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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:03,360 --> 00:00:07,520 I believe that a really good way to understand a culture is through its gardens. 2 00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:12,960 This is an extraordinary journey to visit 80 inspiring gardens from all over the world. 3 00:00:12,960 --> 00:00:17,240 Some are very well known, like the Taj Mahal or the Alhambra. 4 00:00:17,240 --> 00:00:22,360 And I'm also challenging my idea of what a garden actually is. 5 00:00:22,360 --> 00:00:28,640 So I'm visiting gardens that float on the Amazon, a strange fantasy in the jungle, 6 00:00:28,640 --> 00:00:33,160 as well as the private homes of great designers and the desert flowering in a garden. 7 00:00:33,160 --> 00:00:38,120 And, wherever I go, I shall be meeting people that share my own passion for gardens 8 00:00:38,120 --> 00:00:44,080 on my epic quest to see the world through 80 of its most fascinating and beautiful gardens. 9 00:01:02,400 --> 00:01:06,600 This week I'll be visiting two countries. 10 00:01:06,600 --> 00:01:09,600 One is Cuba, a Caribbean island where, 11 00:01:09,600 --> 00:01:13,480 in the middle of the crumbling colonial grandeur of its urban landscape, 12 00:01:13,480 --> 00:01:16,360 a green revolution is taking place. 13 00:01:19,720 --> 00:01:21,440 The other is Mexico, 14 00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:25,480 a country that has one of the widest range of flora in the world 15 00:01:25,480 --> 00:01:31,320 and where a rich and ancient civilization is deeply entwined with its plant life, 16 00:01:31,320 --> 00:01:35,560 and where that relationship has been transformed into art through its gardens. 17 00:01:38,840 --> 00:01:43,520 I begin my journey in one of the world's most populous cities, Mexico City. 18 00:01:45,040 --> 00:01:47,640 Then I will head south to Oaxaca, 19 00:01:47,640 --> 00:01:50,320 which has the most diverse flora in Mexico. 20 00:01:50,320 --> 00:01:53,120 Next, I'll travel north to the jungle 21 00:01:53,120 --> 00:01:55,040 and the small town of Xilitla. 22 00:01:55,040 --> 00:01:58,040 And finally I'll cross the Gulf of Mexico 23 00:01:58,040 --> 00:02:00,960 to end up in Havana, the capital of Cuba. 24 00:02:14,040 --> 00:02:16,680 I'm in a cemetery in the middle of the night, 25 00:02:16,680 --> 00:02:18,960 where a vigil is being kept 26 00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:21,640 as part of the celebrations for the Day of the Dead. 27 00:02:24,640 --> 00:02:27,320 On the Day of the Dead, every grave and home 28 00:02:27,320 --> 00:02:30,040 is decked in a blaze of orange marigolds - 29 00:02:30,040 --> 00:02:34,440 orange being the colour that the Aztecs believe the dead most easily recognise, 30 00:02:34,440 --> 00:02:37,120 to guide and welcome the returning deceased, 31 00:02:37,120 --> 00:02:39,640 so the whole family, living and dead alike, 32 00:02:39,640 --> 00:02:43,680 are reunited again for just for one day of the year. 33 00:02:43,680 --> 00:02:47,400 This strange fusion of Catholicism and pre-Hispanic ritual 34 00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:52,920 has its roots in one of the richest and oldest gardening civilizations of the world. 35 00:02:52,920 --> 00:02:56,720 500 years ago, what has now become modern Mexico City 36 00:02:56,720 --> 00:03:00,760 was the epicentre of the Aztec civilization. 37 00:03:03,400 --> 00:03:08,200 The Aztecs built their huge city on a great salt-water lake. 38 00:03:08,200 --> 00:03:12,600 But, via a sophisticated drainage system that removed the salt water 39 00:03:12,600 --> 00:03:16,600 and channelled in fresh water, they transformed the landscape. 40 00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:19,280 But even before the arrival of the Aztecs, 41 00:03:19,280 --> 00:03:23,240 the Xochimilca people had built islands or floating gardens, 42 00:03:23,240 --> 00:03:26,560 which became one of the most productive methods of cultivation 43 00:03:26,560 --> 00:03:32,000 known to mankind, and the earliest perennially flowering gardens. 44 00:03:39,440 --> 00:03:43,280 Just an hour's slow drive from the centre of Mexico City 45 00:03:43,280 --> 00:03:46,160 are the floating gardens of Xochimilco. 46 00:03:54,480 --> 00:04:00,360 I first heard about these about 15 years ago, and I actually came to Mexico intending to see them. 47 00:04:00,360 --> 00:04:04,520 I didn't manage to get to them. So I've wanted to see them for a long time, 48 00:04:04,520 --> 00:04:09,680 partly because the idea of floating gardens, discovered by the Spaniards, 49 00:04:09,680 --> 00:04:13,400 this incredible civilization that had made gardens 50 00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:18,960 for agriculture and flowers on a lake, is such an interesting idea. 51 00:04:18,960 --> 00:04:25,960 But also because I feel I start here and get a grip on these ancient, ancient gardens 52 00:04:25,960 --> 00:04:29,920 and the history of the place, and that's the right way to begin this journey. 53 00:04:31,600 --> 00:04:36,480 The original floating gardens are at least 2,000 years old, 54 00:04:36,480 --> 00:04:41,680 and at the peak of the Aztec empire there were some 50,000 acres under production. 55 00:04:41,680 --> 00:04:46,280 They became the agricultural hub of the great Aztec civilization of Tenochtitlan, 56 00:04:46,280 --> 00:04:48,880 which was a city of over 200,000 people 57 00:04:48,880 --> 00:04:52,800 and, at the time, the largest conurbation in the world. 58 00:04:55,520 --> 00:04:58,760 They're called floating gardens but they're not floating at all 59 00:04:58,760 --> 00:05:02,400 because they go down to the bottom of the lake. 60 00:05:02,400 --> 00:05:08,920 But they're built up in layers of vegetation and mud, like a cake, and then they are fixed to a degree. 61 00:05:08,920 --> 00:05:14,360 You can see the revetments along the side, this paling, but also the trees along the edge. 62 00:05:14,360 --> 00:05:19,080 The roots go down into the lake and hold the whole thing like a basket 63 00:05:19,080 --> 00:05:23,880 and the trees provide a little sort of microclimate. 64 00:05:23,880 --> 00:05:25,480 But the scale of it! 65 00:05:25,480 --> 00:05:28,400 When you think there are tens of thousands of hectares - 66 00:05:28,400 --> 00:05:33,760 to do all that by hand is beyond all imagination. 67 00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:51,280 Beautiful white herons or egrets, I'm not sure quite which they are... 68 00:05:52,800 --> 00:05:56,040 ..standing sentinel on the side of the banks. 69 00:05:57,120 --> 00:05:59,360 Whoops! 70 00:06:11,280 --> 00:06:15,200 During the period leading up to the Day of the Dead, 71 00:06:15,200 --> 00:06:19,240 tangerine fields of African marigolds dominate many of the gardens. 72 00:06:22,160 --> 00:06:27,440 Many of the floating gardens, or "chinampas", are still cultivated using traditional methods, 73 00:06:27,440 --> 00:06:31,680 and Doctor Erwin Stephan Otto is the director of a special ecology park 74 00:06:31,680 --> 00:06:34,920 that aims to preserve this unique and endangered ecosystem. 75 00:06:34,920 --> 00:06:39,720 We have here about 1,400 hectares of chinampas. 76 00:06:39,720 --> 00:06:42,960 - The chinampas are quite small, aren't they? - Quite small. 77 00:06:42,960 --> 00:06:45,880 - So thousands and thousands of them. - Thousands of them. 78 00:06:45,880 --> 00:06:50,480 So these canals that we see are actually just the remnants of the lake? 79 00:06:50,480 --> 00:06:55,040 Sure. And they say that in 1850 80 00:06:55,040 --> 00:07:01,960 there were about 70,000 boats going every day to the centre of the city 81 00:07:01,960 --> 00:07:05,920 with the products of the area of Xochimilco. 82 00:07:11,720 --> 00:07:14,640 Is everything always grown on these raised beds? 83 00:07:14,640 --> 00:07:18,920 Yes, this is the original way of growing in chinampas. 