north of Mexico City.
30:14It is a straggling mountain town with the jungle leaning in on it.
30:19It is a strange place,
30:22but it's not nearly as bizarre as the garden that was made here
30:25by someone who is no more a local than I am.
30:29I'm about to go into a garden which I think could only have been made
30:33here in the jungle in Mexico,
30:35given the timing and the circumstances of its creation.
30:39However, its creator was a very English eccentric.
30:54This garden is some 50 acres of tamed jungle
30:58and contains over 200 whimsical and weird concrete structures,
31:03and all are the creation of Edward James.
31:09Edward James first came to Mexico in 1947
31:13and he chose to settle in this spot
31:17because he came with a friend and walked up this ravine
31:20and they found these natural pools.
31:23The friend stripped off, had a swim
31:26and then lay on the rock sunbathing.
31:29And as he did so, apparently a cloud of blue butterflies
31:32descended on the body and just smothered him with these blue butterflies.
31:36And Edward James thought this was such a fantastically surreal image
31:41that he saw this as a sign that this was where he had to make his surreal garden.
31:52Edward James was born into great wealth.
31:55His family owned the huge West Dean estate in Sussex.
31:59However, James made his name and another fortune in the 1920s and 30s
32:04when he began collecting surrealist art.
32:08The initial plans for Las Posas seemed to have been relatively modest,
32:13at least in the terms of an eccentric multimillionaire.
32:16More like a private zoo than a jungle fantasy,
32:19and he did ship a menagerie of caged animals to Hilitler.
32:23But by 1960, James began to talk about creating
32:26his extraordinary dreamlike constructions.
32:28He said he decided to build them simply because he liked to see something nice.
32:33And casually at first, and later obsessively,
32:36his subconscious began to take literal concrete form
32:39in the middle of the jungle.
32:42See, look at that.
32:46It's extraordinary.
32:48It doesn't rationalise, but is it beautiful?
32:51And does it need to be beautiful?
32:53I don't know. I don't know.
32:57This place just plunges you under the water of irrationality
33:02and the subconscious and says, swim.
33:09Having a clue, I'm going, I'm completely, totally lost.
33:16You can see pieces of James' cultural history
33:21almost glued to the surface of this,
33:24the fleur-de-lis in the middle of the Mexican jungle.
33:28And, of course, if this was in Europe,
33:31the health and safety police would have closed it down.
33:34Unsafe, and what they'd really be saying is,
33:36not just unsafe for your body, but unsafe for your mind.
33:39You shouldn't be having these thoughts.
33:42But James could do what he liked in Hilitler.
33:47Mexico wasn't judgmental about personal behaviour
33:50in the way that Europe and America were.
33:52It was also without building regulation of any kind,
33:55and there was a local and very cheap labour force
33:57only too glad of the work.
34:01I'm bedevilled and struggling
34:04with this idea of beauty as a pure thing.
34:08And this place, which is chaos, in a sense.
34:11Ugly things next to beautiful things.
34:13Look at that. Look at that...thing.
34:16To me, it's not doing anything other than being kitsch and naff,
34:20and it's absolutely no better or worse than a garden gnome.
34:24Now, this, I think, is fantastic.
34:26It's where you have plant-like forms
34:28encrusted with moss and lichen and ferns,
34:32with trees of vaguely similar form growing up around them.
34:36You don't quite know which is which.
34:39So cheek by jowl with the most wonderful, exotic,
34:43beautiful, fabulous stuff,
34:45it's a bit of complete kitsch.
34:50And it's upsetting me. I don't know what to think.
35:02I mean, there is a fact, I could just be a boring old fart
35:05who likes the vaguely familiar.
35:10And finds aspects of the sort of surrealistic way of doing things
35:17in a garden as too unsettling.
35:20It rattles my cage a bit too much.
35:30The weather changes from hot and steamy
35:33to rainy and surprisingly cool.
35:36To find out more about James,
35:38I'm meeting the current owner, James's godson, Plutarco Gastel.
