Back from a Renovation Break

Hello world. We wanted to let you know that we’re not dead. This past holiday season brought a last-minute escape to Buenos Aires, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay to “renovate” our spirits.

Travel, along with a much-needed break from the daily grind brings us back feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the new year with gusto.

For now, we leave you with a couple teaser images of what’s to come:

1) After days of toiling in the sun, our garden finally takes shape with partially completed brick paving!

2) We didn’t think the day would ever come, but our kitchen actually arrives (well, 1/3 of it - just enough to make a mess), poco a poco!

November Springtime in Mérida

What? Have we gone mad? How can it possibly be springtime when we’re north of the equator and were headed into winter?

The answer lies in the following image.

Unlike further north, the prime growing season is now upon us. With the heat behind us and tropical storms abated (well, almost), the air is feeling positively springtime and it’s perfect for growing yummy things.

Unlike our previous attempt at growing edible goodies, we now have our first opportunity to take advantage of Mérida’s four-month-ish growing season and see for ourselves what possible wonders will pull themselves from the earth and onto our table.

To start, we have plenty of Asian varietals like Korean radishes, Chinese cucumber, Japanese kabocha squash, and a bounty of leafy greens. In our past experience, they tend to be the hardiest. Mixed in with these are some other reliable croppers like heirloom tomatoes (using seeds we kept from last year’s treasures), chili peppers and eggplant (a surprise hit, as even in the heat of actual spring in Mérida, they grew and grew).

And just to make things interesting, we’re trying some past failures like fennel and green beans (we shall see). 

Even more exciting is our incoming drip-irrigation system. This simple system will provide a “water light” solution to keeping our plants drinking happily until the rain begins again next May. As water is delivered, drip by drip, and not via the gush of  sprinkler or hose, there is less change of stray water pooling on leaves and pathways and inadvertently creating an unfortunate mosquito problem.

Now all we need is a delivery of compost and organic soil, as well as a few additional components for our drip irrigation system (okay, and the rest of our hardscaping delivered and installed). However, who wants to dwell on details? We can taste our freshly-plucked tomatoes already.

Where Water Flows

Before we started construction, our house had one well, one cistern, one tinaco (water tank), and one single-chamber septic tank.  

It’s a setup typical of houses in the Yucatán. Water is pumped up from the well (of which the well head is visible to the right of the pre-construction photo below) into the ground-level cistern (to the left of the well but overgrown with plants). From there, another pump pushes water up to the tinaco on the roof to provide water pressure for the house. Once used up, gray water returns to the ground via the septic tank.

Our renovation is an opportunity to improve, and some would argue, complicate the plumbing.

Our new setup starts on the street, where after 100 years, the house is now connected to city water. This water flows (more accurately trickles) into the house and is deposited into a new 1700 gallon (6800 liter) cistern being built under the rear garden.  

Above - the formed cistern. Below - the cistern again, covered with a concrete lid.

Instead of a tinaco on the roof, we’ll achieve pressure with a motorized water pressure system, which will sit in a service building being constructed atop the cistern (below). What we’ll do in the event of a hurricane-induced two day power outage, we have no idea, but we were drawing water by hand when we first camped out at our house, so no doubt we can do it again.

After water is pumped from the cistern, it flows through a water softener to remove excess calcium and, where appropriate, a reverse osmosis filtration system to render it drinkable.

Gray water is directed into a new three-chamber septic tank fashioned from the original cistern. Successively cleaned in each chamber, treated water is finally directed down the original well.

Where once a torrential downpour would flood the yard, storm water runoff is now collected in gutters and piped directly down the well.

We toyed with the idea of adding some kind of rain water catchment system for the garden, but it didn’t make sense. During the six month wet season, there’s so much water, we don’t need to store any. Saving enough to keep our plants growing during the non-rainy six would require that we dig a hole 2-3 times the size of our pool - a cost prohibitive proposition.

Instead, a new well (90 feet deep) was drilled in the rear garden next to the service room (pictured in the shot to the right). Besides feeding the drip irrigation for our garden, this well will also be used to fill the pool. 

Our new setup is a distinct improvement. Softer, potable water delivered with improved water pressure, free water for the garden and pool (the bulk of our usage) and a more responsible system for waste management. Despite all this however, the benefit we most look forward to is not having a name-branded 20 liter plastic water bottle sitting on the kitchen counter…except perhaps when the next hurricane arrives.

Layering Views

With the heat of April fully upon us and the thought that the rain (and associated onslaught of mosquitos) will soon return, we are finding ourselves indoors and sheltering from merciless clime.

The longer we spend inside, the more we miss spending time in the garden. It reminds us of the design goal we set this time last year - to design indoor spaces that remain connected to the outdoors during summer.

One major way we will be achieving this is through the use of large picture windows that provide vistas into the garden. One of these vistas is from the kitchen into the rear garden, now under construction.

Viewed from inside the kitchen, the many layers that will compose our garden are starting to come through. From the small stone retaining wall in the foreground to the elevated patio beyond, the eye moves upward and outward until it hits the canopy of trees beyond our property walls.

Compare this to a 3D render we did a while back and we’re starting to really appreciate the complexity of textures that will hopefully keep us connected to the world beyond the kichen door.

Intrepid Exploration Without Leaving Home

Yesterday, we discovered a lime tree on the property. We feel like explorers.

Although we only have a small rear garden, it was hidden amongst the undergrowth and we never spotted it until the yard was recently cleared. With its discovery, it’s rather obvious this little tree could do with a bit of coiffing.

Now that we can get back to the rear of the property (also a new journey), we can finally appreciate the space. In a few weeks, a guy will start digging our pool (by hand). When finished, it will sit in the foreground of the image, a little to the right.