84 00:07:18,920 --> 00:07:23,040 First they bring special mud from some parts of the lake. 85 00:07:23,040 --> 00:07:29,400 They leave it one day to dry it out, and make the little squares. 86 00:07:29,400 --> 00:07:32,240 If it's a big plant you make bigger squares. 87 00:07:32,240 --> 00:07:34,680 These are small squares, 88 00:07:34,680 --> 00:07:38,480 and with a finger you put the seed. 89 00:07:38,480 --> 00:07:41,040 Then you put the vegetation on top. 90 00:07:41,040 --> 00:07:43,600 In three weeks you have a plant already growing. 91 00:07:43,600 --> 00:07:48,520 In 12 weeks you have about 25 to 30 centimetes 92 00:07:48,520 --> 00:07:52,120 and you transplant it to other warm beds. 93 00:07:52,120 --> 00:07:56,640 This warm bed is called "el macizo" in Spanish. 94 00:07:56,640 --> 00:08:00,520 You can have 18,000 little plants. 95 00:08:00,520 --> 00:08:03,080 This mud looks beautiful. 96 00:08:05,400 --> 00:08:11,480 Well, the nutrients are so high that we don't use any kind of chemicals for this. 97 00:08:11,480 --> 00:08:13,640 - This is organic. - Everything organic? 98 00:08:13,640 --> 00:08:15,400 Everything is organic. 99 00:08:15,400 --> 00:08:20,760 Why? Because we can have six harvests a year. 100 00:08:20,760 --> 00:08:26,280 The chinampa is by osmosis always wet. 101 00:08:26,280 --> 00:08:28,960 You need water. Whenever it rains it's OK. 102 00:08:28,960 --> 00:08:30,880 Otherwise you take it from the canal. 103 00:08:30,880 --> 00:08:32,840 How fantastic. 104 00:08:36,880 --> 00:08:42,960 I think that these floating gardens are not just beautiful but they also have a truly potent atmosphere. 105 00:08:42,960 --> 00:08:48,200 There's a kind of psychic energy that's stored in the place, like a battery, that comes from 106 00:08:48,200 --> 00:08:55,440 1,000, 2,000 years of people tending it in the same way, across century after century. 107 00:08:55,440 --> 00:08:59,560 And I'm sure that works. I'm sure it's a really powerful thing, that. 108 00:08:59,560 --> 00:09:04,120 And it's all part of my understanding not just of the ancient Aztec civilisation 109 00:09:04,120 --> 00:09:08,120 but also the modern Mexican culture that coexists with it. 110 00:09:10,400 --> 00:09:15,880 Mexico City is a vast urban sprawl inhabited by some 20 million people. 111 00:09:15,880 --> 00:09:22,120 It's a polluted and chaotic place, full of colour and energy. 112 00:09:22,120 --> 00:09:27,520 The Floating Gardens were absolutely fundamental to the old city. 113 00:09:27,520 --> 00:09:30,680 But modern Mexico City is a vast place. 114 00:09:30,680 --> 00:09:34,600 It's unruly, noisy and seemingly unregulated. 115 00:09:34,600 --> 00:09:39,440 And one of the truly great architects of the 20th century lived right in its middle. 116 00:09:39,440 --> 00:09:47,400 His name was Luis Barragan, and he made thoroughly modern houses and gardens. 117 00:09:47,480 --> 00:09:51,320 But he believed that all of them should reflect the true spirit of Mexico, 118 00:09:51,320 --> 00:09:54,800 which is why I'm on my way to visit his home. 119 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:04,480 Luis Barragan is recognised as one of the 20th century's most influential architects. 120 00:10:04,480 --> 00:10:06,440 But he is less known for his gardens, 121 00:10:06,440 --> 00:10:10,000 which are also modern but rooted deep in Mexican culture. 122 00:10:11,400 --> 00:10:16,840 And I consider his gardens to be so significant that, whilst I'm here in Mexico City, 123 00:10:16,840 --> 00:10:21,360 I'm taking the opportunity to visit three different ones. 124 00:10:26,200 --> 00:10:30,920 He lived here, at Casa Barragan, until his death in 1988. 125 00:10:30,920 --> 00:10:34,000 The garden now seems very overgrown and probably 126 00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:37,760 doesn't resemble Barragan's original vision for the space. 127 00:10:40,480 --> 00:10:44,760 I've seen pictures of gardens and buildings by Barragan, 128 00:10:44,760 --> 00:10:48,400 but this is the first time I've ever been in one. 129 00:10:48,400 --> 00:10:53,240 I remember reading that he said a garden should be a refuge, a place of stillness. 130 00:10:54,400 --> 00:10:58,960 This is completely enclosed. In fact the walls are so high, it's like being in a shaft. 131 00:11:06,880 --> 00:11:10,200 The roof terrace is a revelation. 132 00:11:10,200 --> 00:11:15,360 It is dramatically filled by shimmering colour, sunlight and crisp shade. 133 00:11:15,360 --> 00:11:17,760 To discover more about Barragan 134 00:11:17,760 --> 00:11:21,200 I've met up with Mario Schjetnan, a fellow landscape architect 135 00:11:21,200 --> 00:11:25,560 and friend of Barragan's for over 20 years. 136 00:11:25,560 --> 00:11:28,800 There have been discussions, whole discussions, seminars, 137 00:11:28,800 --> 00:11:31,200 saying Barragan is not a landscape architect 138 00:11:31,200 --> 00:11:34,880 because he doesn't work with plants. It's nonsense. 139 00:11:34,880 --> 00:11:38,480 It's about sky, it's about light. 140 00:11:38,480 --> 00:11:41,680 It's about the notion of connecting the sky 141 00:11:41,680 --> 00:11:45,960 with the horizontal, with the ground. That's landscape architecture. 142 00:11:45,960 --> 00:11:49,280 There's one element missing, and that is the human. 143 00:11:49,280 --> 00:11:51,160 You do need the human aspect. 144 00:11:51,160 --> 00:11:52,200 Absolutely. 145 00:11:52,200 --> 00:11:56,720 That's why landscape architecture and gardening are an art. 146 00:11:56,720 --> 00:12:03,400 And yet it is the most human of all arts because you inhabit it. 147 00:12:03,400 --> 00:12:05,480 It's not a picture. 148 00:12:05,480 --> 00:12:07,160 It's not a sculpture. 149 00:12:07,160 --> 00:12:10,160 You are completely surrounded. 150 00:12:10,160 --> 00:12:13,440 For instance, this marvellous terrace in his house - 151 00:12:13,440 --> 00:12:17,400 there is not a single pot, or even a single furniture. 152 00:12:17,400 --> 00:12:19,720 It's about this basic cell. 153 00:12:19,720 --> 00:12:23,800 It is about the void and the connection with the sky. 154 00:12:23,800 --> 00:12:28,080 And then you can only barely see the tops of trees. 155 00:12:28,080 --> 00:12:33,480 Once I asked him, "You talk very much about mystery in your work." 156 00:12:33,480 --> 00:12:35,800 And he said, "Well, mystery is very simple. 157 00:12:35,800 --> 00:12:38,880 "Mystery is a tree behind a wall." 158 00:12:38,880 --> 00:12:44,120 Because it intensifies the notion of what's behind that wall. 159 00:12:44,120 --> 00:12:46,880 Is there a beautiful woman? 160 00:12:46,880 --> 00:12:51,160 Is there a beautiful patio? Is there water in that patio? 161 00:12:51,160 --> 00:12:56,720 So the beginning and the end of high art is in the garden. 162 00:12:56,720 --> 00:12:58,840 In many ways Barragan was a maverick, 163 00:12:58,840 --> 00:13:00,880 and his work was widely denigrated 164 00:13:00,880 --> 00:13:04,280 by the Mexican architectural establishment at the time. 165 00:13:04,280 --> 00:13:09,320 His desire to break with convention led him to build houses and gardens in improbable situations. 166 00:13:13,960 --> 00:13:18,440 El Pedregal de San Angel is a volcanic area which was formed 167 00:13:18,440 --> 00:13:21,960 when the Xitle volcano erupted 2,500 years ago. 168 00:13:21,960 --> 00:13:23,880 The remains of some of the landscape 169 00:13:23,880 --> 00:13:27,200 have been used here to create land art on a giant scale. 170 00:13:29,920 --> 00:13:35,640 This boiling, smeared landscape at El Pedregal 171 00:13:35,640 --> 00:13:39,480 inspired Barragan to buy land for 172 00:13:39,480 --> 00:13:44,240 what amounted to a housing estate in the mid 1940s. 173 00:13:44,240 --> 00:13:48,000 At the time, the Mexicans thought he was crazy, 174 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:50,120 and it didn't make him any money. 175 00:13:50,120 --> 00:13:51,760 But there was a sort of 176 00:13:51,760 --> 00:13:57,720 inspired artistic craziness that Barragan tapped into. 177 00:13:57,720 --> 00:14:00,680 He needed to break the mould to move forward. 