35:43Plutarco's father was in charge of the day-to-day building work
35:46in the garden, and James would often stay with the family
35:49on his visits to Mexico,
35:51so Plutarco knew James since he was a small child.
35:56You grew up here, didn't you? Yes.
35:58What was it like being a child in this garden?
36:01It was magical.
36:03It was magical because it was like a different country.
36:08I mean, now it's different.
36:11It's fantastic, but kind of ghostly or melancholic.
36:17But at that time, it was very vivid
36:20because we had more than 100 workers.
36:23They were all my friends.
36:25And Edward James used to have a lot of animals too.
36:29At that point, the place looked like a private zoo
36:32or something like that, so it was an incredible place for a child.
36:37What was he like as a man?
36:40Describe to me your memories of him.
36:43Yeah, that's something because I have a different perception.
36:48I could see because for my sisters and I,
36:52he was our private Santa.
36:55But I could see with my parents it was more difficult,
36:59especially my father,
37:01because my father was in charge of all the mundane matters
37:07about building a place like this, you know?
37:10Pay the bills, keep the record.
37:14And I could see that he was difficult
37:17because he didn't have schedules,
37:20not even to eat or to sleep.
37:23He didn't realize very well about the mundane world.
37:29So my father complained a lot about that,
37:33but at the same time he was laughing all the time
37:37about the adventures of Edward James here in Mexico.
37:43Las Posas is unedited, unfettered, unbalanced and completely unworldly,
37:49and its future is uncertain.
37:51Plutaco told me he employs 50 people
37:54whose sole job is to cut back the jungle.
37:57Prince James could afford his follies to be so extreme
38:00because he knew the jungle would one day consume them,
38:03just as it has consumed the lost Aztec cities.
38:10We use words cheaply when we're describing gardens,
38:13and I know I'm as guilty as anybody,
38:15but this, more than any other garden in the world,
38:18can truly be described as fantastic.
38:21It is like no other.
38:24And yet, again and again, as I walk round it,
38:27I'm reminded of an 18th-century milord,
38:31touring Europe, buying extraordinary things
38:34and using them to create a series of follies in a landscape park
38:39with ruined chapels and temples and rerouted rivers
38:43and villages swept away so a ha-ha can be built.
38:47And that, the result, is this extraordinary creation
38:51in the middle of the Mexican jungle,
38:53just makes it even more extraordinary and unlike anything else.
39:00What I have seen in Mexico has been inspiring and fascinating,
39:04from the ancient history of the floating gardens
39:07to Barragan's great volumes of colour and light
39:10and the cool, clean lines of the cactus garden,
39:13built upon its sense of local identity.
39:17Now I'm moving on to a very different world,
39:20albeit geographically close to Mexico,
39:22where the gardens are a product of political necessity and social will.
39:29My journey takes me to the largest island in the Caribbean.
39:33Cuba lies just 140 miles to the east of Mexico,
39:37and I'm heading to the capital, Havana.
39:44I've been wanting to visit Havana for ages.
39:47It doesn't take long to see that it is beautiful, ruined
39:51and the sexiest place on this earth.
39:54Now that's all rather good, but I've come to find out
39:57about an organic revolution that's taking place right across the country
40:01that could be a model for the climate-changed post-oil world.
40:05Around a fifth of Cuba's population live in Havana.
40:08It's a city that's undoubtedly seductive and exhilarating,
40:11but suffering from decades of neglect.
40:15It's a very beautiful city because it's not what I call facelift beauty,
40:20manicured and tweaked.
40:22It's like a wonderful face on a 70-year-old woman.
40:27A lifetime's worth of beauty that's accumulated.
40:33As you travel around the city, you do get a sense of a place frozen in time.
40:38Most of the vehicles are pre-1959, lovingly maintained,
40:42and they add hugely to the city's charm.
40:49But among the decrepit buildings of the old city,
40:52there is a strange pairing of decay and healthy growth.
41:02Hola. Buenos dĂas.
