Not Digging the Pool

It’s time to design our rear garden, the long neglected stepchild of our central courtyard.  For the last few months we have pictured a lengthy lap pool - in which we toil daily on our new-found Athenian physiques.

Taking a hard look at the space (and our feelings toward strenuous exercise), we realize that 12 meters of blue will annex our goal of a lush garden space. Although it’s nice to drop the length of one’s “lap pool” into conversation, it’s simply not enough.

The second thing we realized was that by building the pool flush with the ground, we were increasing our construction costs by close to $10,000 USD.  Crazy, huh?

As we mentioned before, Mérida sits on solid limestone.  As such, to make a 1.4 meter-deep hole in the ground means explosives.  As the only way to the rear garden is through the front door, it also means digging and hauling those 40 cubic meters of exploded rock by hand. Put together, this means mucho dinero.

To make things better, we changed the pool to a rectangle that measures approximately 4x7 meters.  Not much of a reduction in overall size, but it allows us to shift the pool toward the center of the space and surround it with garden.  We also raised the pool and surrounding garden by 60cm. Not only will this mean less digging, but evacuated rock can now be used to raise up the garden, saving both our money and carbon footprint.

The “diorama-style” renders above illustrate our current thinking. It’s a pain to render realistic foliage, so imagine lush planting everywhere depicted in green. Imagine hard enough and you realize that from the kitchen, you will barely see the pool. Green trumps blue, just the way we want it.

It’s early days yet, so expect to see more developments. Until then, let us know what you think.

Out of Control

Last month we moved out of our run-down house in favor of rented accommodation (we are now dryer, cleaner and more rodent free - thanks for asking).

One consequence of this move is that our garden has been severely neglected. In our absence, it has taken advantage and is now out of control like a wayward teen.

This is eight weeks ago:

This is today:

Rainy season in the tropics. Who knew?!

Ensuring You Want It Enough

On one side of our eat in kitchen, we have a large 3x3m opening that looks out into the rear garden.  Our plan is to transform this gap into a key “money shot” moment in our design.  But how?

Looking around for inspiration, we found the pavilion at the Kampong Gardens in Coconut Grove, Florida.

Between brick columns, the architect has decided to erect wooden frames with no glass or screens.  It’s purely ornamental and fantastic.

The frames transform an otherwise typical line of columns into a series of windows that outline the garden beyond.  By creating this false barrier, the garden feels like it sits apart, heightening your sense of longing.  As they say, distance makes the heart grow fonder.

Staging a Vista

While walking along Collins Avenue in South Beach, Miami, we passed by an alcove running alongside a hotel.

We were inspired by the way this space is carved with long paths that accentuate the depth of the site. We also liked how the bodega sits nestled within the greenery, framing the line of umbrellas and drawing the eye toward the mystery beyond.

Like many properties in Mérida, our property is also long and thin. The hope is to design our garden in a way that draws the eye deep into the site, where the back boundary connects and merges with the trees and buildings beyond. We are in the midst of developing a garden design that ultimately achieves this.

A Garden War on Multiple Fronts

This past week, our garden has been under attack.

It began when we discovered our entire crop of Chinese broccoli decimated by leaf-cutter ants. Then, a plague of whiteflies appeared and spread cucumber mosaic virus over our tomatoes and pumpkins.

A whitefly on the end of a tomato leaf.

Two days later, an army of red spider mites marched in and attacked our beans and cabbages. Yesterday, caterpillars began grazing on our cucumber leaves and last night our first locust dropped by.

Every day brings new troubles. Our sense of optimism suggests that with five plagues down, we are about half way done. Maybe we are batting six for ten if you count swine flu.

This is not to say that success has alluded us. Most of our Asian vegetables are doing well. These include Chinese water spinach, Chinese broccoli, daikon radish, napa cabbage, white mustard greens, perilla, and chrysanthemum. They seem to thrive in this heat and are relatively resistant to pests and diseases. Our arugula is also plodding along and we are into our second crop within a month.