178 00:14:00,680 --> 00:14:03,600 And it was on this landscape 179 00:14:03,600 --> 00:14:08,440 that he developed a new style of house and garden. 180 00:14:10,440 --> 00:14:18,000 He created a series of extraordinary gardens here, like surreal volcanic orchards, 181 00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:20,600 using the quality of the rock and its textures 182 00:14:20,600 --> 00:14:23,600 to contrast with strategically placed trees and shrubs. 183 00:14:25,760 --> 00:14:28,440 Today the area has changed dramatically, 184 00:14:28,440 --> 00:14:31,600 with only a few of Barragan's gardens remaining. 185 00:14:31,600 --> 00:14:38,520 I've come to Casa Prieto, to meet Eduardo Prieto, the grandson of the original owner. 186 00:14:38,520 --> 00:14:42,040 And the same family has lived here ever since it was built in 1950. 187 00:14:42,040 --> 00:14:45,480 And I really want to see is what it's been like to grow up in, 188 00:14:45,480 --> 00:14:52,080 and still to live in, a Barragan house and garden rather than just visit one as a work of art. 189 00:15:03,600 --> 00:15:09,640 It took Barragan two and a half years to build Casa Prieto, 190 00:15:09,640 --> 00:15:12,000 but he designed the garden first. 191 00:15:18,880 --> 00:15:21,240 Does it work as a house to live in? 192 00:15:21,240 --> 00:15:23,840 It works because I am used to it. 193 00:15:23,840 --> 00:15:27,400 I don't know if the scale 194 00:15:27,400 --> 00:15:29,920 is something that other people could live with. 195 00:15:29,920 --> 00:15:35,720 The house itself has a very open plan, and then there are these huge windows 196 00:15:35,720 --> 00:15:40,240 that make it seem like you don't know where the house ends and where the garden starts. 197 00:15:40,240 --> 00:15:45,560 I suppose the house was pretty revolutionary when it was built, and that it was breaking new ground. 198 00:15:45,560 --> 00:15:48,280 It was for city life, 199 00:15:48,280 --> 00:15:51,600 but it also has a lot of Mexican tradition 200 00:15:51,600 --> 00:15:55,520 in its proportions and in how people live in it. 201 00:15:55,520 --> 00:15:58,280 It is sort of very solid to the outside 202 00:15:58,280 --> 00:16:00,600 but to the garden it is very open. 203 00:16:00,600 --> 00:16:03,000 And this is how people live in the... 204 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:06,320 sort of... the countryside. 205 00:16:09,960 --> 00:16:15,240 At Casa Prieto, Barragan drew his inspiration from the traditional Mexican hacienda. 206 00:16:15,240 --> 00:16:20,080 Rural pots, sculptures and his obsession with horses 207 00:16:20,080 --> 00:16:23,560 were all integrated into the architecture and landscape. 208 00:16:25,680 --> 00:16:28,840 Across the city is my third Barragan garden, 209 00:16:28,840 --> 00:16:32,720 where he continued to develop his style of balancing massive volumes 210 00:16:32,720 --> 00:16:35,560 of colour, light and shade 211 00:16:35,560 --> 00:16:37,640 fused with very Mexican motifs. 212 00:16:43,400 --> 00:16:47,520 This is Casa Galvez, the last of the Barragan houses I will be visiting. 213 00:16:47,520 --> 00:16:52,600 And immediately you come in, you've got the trademark Barragan pink leading you to the front door, 214 00:16:52,600 --> 00:16:56,040 but he's lowered the ceiling, confining the space. 215 00:16:56,040 --> 00:17:00,000 Then in the courtyard you've got the Barragan pots and the colours, 216 00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:04,640 but it is quite formal with these massive walls. 217 00:17:04,640 --> 00:17:11,120 I guess in summer this fig tree will be a very shady, bulky green. 218 00:17:11,120 --> 00:17:16,600 You come round the corner and immediately, brilliantly, it's transformed, 219 00:17:16,600 --> 00:17:20,480 because the white becomes pink, it's a private space, 220 00:17:20,480 --> 00:17:24,920 and this great wall, you realise, exists to block off access to the window, 221 00:17:24,920 --> 00:17:29,520 so the pool and the pink landscape is primarily designed to be viewed 222 00:17:29,520 --> 00:17:31,760 from the inside of the house. 223 00:17:44,560 --> 00:17:46,920 But when you come through the house, 224 00:17:46,920 --> 00:17:50,320 into what is the completely private space, 225 00:17:50,320 --> 00:17:55,920 everything explodes out and you get these vast walls of colour, 226 00:17:55,920 --> 00:17:58,280 walls, of course, which create privacy. 227 00:17:58,280 --> 00:18:05,480 But the effect is one of complete generosity of light and colour and space. 228 00:18:16,640 --> 00:18:21,120 This garden at Casa Galvez does pull together all the elements 229 00:18:21,120 --> 00:18:25,480 of Barragan's work and put it into a domestic setting. 230 00:18:25,480 --> 00:18:29,880 I guess for most people that's how they see gardens - they're attached to homes. 231 00:18:29,880 --> 00:18:36,720 But it actually doesn't lessen my opinion that the distillation of his work, the essence of it, 232 00:18:36,720 --> 00:18:42,640 is to be found at Casa Barragan, on that roof terrace, 233 00:18:42,640 --> 00:18:45,560 where you just have light... 234 00:18:47,240 --> 00:18:49,200 ..volume... 235 00:18:49,200 --> 00:18:51,600 colour... 236 00:18:51,600 --> 00:18:53,720 in its purist form. 237 00:18:57,320 --> 00:19:01,200 Barragan chose to live in the middle of Mexico city 238 00:19:01,200 --> 00:19:06,760 but he drew much of his inspiration from the Mexican countryside and its traditions and folklore. 239 00:19:06,760 --> 00:19:12,360 So I'm now leaving the city to learn more about the landscape, culture and history 240 00:19:12,360 --> 00:19:16,840 of this huge country through the medium of its gardens. 241 00:19:16,840 --> 00:19:22,200 I'm going south to Oaxaca, the historic home of the Zapotec and Mixtec peoples, 242 00:19:22,200 --> 00:19:26,160 which contains 157 indigenous languages 243 00:19:26,160 --> 00:19:29,800 and has more than a 1,000 species of plants native to the region. 244 00:19:33,600 --> 00:19:39,520 The landscape here is dominated by the fluted stems of organ-pipe cactus. 245 00:19:39,520 --> 00:19:42,880 These cacti form an integral part of the local culture. 246 00:19:55,240 --> 00:20:01,280 Ive taken a few minutes off from the road to Oaxaca to stretch my legs here in the Cuicatlan valley, 247 00:20:01,280 --> 00:20:07,520 which is apparently the place that holds the biggest range of cacti anywhere in the world. 248 00:20:07,520 --> 00:20:11,400 And they're everywhere; tiny ones to these beautiful vast ones. 249 00:20:11,400 --> 00:20:15,120 And it's a strange, sort of surreal landscape. 250 00:20:17,360 --> 00:20:18,880 Very beautiful. 251 00:20:24,480 --> 00:20:30,400 The scale of these gnarled and scarred plants is truly breathtaking. 252 00:20:36,920 --> 00:20:43,600 But I'm carrying on further south to the magnificent mountain-top ruins of Monte Alban. 253 00:20:43,600 --> 00:20:47,560 It is an astonishing, awesome site. 254 00:20:47,560 --> 00:20:52,120 This was the Zapotec capital between 200 and 900AD. 255 00:20:52,120 --> 00:20:58,120 For over 700 years, this was the centre of a sophisticated, powerful culture, 256 00:20:58,120 --> 00:21:02,920 but then it was abandoned by 1000AD, and no-one knows why. 257 00:21:02,920 --> 00:21:06,600 The levelling of the mountain top to create this plateau 258 00:21:06,600 --> 00:21:09,040 is an astonishing feat of engineering. 259 00:21:09,040 --> 00:21:11,080 Wow! 260 00:21:11,080 --> 00:21:15,480 The ruins here are on a scale as monumental as Rome or Athens, 261 00:21:15,480 --> 00:21:22,080 and it doesn't seem fanciful to me to see the shapes and scale of Barragan's work in these ruins. 262 00:21:22,080 --> 00:21:25,840 The reason I have come here in particular, 263 00:21:25,840 --> 00:21:30,080 as if the beauty wasn't enough, it is staggeringly beautiful, 264 00:21:30,080 --> 00:21:34,480 is to get this sense of an ancient culture, 265 00:21:34,480 --> 00:21:38,920 a culture that was as sophisticated as practically anything 266 00:21:38,920 --> 00:21:41,680 that has happened in the West thousands of years ago. 267 00:21:41,680 --> 00:21:48,160 A culture that understood gardens, understood plants, and applied it to their lives. 