41:04Buenos dĂas.
41:06This might seem an unlikely place for a garden,
41:09but actually it's both incredibly interesting
41:12and also very typical of what's going on here in Cuba.
41:15After the Russians withdrew their economic support at the end of the 80s
41:19and the collapse of the Soviet empire,
41:21Cuba was found in a situation where they had no food.
41:24They absolutely had to start growing food without oil,
41:27without fertilisers, pesticides,
41:29and so all across the city, with a communal effort,
41:32they turned bits of wasteland
41:34into highly productive areas for food and medicine.
41:37So what you have now is not just a population
41:40growing its own food in the middle of a city,
41:43but actually one of the most sophisticated, sustainable means
41:46of organic growing, of gardening, medicine,
41:49on every level in the world.
41:57Right in the middle of the crumbling colonial grandeur,
42:01a genuine green revolution is taking place
42:04in the form of small productive gardens called huertas.
42:09These are the equivalent of our allotments,
42:11but built on derelict land,
42:13and they are the basis of a new gardening culture
42:16that is sprouting up all over the city.
42:25Alberto's huerta is typical of many in Havana.
42:28The building that stood here collapsed,
42:30so Alberto and his brother-in-law cleared the site
42:33and bought in the soil in wheelbarrows to build the raised beds,
42:37even though they didn't own the land.
42:42We took the huerta because we came from a family of farmers,
42:46so when we saw the empty space here,
42:49we agreed to grow plants.
42:52It was for a hobby, and to give produce back to the community.
43:04When the special period began,
43:07did that change the way that you gardened?
43:13Well, I had to start more or less inventing,
43:17because the climate here changed a lot,
43:20and because of the need, we had to grow quick-growing plants
43:24so the community could benefit.
43:27After leaving Alberto, I realised that much of his passion for gardening
43:31is driven by his desire to work with and for his local community.
43:36His huerta is open and part of the street,
43:39which is very different from the private sanctuaries
43:42we like to create in our own gardens.
43:47Alberto's huerta was built in the early 1900s.
43:50It was built in the early 1900s,
43:53The urgent challenge of feeding its 11 million people
43:56during the special period
43:58meant that the Cuban regime needed to do something
44:01on a much larger scale than Alberto's huerta,
44:04so kitchen gardens, or organiponicos,
44:07were set up in the heart of urban communities.
44:10One of the largest of these is in the suburb of Alamar,
44:14on the outskirts of the city.
44:17To me, this is a sort of vision of heaven.
44:20Wonderful vegetables, grown organically.
44:24It looks beautiful.
44:26People all working together, from the community,
44:30growing them, earning a living,
44:33and making a living out of it.
44:35It's a wonderful feeling.
44:37It's a wonderful feeling.
44:39It's a wonderful feeling.
44:41It's a wonderful feeling.
44:43Growing them, earning a living,
44:46eating them, caring about it.
44:49That's the key.
44:50If you want to do something well,
44:52you've really got to mean it, and this place means it.
44:59Now, you might argue that this is not a garden,
45:02but there's nothing that goes on here
45:04that doesn't happen in every garden or allotment back home.
45:07It's just expanded out to meet a dire social need.
45:11It's the resourcefulness of the Cuban people
45:14that have made this organic revolution work,
45:17with engineers and bureaucrats going back to the land.
45:21Dr Funes is an agronomist
45:23and a key figure in Cuba's green revolution.
45:26He's agreed to introduce me to some of the people here.
45:29Emilio, como estas?
45:31Monte Don de la BBC and Emilio.
45:34He's an engineer. He's in charge of the pest and diseases control.
45:37And what's he spraying?
45:39Compost liquid and smoke, neem smoke.
45:42Smoke liquid?
45:43Yes, to control pest, neem tree.
45:46Right, so natural pest control.
45:51Miguel Sarsines was one of the foremen
45:53that set up the Organic Ponico ten years ago.
45:56He used to work in an office,
45:58but now runs this incredibly successful garden.
