0:00:02 > 0:00:06I believe a really good way to understand a culture is through it's gardens.
0:00:06 > 0:00:11This is an extraordinary journey to visit 80 inspiring gardens from all over the world.
0:00:11 > 0:00:16Some are very well known like the Taj Mahal or the Alhambra.
0:00:16 > 0:00:22And I'm also challenging my idea of what a garden actually is.
0:00:22 > 0:00:27So I'm visiting gardens that float on the Amazon, a strange fantasy in the jungle.
0:00:27 > 0:00:30As well as the private homes of great designers,
0:00:30 > 0:00:33and the desert flowering in a garden...
0:00:33 > 0:00:38and wherever I go I shall be meeting people that share my own passion for gardens
0:00:38 > 0:00:44on my epic quest to see the world through 80 of it's most fascinating and beautiful gardens.
0:00:56 > 0:00:59This week, my travels have brought me to the continent
0:00:59 > 0:01:03with the most diverse climate and range of landscapes on this planet,
0:01:03 > 0:01:10and which is home to more than 50,000 species of plants only found here.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13This is a land almost twice the size of Europe.
0:01:13 > 0:01:14South America.
0:01:17 > 0:01:21One of the ways of trying to get beneath the skin
0:01:21 > 0:01:24of this vast continent
0:01:24 > 0:01:27is to work out what people's concept of a garden actually is.
0:01:30 > 0:01:34And I also want to find out what it is that drives people to make gardens at all,
0:01:34 > 0:01:40when their natural landscape is as beautiful and dramatic as this.
0:01:44 > 0:01:49I'm starting the first leg of my journey in Rio de Janeiro,
0:01:49 > 0:01:53to see the private garden of Brazil's greatest artist,
0:01:53 > 0:01:58before travelling by boat to the floating gardens of the Amazon.
0:01:58 > 0:02:02Heading back south, I'll go to Argentina
0:02:02 > 0:02:05to visit a traditional 'estancia' in the Pampas,
0:02:05 > 0:02:10before finally ending my journey on the Pacific coast of Chile
0:02:10 > 0:02:14where one man has created a garden completely in tune with the landscape.
0:02:18 > 0:02:24So, I arrive for the first time in one of the world's great cities,
0:02:24 > 0:02:25Rio de Janeiro.
0:02:25 > 0:02:29Now, the Brazilian climate varies from hot and arid in the interior
0:02:29 > 0:02:35to hot and sticky in the tropical rainforest of the Amazon jungle.
0:02:35 > 0:02:37So I had expected, for my first visit to Brazil,
0:02:37 > 0:02:40not just all the conventional features of Rio to be there,
0:02:40 > 0:02:44colour, bronzed bodies, dancing, that kind of thing,
0:02:44 > 0:02:48but above all lots of sunshine. After all, it is supposed to be summer.
0:02:48 > 0:02:55Every image of Copacabana beach is of beautiful bodies, sunshine,
0:02:55 > 0:02:57packed beaches...
0:02:57 > 0:03:02Well, this is Copacabana beach, and I've got rain.
0:03:02 > 0:03:03And not a soul...
0:03:05 > 0:03:07Not a thong in sight!
0:03:11 > 0:03:14But the reason I'm on the beach in this terrible weather
0:03:14 > 0:03:18is to visit my first garden, the famous Copacabana promenade,
0:03:18 > 0:03:22designed by Roberto Burle Marx in 1970.
0:03:25 > 0:03:29Burle Marx was Brazil's most eminent landscape architect and artist,
0:03:29 > 0:03:36and he radically combined his paintings with the landscape of Rio's pavements and parks.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41He took the lines and the swirls
0:03:41 > 0:03:45that were so familiar from his paintings and his other artwork,
0:03:45 > 0:03:47and applied them to the surface of the Copacabana.
0:03:47 > 0:03:49That went on...
0:03:50 > 0:03:51..and on....
0:03:52 > 0:03:53..and on...
0:03:55 > 0:03:56..and on.
0:03:57 > 0:03:58The scale is simply enormous
0:03:58 > 0:04:03and amounts to a two and a half mile long abstract painting.
0:04:03 > 0:04:08There can be few gardens best seen from the 27th floor of a hotel.
0:04:08 > 0:04:12What we're looking at is one of the largest public gardens in the world.
0:04:12 > 0:04:14And in my opinion, a garden it surely is,
0:04:14 > 0:04:19as clearly municipal and as public as bedding on a roundabout.
0:04:25 > 0:04:27It's not just Copacabana's promenade
0:04:27 > 0:04:31that's suffused with Burle Marx's brilliant creativity.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34From the late 1930s until his death in 1994
0:04:34 > 0:04:37he added much to the quality of Rio's life
0:04:37 > 0:04:43by designing many radical, elegant and invariably stimulating public spaces in the city.
0:04:46 > 0:04:51These fabulous abstract spaces are not the only reason why Burle Marx
0:04:51 > 0:04:55is one of the most important garden designers in South America.
0:04:55 > 0:04:58He also personally revolutionised gardening in Brazil.
0:04:58 > 0:05:02And to see how, I am heading now 40 miles out of the city
0:05:02 > 0:05:04to visit his own private garden.
0:05:17 > 0:05:21Burle Marx loved Brazil's native plants.
0:05:21 > 0:05:23In 1949 he bought this 90-acre estate
0:05:23 > 0:05:27to experiment with what was then a revolutionary idea -
0:05:27 > 0:05:32the introduction of some of Brazil's indigenous plants to its parks and gardens.