268 00:21:48,160 --> 00:21:52,360 And you get this mix of plants in a landscape 269 00:21:52,360 --> 00:21:56,640 and humanity and history all coming together. 270 00:21:56,640 --> 00:22:00,520 If you get that feeling in a place, then you're armed and informed 271 00:22:00,520 --> 00:22:06,360 and can get much closer to the modern gardens. 272 00:22:06,360 --> 00:22:11,400 Although the conquistadors plundered and pillaged their way across Mexico, 273 00:22:11,400 --> 00:22:14,360 it seems that the Spanish never discovered Monte Alban, 274 00:22:14,360 --> 00:22:18,520 and so, thankfully, it has remained relatively intact. 275 00:22:18,520 --> 00:22:22,200 It's not just historical landscapes that are part of the culture. 276 00:22:22,200 --> 00:22:25,000 In the small town of Tule, just outside Oaxaca city, 277 00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:28,400 is an ancient botanical monument I have always wanted to see. 278 00:22:28,400 --> 00:22:34,440 I've stopped off to see this, which is the Tule Tree, which is a Montezuma cypress, 279 00:22:34,440 --> 00:22:38,960 and is reckoned to be the biggest tree in the world and certainly one of the oldest. 280 00:22:38,960 --> 00:22:42,600 Now, I have seen photographs of it, and it is certainly worth a detour, 281 00:22:42,600 --> 00:22:45,800 if not coming to Mexico just to see it! It is very, very famous. 282 00:22:45,800 --> 00:22:50,320 But nothing, nothing, prepares you for the scale of it. 283 00:22:50,320 --> 00:22:53,520 And also the thing that which I hadn't expected 284 00:22:53,520 --> 00:22:56,280 is it is staggeringly beautiful. 285 00:23:00,840 --> 00:23:03,280 It is truly colossal. 286 00:23:03,280 --> 00:23:08,720 It's 150ft tall and, at 190ft in circumference, 287 00:23:08,720 --> 00:23:12,720 it would take 30 people linking arms to hug its girth. 288 00:23:12,720 --> 00:23:17,600 It's also ancient, being at least 1500 years old. 289 00:23:20,280 --> 00:23:26,040 This tree was ancient when the conquistadors came, 290 00:23:26,040 --> 00:23:31,880 and it was old when the Aztecs' culture began. 291 00:23:33,080 --> 00:23:40,840 It's seen them, and no doubt it will see our civilization pass and fade away. 292 00:23:48,920 --> 00:23:55,520 The Tule Tree, dwarfing the church of Santa Maria, is one of the wonders of the world. 293 00:23:55,520 --> 00:24:00,600 The conquistadors didn't just bring their colonial style of architecture to Oaxaca. 294 00:24:00,600 --> 00:24:03,600 They also brought with them something that would affect 295 00:24:03,600 --> 00:24:06,440 the local people even more - their religion. 296 00:24:08,760 --> 00:24:12,200 Very soon after the conquistadors took control, 297 00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:17,960 the church came in and exerted just as strong a control in its own way, 298 00:24:17,960 --> 00:24:24,960 converting the Indians and imposing themselves by building churches, some of them vast. 299 00:24:24,960 --> 00:24:26,560 And this is one of them. 300 00:24:26,560 --> 00:24:34,360 The Church of Santo Domingo is one of the finest examples of baroque architecture in Latin America. 301 00:24:34,360 --> 00:24:37,400 It is dazzling in its magnificence. 302 00:24:41,080 --> 00:24:44,600 CHORAL SINGING 303 00:24:58,120 --> 00:25:05,920 You walk in and immediately have this sense of incredible riches, 304 00:25:05,920 --> 00:25:11,760 and this astonishing wall of gold, and what it says 305 00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:14,640 is this is the house of the one true God, 306 00:25:14,640 --> 00:25:18,960 and he is a powerful and rich God. 307 00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:24,480 It seems that the display of sacrificial death appealed to the duality of 308 00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:28,720 the Indian culture where life and death were present in everything. 309 00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:32,440 Next to the church is a complex of courtyards and cloisters 310 00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:36,720 that was a Dominican convent from 1608 until 1857 311 00:25:36,720 --> 00:25:40,920 when it fell into neglect, and it has just recently been restored. 312 00:25:47,440 --> 00:25:51,520 The building is, of course, wonderful, but, for all its glories, 313 00:25:51,520 --> 00:25:55,040 it's not the reason why I am here, because attached to it was a garden. 314 00:25:55,040 --> 00:25:59,440 When they restored the convent in the early 90s they decided to do the garden as well, 315 00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:02,200 and there's lots of archaeological evidence for it. 316 00:26:02,200 --> 00:26:05,440 But rather than recreate a monastic garden, what they've done 317 00:26:05,440 --> 00:26:10,320 is make a modern botanic garden, using plants of the Oaxaca region. 318 00:26:26,840 --> 00:26:31,640 The garden is a celebration of the incredibly diverse flora of the area, 319 00:26:31,640 --> 00:26:36,280 taking the visitor through thousands of years of Oaxaca's natural history. 320 00:26:41,240 --> 00:26:44,680 But it's more than just a collection of plants. 321 00:26:44,680 --> 00:26:47,800 It is also very beautiful and skilfully designed, 322 00:26:47,800 --> 00:26:50,560 very different from most botanical gardens. 323 00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:53,880 I've seen cacti used as a hedge like this 324 00:26:53,880 --> 00:26:56,880 in villages as we've driven through, 325 00:26:56,880 --> 00:27:01,560 but used like this on this scale is magnificent beautiful, 326 00:27:01,560 --> 00:27:07,840 and it creates a sort of wonderful cathedral-like volume of space. 327 00:27:17,520 --> 00:27:20,960 There's something niggling at me, and it's almost irritating me. 328 00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:24,440 It's like walking around an art gallery rather than a garden. 329 00:27:24,440 --> 00:27:26,880 It feels, to be honest, a little bit cold. 330 00:27:30,120 --> 00:27:33,200 The fact that this feels more like a gallery than a garden 331 00:27:33,200 --> 00:27:36,600 is maybe because it is designed by a painter called Luis Zarate 332 00:27:36,600 --> 00:27:39,040 and this is his first garden. Ever. 333 00:27:39,040 --> 00:27:45,960 What really interests me is how you as an artist, creating a work of art 334 00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:49,240 relate to all of the problems of a garden. 335 00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:52,240 A garden that grows and changes. 336 00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:01,760 TRANSLATION: First of all, I had to resist my own artistic ego 337 00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:06,280 and concentrate on bringing out the intrinsic beauty of the plants instead. 338 00:28:10,720 --> 00:28:15,080 I want to say more about the plants than simply botanical facts. 339 00:28:17,240 --> 00:28:20,080 I tried to communicate poetically with the visitor, 340 00:28:20,080 --> 00:28:21,920 to try to give the architecture, 341 00:28:21,920 --> 00:28:24,600 and the layout of the plants a poetical feeling. 342 00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:32,440 The artistic challenge was not the only struggle Luis faced in creating the garden. 343 00:28:36,600 --> 00:28:40,560 TRANSLATION: The government wanted to turn this into a hotel, 344 00:28:40,560 --> 00:28:43,440 and the old botanical garden into a car park. 345 00:28:43,440 --> 00:28:47,000 At the same time, we, the painters of Oaxaca 346 00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:49,320 started to work out what we could do with it. 347 00:28:49,320 --> 00:28:55,680 Then, we started to fight against the government to stop this place being turned into a car park. 348 00:28:55,680 --> 00:29:02,640 So, the reclaiming of Santa Domingo is an achievement of the people of Oaxaca. 