46:01He's agreed to show me some of the plants
46:03and organic methods that they use here.
46:06This is where we make the compost.
46:11The raised beds guarantee drainage.
46:17Ah, the husk from rice.
46:19What do you use this for?
46:22We use this to produce compost for seedlings.
46:29These beds are where we make the worm humus.
46:33Mmm, beautiful.
46:37Now, I don't recognise this tree or fruit. What is it?
46:41This tree is called the noni.
46:44It's a plant from Central Asia
46:46and its Latin name is morinda citrifolia.
46:49It's been used as a medicinal plant for 2,000 years.
46:53According to studies at the University of Honolulu in Hawaii,
46:57it improved the quality of life of more than 100 illnesses.
47:02Does it taste good?
47:04No? Is this a ripe fruit?
47:09The ripe fruit tastes as a very old cheese, I mean, rot cheese.
47:15It...
47:17It's like Stilton or Roquefort.
47:20It is, believe you me,
47:22this smells 100% of a ripe blue cheese.
47:28Which I happen to like.
47:30But there we are, I can see them.
47:32And it tastes the same?
47:36Some people used to eat directly.
47:39You eat it?
47:41But most of the people used to drink the juice.
47:45And you can reduce the flavour because sometimes it's not so...
47:51Maybe for the French people it's excellent.
47:55One of the most fascinating aspects about Alamea
47:58is that it's for city dwellers
48:00and run by local people, which has huge social benefits.
48:05It has had great social impact.
48:08It's created jobs with relatively little investment.
48:12And on the spiritual side, the city is more beautiful.
48:16Many young people used to think agriculture is not cool.
48:20And originally, not many people wanted to get involved.
48:24Now, most of the people coming to us are young.
48:28Meanwhile, in other countries,
48:30there is an exodus from the field to the cities.
48:33But here, it's the other way around.
48:44All the produce from the garden is sold locally.
48:47All the produce from the garden is sold locally.
48:50So it's fresh and wonderfully nutritious.
48:53And because the transportation in all directions
48:56is measured in metres, not miles, the carbon trail is minimal.
49:05I think this place is a model.
49:07I think everything about it is completely wonderful.
49:11If we could bring this same attitude to our back gardens back at home,
49:15our millions of back gardens and allotments,
49:18producing wonderful vegetables,
49:20just think what that could do
49:22to change the whole structure of our approach to food.
49:26So it's an inspiration, it's beautiful,
49:29and OK, I'm biased, but it's a fabulous garden.
49:33There are thousands of organiponicas throughout Cuba.
49:37In Havana, you'll find them in the most unlikely of settings,
49:41right in the heart of inner-city communities.
49:48Another of the factors that has made this green revolution work
49:52is the system of support that's provided
49:55through a network of organiponicas.
49:59This is just one of 60 CTA kiosks in Havana alone.
50:03And the idea is to get advice and information to people
50:06to help them to grow their own food in gardens dotted all over the city.
50:10And people come along, they bring problems,
50:13they buy feeds and fertilisers, all produced organically.
50:17And the idea is to get people to come along
50:20and help them to grow their own food.
50:23People come along, they bring problems,
50:26they buy feeds and fertilisers, all produced organically.
50:30And you have this network of information and support system
50:34that sustains the whole operation.
50:38I think it's wrong to think of all gardening and all growth in Cuba
50:42as being driven to produce food.
50:45Everywhere you go, there are plants on balconies,
50:48plants by the side of the road, there are parks.
50:51And there are odd corners where you see
50:54that the need to produce food is there,
50:57and the need to produce food is there,
51:00and the need to produce food is there.
51:03And there are odd corners where you see
51:06that the need to nurture nature
51:09is expressed through growing ornamental plants.
51:14But you do have to look out for them. They're not that obvious.
51:20Gardening just for personal pleasure is clearly not that widespread.
51:24However, I do want to try and meet some gardeners
51:27who tend their plots just for the love of raising plants,
51:30especially in this city that has so brilliantly tackled
51:33the desperate demands for physical sustenance.