Wanted: A Garden Guru

We’ve been on the hunt for someone here in Mérida who can help us flesh out our landscape/garden design. Who knew this would be such a chore.

Our initial search for expertise came up with a few smatterings of viveros (or nurseries) who were quite happy to show us the plants they sold, but didn’t seem terribly interested in our overarching landscape ideas.  It felt like they were just looking to sell us their plants instead of create us the garden we wanted.

To make things more complex, we are looking to develop a fairly edible garden, rich in species that will fill our kitchen with fruits, spices, salad greens, and vegetables year round. No one we met really seemed to fully get this idea. Instead, we had people laugh at us as if we’re crazy for even considering growing our own food in the tropics.

We don’t imagine that this task is easy, but do believe that it’s possible.  All we have to do is look to Cuba, where it’s happening on a massive scale, to know it can be done. This video clip from a fantastic BBC series Around the World in 80 Gardens, illustrates this point perfectly.

So here’s the bottom line. We have a base design for our gardens that details the existing conditions, overall goals, general layout, pathways, and other important features. What we need is to partner with someone who knows about the local conditions and can help us with our planting scheme. We need someone who can say, “You want a big tree here? This is what I recommend, and why.”

Such assistance will be invaluable to creating a healthy garden where plants thrive in conditions that favor them rather than their predators. We also need someone with an understanding of composition to ensure the plants being recommended create a space with a good balance of color, density and texture.

If you know of anyone who can help with this, please leave a comment or email us directly.

Need Dirt? Just Wait.

Last Saturday, we purchased large terracotta planter pots for some herbs and a few vegetable plants we had acquired. Once home, we realized we didn’t have enough soil to fill our pots and thus could only transfer the herbs to their new home. We resolved to phone up our favorite vivero and order a few bags for delivery.

Fast forward a few days and we still hadn’t called. In fact, we kind of forgot about it as our attention moved to more important things - like staying cool, eating salbutes and finishing up our drawings for permitting. 

Yesterday, a man knocked on our door out of the blue selling dirt. We’ve often heard these guys yelling “tierra” atop their horse-drawn carts while clip clopping down our street. This was the first time they actually knocked on our door. Talk about timing!

Three bags of dirt later, we now have planters filled, plants planted and hopefully soon, some yummy celery and lemon grass to add to our cooking regiment. 

Cooking Al Fresco

Last year, having just moved into our “ruin of a house” for a few months (see here, here and here), we stupidly decided to inaugurate our makeshift kitchen by making some carnitas. It was over 100 degrees outside, and after three hours of boiling, the kitchen felt like a sauna gone wild - and it was only April.

After a few experiences like this, we became resolved to move everything in the kitchen that produced heat, outside. Enter the outdoor kitchen.

What did we want our outdoor kitchen to have? A large Argentinean-style charcoal grill for steaks, two gas burners for slow braises that won’t heat up the kitchen and an oven for all that baking. Ample counter space for prepping and a sink for washing hands, chopping boards, etc. were also on the list.

Our checklist complete, we placed the outdoor kitchen just off the main kitchen opposite the formal dining table. We thought this would be a great way to connect the person boiling carnitas (that would be Brent) with the people sitting around the dining table drinking cocktails (that would be Stan and guests).

As the plan progressed, however, we found that having one person inside the screen doors and one person outside didn’t seem very conducive to entertaining. We also found that when not cooking, the rather large outdoor kitchen took up a lot of precious garden space in our courtyard. Instead of gazing over at lush plants, you would instead see a dusty counter top and a soot-stained barbecue. It just wasn’t right.

Time for a rethink. We know what we want, but what do we actually need? We can do most of our prep inside, so we could probably cope with less counter space. And how much baking do we really do? Perhaps we could usher the oven back inside. As for the sink, it’s a nice thing to have, but it doesn’t have to sit so prominently in the space.

Above is the latest iteration. Instead of sitting north of the kitchen building in the central courtyard, it resides in our rear garden to the south - conveniently in the space designated for our kitchen garden. Its new location allows it to be shared with gardening and other services, thus saving precious space.

Like the theme we are using in our kitchen, we have re-conceived the cook top as a stand-alone piece of furniture. When not in use, it will fold up and look like a work table in the garden. We have basically the same equipment, but it now blends much better with the garden and will be cheaper to construct (as we near the start of construction, trimming the budget is a recurring theme).

We’ve also added a sink to our service building out back (the white building on the right). Not only does it allow access to water when cooking outside, but it does double duty as a sink for gardening and other such activities.

All in all, we like our new design. We get to cook outside and in the garden. It’s really all we ever wanted.

The Heat is On

We were stuck for ideas for our blog post today so we decided to go for a walk. Outside. At noon. With no shade. It was 100 degrees. Did we get inspiration? Yes - and all of it sweaty!

As we strolled, we were reminded of the wonderful cooling effect of trees. Whenever we passed under one, the temperature dropped 10 degrees. The reasons are twofold: first, tree leaves reflect heat and second, they transpire water through their leaves, which creates a great evaporative cooling effect.

Compare that to walls, roof overhangs and other hard surfaces. Although these surfaces provide shade, they also soak up heat and radiate it back at you. You only need to stand in the middle of a parking lot of a big-box retail establishment colonizing Mérida’s northern suburbs to understand how horrible this is. For that matter, touch the bedroom ceiling in your concrete house around 9pm and you’ll feel heat radiating through the concrete.

All of this is timely reminder for us given that we have been debating over the last week about whether to remove one of the bitter orange trees in rear garden. Last week, in the luxury of cooler weather, our instinct was to chuck it. After all, we have two others, and there is only so much naranjada we can drink.

But today, at the start of the hot season, we are firmly committed to keeping it. Even if we don’t use all the fruit, we will certainly enjoy its cooling power and its ability to keep our AC bills down.