349 00:29:02,640 --> 00:29:09,200 There is a way of working called "el tequio", meaning working for free, for the community. 350 00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:23,120 I said earlier that I found the garden a bit cold... 351 00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:26,400 beautiful, but I wasn't really connecting to it. 352 00:29:26,400 --> 00:29:30,960 But, I now realise that I was completely wrong about that, 353 00:29:30,960 --> 00:29:34,520 and that this garden is just bursting with humanity. 354 00:29:34,520 --> 00:29:39,560 I was very moved by the way that in the teeth of sort of corporate brutality 355 00:29:39,560 --> 00:29:44,720 that the local people wanted to make in a garden something for the public 356 00:29:44,720 --> 00:29:49,600 to appreciate their culture, their history and indeed their future. 357 00:29:55,440 --> 00:30:03,440 But I'm now leaving the mountains and deserts of Oaxaca to find a garden lost in the Mexican jungle. 358 00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:14,720 Xilitla is north of Mexico City. 359 00:30:14,720 --> 00:30:20,360 It is a straggling mountain town with the jungle leaning in on it. 360 00:30:20,360 --> 00:30:22,120 It is a strange place. 361 00:30:22,120 --> 00:30:25,480 But it's not nearly as bizarre as the garden that was made here 362 00:30:25,480 --> 00:30:29,280 by someone who was no more a local than I am. 363 00:30:29,280 --> 00:30:34,920 I am about to go into a garden which I think could only have been made here in the jungle in Mexico, 364 00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:39,240 given the timing and the circumstances of its creation. 365 00:30:39,240 --> 00:30:44,480 However, its creator was a very English eccentric. 366 00:30:54,720 --> 00:30:58,080 This garden is some 50 acres of tamed jungle 367 00:30:58,080 --> 00:31:03,480 and contains over 200 whimsical and weird concrete structures, 368 00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:06,920 and all are the creation of Edward James. 369 00:31:09,280 --> 00:31:15,160 Edward James first came to Mexico in 1947, and he chose to settle in this spot 370 00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:22,920 because he came with a friend and walked up this ravine, and they found these natural pools. 371 00:31:22,920 --> 00:31:28,920 The friend stripped off, had a swim, and then lay on the rocks sunbathing. 372 00:31:28,920 --> 00:31:33,560 And as he did so apparently a cloud of blue butterflies descended 373 00:31:33,560 --> 00:31:36,960 on the body and just smothered him with these blue butterflies. 374 00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:42,040 And Edward James thought this was such a fantastically surreal image, 375 00:31:42,040 --> 00:31:48,120 that he saw this as a sign that this was where he had to make his surreal garden. 376 00:31:51,280 --> 00:31:55,360 Edward James was born into great wealth. 377 00:31:55,360 --> 00:32:00,120 His family owned the huge West Dean Estate in Sussex. 378 00:32:00,120 --> 00:32:04,120 However, James made his name and another fortune in the 1920s and 30s 379 00:32:04,120 --> 00:32:07,200 when he began collecting surrealist art. 380 00:32:08,720 --> 00:32:13,040 The initial plans for Las Pozas seemed to have been relatively modest, 381 00:32:13,040 --> 00:32:16,240 at least in the terms of an eccentric multi-millionaire, 382 00:32:16,240 --> 00:32:19,280 more like a private zoo than a jungle fantasy. 383 00:32:19,280 --> 00:32:22,280 And he did ship a menagerie of caged animals to Xilitla. 384 00:32:22,280 --> 00:32:28,680 By 1960 James began to talk about creating his extraordinary dream-like constructions. 385 00:32:28,680 --> 00:32:32,880 He said he decided to build them 'simply because he liked to see something nice'. 386 00:32:32,880 --> 00:32:37,680 And, casually at first, then later obsessively, his subconscious began 387 00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:41,360 to take literal concrete form in the middle of the jungle. 388 00:32:43,120 --> 00:32:44,160 Look at that. 389 00:32:46,800 --> 00:32:48,280 It's extraordinary. 390 00:32:48,280 --> 00:32:50,520 It doesn't rationalise, 391 00:32:50,520 --> 00:32:51,680 but is it beautiful? 392 00:32:51,680 --> 00:32:53,360 And does it need to be beautiful? 393 00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:55,960 I don't know. I don't know. 394 00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:06,120 This place just plunges you under the water of irrationality and the subconciousness and says swim. 395 00:33:10,200 --> 00:33:13,600 I haven't a clue where I am going. I'm completely, totally lost. 396 00:33:16,880 --> 00:33:22,720 You can see pieces of James' cultural history, 397 00:33:22,720 --> 00:33:25,760 almost glued to the surface of this. 398 00:33:25,760 --> 00:33:28,600 A fleur-de-lis in the middle of the Mexican Jungle. 399 00:33:28,600 --> 00:33:32,640 And, of course, if this was in Europe, 400 00:33:32,640 --> 00:33:35,720 the health and safety police would have closed it down. 401 00:33:35,720 --> 00:33:37,880 Unsafe, and what they'd really be saying 402 00:33:37,880 --> 00:33:40,840 is not just unsafe for your body, but unsafe for your mind. 403 00:33:40,840 --> 00:33:43,000 You shouldn't be having these thoughts. 404 00:33:44,160 --> 00:33:47,720 But James could do what he liked in Xilitla. 405 00:33:47,720 --> 00:33:52,760 Mexico wasn't judgemental about personal behaviour in the way that Europe and America were. 406 00:33:52,760 --> 00:33:55,680 It was also without building regulation of any kind, 407 00:33:55,680 --> 00:33:59,640 and there was a local and very cheap labour force only too glad of the work. 408 00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:05,840 I am bedevilled and struggling with this idea 409 00:34:05,840 --> 00:34:12,000 of beauty as a pure thing and this place which is chaos in a sense. 410 00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:14,320 Ugly things next to beautiful things. 411 00:34:14,320 --> 00:34:17,080 I mean, look at that, look at that...thing. 412 00:34:17,080 --> 00:34:20,840 To me, it's not doing anything other than being kitsch and naff 413 00:34:20,840 --> 00:34:25,320 and is absolutely no better or worse than a garden gnome. 414 00:34:25,320 --> 00:34:29,120 Now this I think is fantastic, where you have plant-like forms 415 00:34:29,120 --> 00:34:32,760 encrusted with moss and lichens and ferns, 416 00:34:32,760 --> 00:34:37,040 with trees of vaguely similar form growing up around them. 417 00:34:37,040 --> 00:34:40,280 You don't quite know which is which. 418 00:34:40,280 --> 00:34:46,240 So, cheek by jowl with the most wonderful exotic, beautiful, fabulous stuff, 419 00:34:46,240 --> 00:34:52,320 is bit of complete kitsch, and it's upsetting me. 420 00:34:52,320 --> 00:34:54,400 I don't know what to think. 421 00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:09,080 I mean there is the fact that I could just be a boring old fart who likes the vaguely familiar... 422 00:35:10,600 --> 00:35:17,520 ..and finds aspects of the sort of surrealistic way of doing things 423 00:35:17,520 --> 00:35:20,800 in a garden as too unsettling. 424 00:35:20,800 --> 00:35:23,440 It rattles my cage a bit too much. 425 00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:27,680 THUNDER RUMBLES 426 00:35:31,400 --> 00:35:36,240 The weather changes from hot and steamy, to rainy and surprisingly cool. 427 00:35:36,240 --> 00:35:43,080 To find out more about James, I am meeting the current owner, James' godson Plutarcho Gastelum. 428 00:35:43,080 --> 00:35:47,840 Plutarcho's father was in charge of the day-to-day building work in the garden 429 00:35:47,840 --> 00:35:51,280 and James would often stay with the family on his visits to Mexico, 430 00:35:51,280 --> 00:35:53,920 so Plutarcho knew James since he was a small child. 431 00:35:55,880 --> 00:35:58,800 - You grew up here didn't you? - Yes. 432 00:35:58,800 --> 00:36:01,520 What was it like being a child in this garden? 