51:42This is an unexpected sight.
51:45A mass of greenery in the ruins of a building.
51:48And, you know, funnily enough, this reminds me of Edward James's garden.
51:51But clearly somebody has gone to a lot of trouble,
51:54not just to put these here, but to look after them and keep them looking good.
52:01Chachi runs his rickshaw business
52:04right in the heart of this bustling part of Old Havana.
52:07And this is his little green oasis.
52:14Tell me, why are you growing so many plants in your workplace?
52:20I like plants. I like them very much.
52:23It's something I inherited from my mum.
52:27It's like you find peace with them.
52:31When you're watering and caring for them,
52:34their colours entertain your mind.
52:41It's as if you're having a conversation with them.
52:46You're alone in a world that's just you and them.
52:51Wherever I am, there have to be plants.
52:54There have to be plants.
53:15This is the last garden that I'm going to be visiting.
53:18And it's still in Old Havana.
53:21This is a woman called Maria de los Andenes.
53:24And she likes to grow plants that have ornamental and, I believe, spiritual value.
53:39The first thing I noticed about Maria's garden, apart from the flowers,
53:43is that she has an amazing array of containers.
53:51In the beginning, I started with little pots, which are very expensive.
53:58But then I started recycling.
54:01Coffee pots, polystyrene tops,
54:05all the things you normally throw away are recycled here.
54:10And little by little, my idea grew.
54:14Now, this is the first garden that I've been into in Havana
54:17that isn't dominated by edible plants.
54:20Why is that?
54:26Initially, my project was to make a garden of ornamental plants.
54:34But because of both the country's needs and my experience,
54:39but because of both the country's needs and my spiritual needs,
54:44I said to myself,
54:46why not mix ornamental plants and fruit trees?
54:53I'd like to know more about how the plants fulfill your spiritual needs.
54:58Cuba is full of very beautiful places.
55:01But the economy doesn't allow us the luxury of visiting them.
55:10So, we recreate the world at home,
55:14so we don't need to spend the money and feel happy here instead.
55:31Plants energize me.
55:33And when I look at them,
55:35they tell me when they need water, when they need food.
55:41All this gives me life energy,
55:44vitality for me and for my family.
55:53Even though Maria's garden fulfills her spiritual needs,
55:56there are plants here that are a reminder of the crisis
55:59that Cuba still faces on a daily basis.
56:03This banana plant helped the family
56:07through the difficult times of the special period.
56:12It has fed the family, the little ones, everybody.
56:33What do your neighbors and friends think about this garden?
56:36Well, some people complain because it blocks the window.
56:41Others see it from above and say it is very beautiful
56:45and say hello every morning.
56:48Things like that encourage me.
56:51Attitudes are changing in our country.
56:54The culture of plants and gardening
56:57is reawakening our appreciation
57:00that the environment is as important to our health
57:05as any conventional therapy.
57:12Maria's garden is interesting
57:14because it is such an exception to the general rule here in Havana.
57:18I believe that the Cubans have created a working model
57:21for the future that we all face.
57:23In the middle of a large city with practically no money and no resources,
57:27we are planting fresh, organic fruit and vegetables
57:30by and for local communities,
57:32not industrially, but in the garden.
57:36Well, with real regret, I got to leave Havana,
57:39which is the most seductive place I've ever visited in my life.
57:42And I've been here at a time of real change,
57:45and I'm sure that it could go either way.
57:48Gardens could become more like Maria's, which is conventional,
57:52very beautiful, but westernised.
57:55Or we could learn from the extraordinary things that they've achieved
57:59and had to achieve over the last 15 years
58:02and develop a system of using our gardens
58:05to feed ourselves in a sustainable way.
58:09But I do know that I'll be back.
58:12I'll be back as soon as I can to see how those changes emerge.
58:20Join me next time on the beach at Botany Bay,
58:23where I'll be setting off to explore the unique flora and gardens
58:26of Australia and New Zealand.
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