433 00:36:01,520 --> 00:36:08,040 It was magical because it was like a different country. 434 00:36:10,040 --> 00:36:17,360 Now, it's different, it's fantastic but kind of ghostly or melancholic, 435 00:36:17,360 --> 00:36:20,080 but at that time it was very vivid 436 00:36:20,080 --> 00:36:26,280 because we had more than 100 workers and they were all my friends. 437 00:36:26,280 --> 00:36:29,960 And Edward James used to have a lot of animals too, 438 00:36:29,960 --> 00:36:33,960 and at that point the place looked like a private zoo or something. 439 00:36:33,960 --> 00:36:37,640 So it was an incredible place for a child. 440 00:36:37,640 --> 00:36:40,960 What was he like as a man? 441 00:36:40,960 --> 00:36:43,480 Describe to me your memories of him. 442 00:36:43,480 --> 00:36:48,520 Yeah, that's something because... I have a different perception, 443 00:36:48,520 --> 00:36:56,040 I could see because for my sisters and I he was our private Santa. 444 00:36:56,040 --> 00:36:58,840 But I could see with my parents it was more difficult, 445 00:36:58,840 --> 00:37:04,360 especially my father because my father was in charge of 446 00:37:04,360 --> 00:37:10,840 all the mundane matters about building a place like this. 447 00:37:10,840 --> 00:37:15,360 Paying the bills, keep the records. 448 00:37:15,360 --> 00:37:18,120 And I could see that he was difficult, 449 00:37:18,120 --> 00:37:24,080 because he didn't have schedules, not even to eat or to sleep. 450 00:37:24,080 --> 00:37:29,120 He didn't realise very well about the mundane world. 451 00:37:29,120 --> 00:37:32,920 So, my father complained a lot about that, 452 00:37:32,920 --> 00:37:37,000 but at the same time he was laughing all the time 453 00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:41,320 about the adventures of Edward James here in Mexico. 454 00:37:43,080 --> 00:37:49,520 Las Pozas is unedited, unfettered, unbalanced and completely unworldly, 455 00:37:49,520 --> 00:37:51,040 and its future is uncertain. 456 00:37:51,040 --> 00:37:57,480 Plutarcho told me he employs 50 people whose sole job is to cut back the jungle. 457 00:37:57,480 --> 00:38:00,480 Perhaps James could afford his follies to be so extreme 458 00:38:00,480 --> 00:38:03,720 because he knew the jungle would one day consume him, 459 00:38:03,720 --> 00:38:07,800 just as it has consumed the lost Aztec cities. 460 00:38:09,920 --> 00:38:14,520 We use words cheaply when we're describing gardens, and I know I'm as guilty as anybody, 461 00:38:14,520 --> 00:38:21,400 but this more than any other garden in the world can truly be described as fantastic. 462 00:38:21,400 --> 00:38:27,600 It is like no other, and yet, again and again as I walk around it 463 00:38:27,600 --> 00:38:30,960 I'm reminded of an 18th century milord, 464 00:38:30,960 --> 00:38:34,600 touring Europe, buying extraordinary things 465 00:38:34,600 --> 00:38:39,040 and using them to create a series of follies in a landscaped park, 466 00:38:39,040 --> 00:38:43,960 with ruined chapels and temples and re-routed rivers 467 00:38:43,960 --> 00:38:47,320 and villages swept away so a ha-ha can be built. 468 00:38:47,320 --> 00:38:53,920 And that the result is this extraordinary creation in the middle of the Mexican Jungle 469 00:38:53,920 --> 00:38:58,760 just makes it even more extraordinary and unlike anything else. 470 00:39:01,000 --> 00:39:04,520 What I have seen in Mexico has been inspiring and fascinating, 471 00:39:04,520 --> 00:39:07,120 from the ancient history of the floating gardens 472 00:39:07,120 --> 00:39:09,680 to Barragan's great volumes of colour and light, 473 00:39:09,680 --> 00:39:17,000 and the cool, clean lines of the cactus garden built upon its sense of local identity. 474 00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:20,360 But now, I'm moving on to a very different world, 475 00:39:20,360 --> 00:39:22,720 albeit geographically close to Mexico, 476 00:39:22,720 --> 00:39:26,880 where the gardens are a product of political necessity and social will. 477 00:39:29,040 --> 00:39:33,160 My journey takes me to the largest island in the Caribbean. 478 00:39:33,160 --> 00:39:37,600 Cuba lies just 140 miles to the east of Mexico 479 00:39:37,600 --> 00:39:40,120 and I'm heading to the capital, Havana. 480 00:39:43,720 --> 00:39:47,000 I've been wanting to visit Havana for ages. 481 00:39:47,000 --> 00:39:51,560 It doesn't take long to see that it is beautiful, ruined, 482 00:39:51,560 --> 00:39:53,880 and the sexiest place on this earth. 483 00:39:53,880 --> 00:39:57,080 Now that's all rather good but I've come to find out about 484 00:39:57,080 --> 00:40:01,120 an organic revolution that's taking place right across the country, 485 00:40:01,120 --> 00:40:04,800 that could be a model for the climate-changed, post-oil world. 486 00:40:04,800 --> 00:40:08,120 Around a fifth of Cuba's population live in Havana. 487 00:40:08,120 --> 00:40:14,560 It's a city that is undoubtedly seductive and exhilarating, but suffering from decades of neglect. 488 00:40:14,560 --> 00:40:19,880 It's a very beautiful city, because it's not what I call face-lift beauty, 489 00:40:19,880 --> 00:40:27,360 manicured and tweaked, it's like a wonderful face on a 70-year-old woman, 490 00:40:27,360 --> 00:40:31,360 a lifetime's worth of beauty that's accumulated. 491 00:40:33,040 --> 00:40:37,640 As you travel around the city you do get a sense of a place frozen in time. 492 00:40:37,640 --> 00:40:42,040 Most of the vehicles are pre-1959, lovingly maintained, 493 00:40:42,040 --> 00:40:44,680 and they add hugely to the city's charm. 494 00:40:49,240 --> 00:40:51,960 But among the decrepit buildings of the old city, 495 00:40:51,960 --> 00:40:56,920 there is a strange pairing of decay and healthy growth. 496 00:41:02,600 --> 00:41:04,040 Hola, buenos dias. 497 00:41:05,560 --> 00:41:09,320 This might seem like an unlikely place for a garden, 498 00:41:09,320 --> 00:41:14,560 but actually it's both incredibly interesting and also very typical of what's going on here in Cuba. 499 00:41:14,560 --> 00:41:18,960 After the Russians withdrew their economic support at the end of the 80s 500 00:41:18,960 --> 00:41:21,000 and the collapse of the Soviet empire, 501 00:41:21,000 --> 00:41:23,920 Cuba was found in a situation where they had no food, 502 00:41:23,920 --> 00:41:29,520 they absolutely had to start growing food without oil, without fertilizers, pesticides. 503 00:41:29,520 --> 00:41:32,000 So all across the city, with a communal effort, 504 00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:36,360 they turned bits of wasteland into highly productive areas for food and medicine. 505 00:41:36,360 --> 00:41:37,640 They had no medicines. 506 00:41:37,640 --> 00:41:42,920 So what you have now is not just a population growing its own food in the middle of a city, 507 00:41:42,920 --> 00:41:46,160 but actually one of the most sophisticated, sustainable means 508 00:41:46,160 --> 00:41:51,640 of organic growing of gardening, medicine on every level, in the world. 509 00:41:56,600 --> 00:42:01,320 Right in the middle of the crumbling colonial grandeur, 510 00:42:01,320 --> 00:42:04,000 a genuine green revolution is taking place 511 00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:08,280 in the form of small, productive gardens called huertas. 512 00:42:10,320 --> 00:42:14,040 These are the equivalent of our allotments but built on derelict land 513 00:42:14,040 --> 00:42:19,160 and they are the basis of a new gardening culture that is sprouting up all over the city. 514 00:42:25,480 --> 00:42:29,320 Alberto's huerta is typical of many in Havana. 515 00:42:29,320 --> 00:42:34,360 The building that stood here collapsed, so Alberto and his brother-in-law cleared the site 516 00:42:34,360 --> 00:42:37,800 and brought in the soil in wheelbarrows to build the raised beds, 517 00:42:37,800 --> 00:42:40,120 even though they didn't own the land. 518 00:42:43,160 --> 00:42:45,160 TRANSLATION: We took the huerta 519 00:42:45,160 --> 00:42:47,400 because we came from a family of farmers. 520 00:42:47,400 --> 00:42:52,240 So, when we saw the empty space here, we agreed to grow plants. 521 00:42:52,240 --> 00:42:57,200 It was for a hobby, and to give produce back to the community. 522 00:43:12,960 --> 00:43:15,560 When the Special Period began, 523 00:43:15,560 --> 00:43:18,840 did that change the way that you gardened here? 524 00:43:21,640 --> 00:43:24,880 TRANSLATION: Well, I've had to start more or less inventing. 525 00:43:24,880 --> 00:43:27,480 Because the climate here changed a lot. 526 00:43:27,480 --> 00:43:34,040 And because of the need, we have to grow quick-growing plants so the community could benefit. 527 00:43:38,280 --> 00:43:42,280 After leaving Alberto, I realised that much of his passion for gardening 528 00:43:42,280 --> 00:43:47,560 is driven by his desire to work with and for his local community. 529 00:43:47,560 --> 00:43:51,560 His huerta is open and part of the street which is very different 530 00:43:51,560 --> 00:43:55,520 from the private sanctuaries we like to create in our own gardens. 531 00:43:57,480 --> 00:44:01,680 The urgent challenge of feeding its 11 million people during the Special Period 532 00:44:01,680 --> 00:44:08,160 meant that the Cuban Regime needed to do something on a much larger scale than Alberto's huerta 533 00:44:08,160 --> 00:44:13,240 so kitchen gardens, or organoponicos, were set up in the heart of urban communities. 534 00:44:14,880 --> 00:44:20,360 One of the largest of these is in the suburb of Alamar on the outskirts of the city. 535 00:44:31,200 --> 00:44:34,280 To me this is a sort of vision of heaven. 536 00:44:34,280 --> 00:44:37,920 Wonderful vegetables grown organically. 537 00:44:37,920 --> 00:44:40,160 It looks beautiful. 538 00:44:40,160 --> 00:44:45,000 People all working together from the community growing them, 539 00:44:45,000 --> 00:44:49,600 earning a living, eating them, caring about it. 540 00:44:49,600 --> 00:44:50,640 That's the key. 541 00:44:50,640 --> 00:44:53,920 If you want to do something well, you've really got to mean it. 542 00:44:53,920 --> 00:44:55,520 And this place means it. 543 00:44:59,200 --> 00:45:01,560 Now you might argue that this is not a garden, 544 00:45:01,560 --> 00:45:07,160 but there's nothing that goes on here that doesn't happen in every garden or allotment back home, 545 00:45:07,160 --> 00:45:10,640 it's just expanded out to meet a dire social need. 546 00:45:10,640 --> 00:45:16,640 It's the resourcefulness of the Cuban people that have made this organic revolution work 547 00:45:16,640 --> 00:45:20,920 with engineers and bureaucrats going back to the land. 548 00:45:20,920 --> 00:45:25,920 Dr Funes is an agronomist and a key figure in Cuba's green revolution. 549 00:45:25,920 --> 00:45:28,440 He'll introduce me to some of the people here. 550 00:45:28,440 --> 00:45:31,600 Emilio! Como estas? 551 00:45:31,600 --> 00:45:35,000 Monty Don de la BBC, and Emelio is an engineer. 552 00:45:35,000 --> 00:45:37,320 He is in charge of pests and their control. 553 00:45:37,320 --> 00:45:38,640 And what's he spraying? 554 00:45:38,640 --> 00:45:42,680 I'm applying liquid and smoke. 555 00:45:42,680 --> 00:45:44,640 Smoke liquid? 556 00:45:44,640 --> 00:45:46,080 Yes, to control pests. 557 00:45:46,080 --> 00:45:47,760 So, natural pest control. 558 00:45:51,800 --> 00:45:55,880 Miguel Salcinas was one of the four men who set up the organoponico 10 years ago. 559 00:45:55,880 --> 00:46:00,680 He used to work in an office but now runs this incredibly successful garden. 560 00:46:00,680 --> 00:46:05,400 He has agreed to show me some of the plants and organic methods that they use here. 561 00:46:06,000 --> 00:46:08,600 TRANSLATION: This is where we make the compost. 562 00:46:12,040 --> 00:46:14,080 The rice beds guarantee drainage. 563 00:46:17,080 --> 00:46:20,840 Ahh, the husk from rice. What do you use this for? 564 00:46:22,240 --> 00:46:25,680 TRANSLATION: We use this to produce compost for seedlings. 565 00:46:29,440 --> 00:46:32,480 These beds are where we make the worm humus. 566 00:46:33,440 --> 00:46:35,280 Hmmm, beautiful... 567 00:46:36,240 --> 00:46:40,640 Now, I don't recognize this tree or fruit, what is it? 568 00:46:40,640 --> 00:46:44,560 TRANSLATION: This tree is called the Noni. 569 00:46:44,560 --> 00:46:49,960 It is a plant from Central Asia and it's Latin name is Morinda citrifolia. 570 00:46:49,960 --> 00:46:55,280 It's been used as a medicinal plant for 2,000 years. 571 00:46:55,280 --> 00:46:58,640 According to studies at the University of Honolulu in Hawaii, 572 00:46:58,640 --> 00:47:01,800 it improved the quality of life of more than 100 illnesses. 573 00:47:01,800 --> 00:47:02,840 Does it taste good? 574 00:47:02,840 --> 00:47:03,880 No, muy mala. 575 00:47:03,880 --> 00:47:07,160 No? Is this a ripe fruit? 576 00:47:07,160 --> 00:47:08,760 Sabe a queso rancido. 577 00:47:08,760 --> 00:47:14,920 The ripe fruit tastes like old cheese, raw cheese. 578 00:47:14,920 --> 00:47:19,360 It's like Stilton or Roquefort. 579 00:47:19,360 --> 00:47:21,760 It is, believe you me, 580 00:47:21,760 --> 00:47:28,200 this smells 100% of a ripe blue cheese, 581 00:47:28,200 --> 00:47:30,440 which I happen to like! 582 00:47:30,440 --> 00:47:34,240 And it tastes the same? 583 00:47:37,240 --> 00:47:41,000 Some people used to eat it directly like this, 584 00:47:41,000 --> 00:47:45,080 but most of the people used to drink the juice, 585 00:47:45,080 --> 00:47:51,560 and you can reduce the flavour because sometimes it's not so well established. 586 00:47:51,560 --> 00:47:54,240 Maybe for the French people it's excellent! 587 00:48:00,320 --> 00:48:04,680 One of the most fascinating aspects about Alamar is that it's for city dwellers 588 00:48:04,680 --> 00:48:09,000 and run by local people which has huge social benefits. 589 00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:11,880 TRANSLATION: This has had a great social impact. 590 00:48:11,880 --> 00:48:16,440 It has created jobs with relatively little investment. 591 00:48:16,440 --> 00:48:20,320 And on the spiritual side, the city is more beautiful. 592 00:48:20,320 --> 00:48:24,280 Many young people used to think agriculture is not cool 593 00:48:24,280 --> 00:48:28,200 and, originally, not many people wanted to get involved. 594 00:48:28,200 --> 00:48:31,120 Now, most of the people coming to us are young. 595 00:48:31,120 --> 00:48:36,920 Meanwhile, in other countries there is an exodus from the field to the cities. 596 00:48:36,920 --> 00:48:39,680 TRANSLATION: But here it is the other way around. 597 00:48:48,640 --> 00:48:53,080 All produce from the garden is sold locally so it's fresh and wonderfully nutritious. 598 00:48:53,080 --> 00:48:56,160 And because the transportation in all directions 599 00:48:56,160 --> 00:49:00,800 is measured in metres not miles, the carbon trail is minimal. 600 00:49:05,520 --> 00:49:08,280 I think this place is a model. 601 00:49:08,280 --> 00:49:11,720 I think everything about it is completely wonderful. 602 00:49:11,720 --> 00:49:16,160 If we could bring this same attitude to our back gardens back at home, 603 00:49:16,160 --> 00:49:20,480 our millions of back gardens and allotments producing wonderful vegetables, 604 00:49:20,480 --> 00:49:26,920 just think what that could do to change the whole structure of our approach to food. 605 00:49:26,920 --> 00:49:33,360 So it's an inspiration, and it's beautiful and, OK, I'm biased, but it's a fabulous garden. 606 00:49:42,080 --> 00:49:45,440 There are thousands of organoponicos throughout Cuba. 607 00:49:45,440 --> 00:49:48,680 In Havana, you'll find them in the most unlikely of settings, 608 00:49:48,680 --> 00:49:51,120 right in the heart of inner city communities. 609 00:49:55,880 --> 00:49:59,360 Another of the factors that has made this green revolution work 610 00:49:59,360 --> 00:50:04,040 is the system of support provided through a network of horticultural advice centres 611 00:50:04,040 --> 00:50:05,880 to anyone who wants to garden. 612 00:50:10,080 --> 00:50:14,760 This is just one of 60 CTA kiosks in Havana alone, 613 00:50:14,760 --> 00:50:17,800 and the idea is to get advice and information to people, 614 00:50:17,800 --> 00:50:21,720 to help them to grow their own food in gardens dotted all over the city. 615 00:50:21,720 --> 00:50:24,600 And people come along, they bring problems, 616 00:50:24,600 --> 00:50:29,080 they buy feeds and fertilisers, all produced organically. 617 00:50:29,080 --> 00:50:34,720 And you have this network of information and support system that sustains the whole operation. 618 00:50:50,640 --> 00:50:57,320 I think it's wrong to think of all gardening and all growth in Cuba as being driven to produce food. 619 00:50:57,320 --> 00:51:02,720 Everywhere you go, there are plants on balconies, plants on the side of the road, there are parks, 620 00:51:02,720 --> 00:51:09,520 and there are odd corners where you see the need to nurture nature 621 00:51:09,520 --> 00:51:12,840 is expressed through growing ornamental plants. 622 00:51:14,480 --> 00:51:16,280 You do have to look out for them. 623 00:51:16,280 --> 00:51:18,040 They're not that obvious. 624 00:51:20,320 --> 00:51:23,480 Gardening for personal pleasure is not that widespread. 625 00:51:23,480 --> 00:51:26,360 However, I do want to try and meet some gardeners 626 00:51:26,360 --> 00:51:29,480 who tend their plots just for the love of raising plants, 627 00:51:29,480 --> 00:51:37,000 especially in this city that had so brilliantly tackled the desperate demands for physical sustenance. 628 00:51:41,960 --> 00:51:44,400 This is an unexpected site. 629 00:51:44,400 --> 00:51:50,840 A mass of greenery in the ruins of a building, and funnily enough, this reminds me of Edward James' garden. 630 00:51:50,840 --> 00:51:53,440 But clearly somebody has gone to a lot of trouble, 631 00:51:53,440 --> 00:51:57,520 not to just to put these here, but to look after them and keep them looking good. 632 00:52:02,960 --> 00:52:06,720 Chachi runs his rickshaw business right in the heart 633 00:52:06,720 --> 00:52:11,560 of this bustling part of old Havana and this is his little green oasis. 634 00:52:15,160 --> 00:52:18,960 Tell me, why are you growing so many plants in your work place? 635 00:52:22,160 --> 00:52:24,960 TRANSLATION: I like plants. I like them very much. 636 00:52:24,960 --> 00:52:27,280 It is something I inherited from my mum. 637 00:52:29,760 --> 00:52:32,280 It's like you find peace with them. 638 00:52:33,960 --> 00:52:38,360 When you're watering them, caring for them, their colours entertain your mind. 639 00:52:43,880 --> 00:52:46,440 It's as if you're having a conversation with them. 640 00:52:48,760 --> 00:52:51,760 You're alone in a world that is just you and them. 641 00:52:53,560 --> 00:52:56,240 Wherever I am, there have to be plants. 642 00:53:16,200 --> 00:53:19,000 This is the last garden that I'm going to be visiting. 643 00:53:19,000 --> 00:53:23,560 It belongs to a woman called Maria de los Angeles. 644 00:53:23,560 --> 00:53:28,760 And she likes to grow plants that have ornamental and, I believe, spiritual value. 645 00:53:37,880 --> 00:53:40,440 The first thing I notice about Maria's garden, 646 00:53:40,440 --> 00:53:44,560 apart from the flowers, is that she has an amazing array of containers. 647 00:53:52,000 --> 00:53:58,280 TRANSLATION: In the beginning, I started with little pots, which are very expensive. 648 00:53:58,280 --> 00:54:01,680 But then, I started recycling. 649 00:54:01,680 --> 00:54:05,720 Coffee pots, polystyrene tubs, 650 00:54:05,720 --> 00:54:09,960 all the things you normally throw away I recycle here. 651 00:54:09,960 --> 00:54:14,280 And, little by little, my idea grew. 652 00:54:21,400 --> 00:54:27,080 Now, this is the first garden I've been to in Havana that isn't dominated by edible plants. 653 00:54:27,080 --> 00:54:28,720 Why is that? 654 00:54:33,240 --> 00:54:35,800 TRANSLATION: Initially, my project was to make 655 00:54:35,800 --> 00:54:37,800 a garden of ornamental plants. 656 00:54:37,800 --> 00:54:44,200 But, because of both the country's needs and my spiritual needs, 657 00:54:44,200 --> 00:54:51,880 I said to myself, why not mix ornamental plants and fruit trees? 658 00:54:52,960 --> 00:54:57,760 I would like to know more about how the plants fulfil your spiritual needs. 659 00:54:57,760 --> 00:55:02,200 TRANSLATION: Cuba is full of very beautiful places, 660 00:55:02,200 --> 00:55:08,560 but the economy doesn't allow us the luxury of visiting them. 661 00:55:10,920 --> 00:55:15,840 So, we create a world at home so we don't need to spend the money 662 00:55:15,840 --> 00:55:18,960 and feel happy here instead. 663 00:55:31,320 --> 00:55:33,040 Plants energise me. 664 00:55:33,040 --> 00:55:34,920 When I look at them, 665 00:55:34,920 --> 00:55:39,360 they tell me when they need water, when they need food. 666 00:55:41,160 --> 00:55:44,720 All this gives me life energy. 667 00:55:44,720 --> 00:55:47,960 Vitality, for me and for my family. 668 00:55:53,480 --> 00:55:56,640 Even though Maria's garden fulfils her spiritual needs, 669 00:55:56,640 --> 00:55:59,280 there are plants here that are a reminder 670 00:55:59,280 --> 00:56:03,720 of the crisis that Cuba still faces on a daily basis. 671 00:56:03,720 --> 00:56:08,040 TRANSLATION: This banana plant helped the family 672 00:56:08,040 --> 00:56:12,920 through the difficult times of the Special Period. 673 00:56:12,920 --> 00:56:15,720 It has fed the family. 674 00:56:15,720 --> 00:56:18,880 The little ones, everybody. 675 00:56:33,360 --> 00:56:36,600 What do your neighbours and friends think about this garden? 676 00:56:36,600 --> 00:56:41,360 TRANSLATION: Some people complain because it blocks the window. 677 00:56:41,360 --> 00:56:48,120 Or they see it from above and say it is very beautiful and say hello every morning. 678 00:56:48,120 --> 00:56:51,280 Things like that encourage me. 679 00:56:51,280 --> 00:56:54,560 Attitudes are changing in our country. 680 00:56:54,560 --> 00:57:00,800 The culture of plants and gardening is reawakening our appreciation 681 00:57:00,800 --> 00:57:08,120 that the environment is as important to our health as any conventional therapy. 682 00:57:12,160 --> 00:57:18,440 Maria's garden is interesting because it is such an exception to the general rule here in Havana. 683 00:57:18,440 --> 00:57:22,600 I believe the Cubans have created a working model for the future we all face. 684 00:57:22,600 --> 00:57:26,560 In the middle of a large city, with practically no money and no resources, 685 00:57:26,560 --> 00:57:30,240 they are producing fresh, organic fruit and vegetables 686 00:57:30,240 --> 00:57:35,240 by and for local communities, not industrially, but in the garden. 687 00:57:36,320 --> 00:57:39,120 Well, with real regret I've got to leave Havana 688 00:57:39,120 --> 00:57:42,520 which is the most seductive place I've ever visited in my life. 689 00:57:42,520 --> 00:57:44,800 And I've been here at a time of real change, 690 00:57:44,800 --> 00:57:48,200 and I'm sure that it could go either way. 691 00:57:48,200 --> 00:57:51,080 Gardens could become more like Maria's, 692 00:57:51,080 --> 00:57:54,800 which is conventional, very beautiful, but westernised. 693 00:57:54,800 --> 00:58:00,400 Or we could learn from the extraordinary things they have achieved 694 00:58:00,400 --> 00:58:02,520 and had to achieve over the last 15 years 695 00:58:02,520 --> 00:58:07,600 and develop a system of using our gardens to feed ourselves on a sustainable way. 696 00:58:09,440 --> 00:58:11,880 But I do know that I'll be back. 697 00:58:11,880 --> 00:58:16,720 I'll be back as soon as I can, to see how those changes emerge. 698 00:58:18,960 --> 00:58:22,280 Join me next time on the beach at Botany Bay, 699 00:58:22,280 --> 00:58:27,160 where I'll be setting off to explore the unique flora and gardens 700 00:58:27,160 --> 00:58:30,440 of Australia and New Zealand. 701 00:58:40,560 --> 00:58:43,600 Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd 702 00:58:43,600 --> 00:58:46,640 Email subtitling@bbc.co.uk 66685

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