0:05:32 > 0:05:34The garden, known today as the Sitio,
0:05:34 > 0:05:36became his life-long passion.
0:05:43 > 0:05:45Have a look at this...
0:05:47 > 0:05:49non stick!
0:05:49 > 0:05:54Although Burle Marx was obsessive
0:05:54 > 0:05:58about championing plants local to Brazil
0:05:58 > 0:06:01this garden has many species from all over the world,
0:06:01 > 0:06:04and he was very clear about the role of a garden.
0:06:04 > 0:06:09It was nature designed and controlled by man for man;
0:06:09 > 0:06:11and in other words a wholly artificial space,
0:06:11 > 0:06:13and this is no exception.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16In his garden as in every part of his life,
0:06:16 > 0:06:20Burle Marx was a compulsive designer and collector,
0:06:20 > 0:06:22and everything he did at the Sitio,
0:06:22 > 0:06:25from planting to entertaining, was on an heroic scale.
0:06:27 > 0:06:32This area which was designed by Burle Marx specifically for parties
0:06:32 > 0:06:35is big but it's recognisably domestic.
0:06:35 > 0:06:41And this pergola which he created to house the jade vine he was given,
0:06:41 > 0:06:46it's very big and very eccentric to do such a grand gesture just for one plant.
0:06:49 > 0:06:53But then you just go a few more steps
0:06:53 > 0:06:59and you come through here and suddenly all the rules are changed.
0:06:59 > 0:07:03I'm in completely different territory
0:07:03 > 0:07:06and I don't see this as a gardener or horticulturist,
0:07:06 > 0:07:09but almost like a child at the edge of a forest,
0:07:09 > 0:07:14because this isn't the experience of a garden,
0:07:14 > 0:07:17it's the landscape of a dream.
0:07:19 > 0:07:22And although it seems extraordinary now,
0:07:22 > 0:07:27Burle Marx's dream to protect and celebrate Brazil's tropical plant life
0:07:27 > 0:07:30was actually considered more revolutionary in its day
0:07:30 > 0:07:32than his abstract painting or landscape design.
0:07:32 > 0:07:38At the age of 19 Burle Marx went to Europe to study art for a year
0:07:38 > 0:07:42and he left behind him a Brazil whose gardens faced Europe.
0:07:42 > 0:07:44They were heavily influenced by them,
0:07:44 > 0:07:48formal, Victorian and bearing no recognition
0:07:48 > 0:07:52of the extraordinary plant life of the South American continent.
0:07:52 > 0:07:57Whilst he was in Berlin, Marx visited Dahlem Botanic Gardens
0:07:57 > 0:08:00and was stunned to find Brazilian plant species
0:08:00 > 0:08:04growing as curiosities in the glasshouses there.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07He suddenly thought this is mad,
0:08:07 > 0:08:10"Why am I looking at these plants here
0:08:10 > 0:08:13"when we should be growing them in our gardens back home?"
0:08:13 > 0:08:18It was really from that point that he began this process of designing modern gardens
0:08:18 > 0:08:22using the plants that were on his doorstep,
0:08:22 > 0:08:24on the South American continent,
0:08:24 > 0:08:28and above all that were Brazilian in every way.
0:08:33 > 0:08:36Burle Marx became obsessed
0:08:36 > 0:08:39with collecting and protecting these native plants,
0:08:39 > 0:08:43and the Sitio contains more than 3,000 species of tropical flora
0:08:43 > 0:08:46that he collected during his plant expeditions.
0:08:53 > 0:08:58Robeiro Diaz, the director of the Sitio, used to accompany him on his expeditions.
0:08:59 > 0:09:05In one of those excursions we went to Bahia and when we came back
0:09:05 > 0:09:09he said, "Everyone goes to the Sitio with me now!"
0:09:09 > 0:09:12So we came, he called the gardeners,
0:09:12 > 0:09:15and the truck that was filled with plants...
0:09:15 > 0:09:18And then "These there! Those there!
0:09:18 > 0:09:19"And there and there...
0:09:19 > 0:09:23And he composed
0:09:23 > 0:09:26the garden with those plants.
0:09:26 > 0:09:28So as soon as he found them in the wild,
0:09:28 > 0:09:32he wanted to immediately use them and create with them.
0:09:32 > 0:09:38Yes, he had to experiment with plants because when you pick up plants
0:09:38 > 0:09:45and nature, unknown, it comes not with a manual of how to plant it.
0:09:45 > 0:09:49He had to plant it to see how it would behave.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18There are more different species of bromeliad in Brazil
0:10:18 > 0:10:21than anywhere else on earth.
0:10:21 > 0:10:25And other than a pineapple we tend to come across bromeliads
0:10:25 > 0:10:29as house plants or something in a conservatory.
0:10:29 > 0:10:33Whereas here of course they grow anywhere and everywhere,
0:10:33 > 0:10:35and they are extraordinary things.
0:10:35 > 0:10:38Because their roots don't take in any nutrition at all...
0:10:38 > 0:10:42they simply attach the plant to whatever surface it's growing on.
0:10:42 > 0:10:47And all of them collect water at the base of their leaves...
0:10:47 > 0:10:49what amounts to a tiny lake...
0:10:49 > 0:10:52with its own complete ecosystem inside it.
0:10:52 > 0:10:54You'll have frogs and insects
0:10:54 > 0:10:57that never leave that individual bromeliad.
0:10:57 > 0:10:59Their whole life is spent within it.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03And that miracle... to come down into a garden
0:11:03 > 0:11:08and be used with all this exuberanceand colour and life!
0:11:08 > 0:11:09It's fantastic!
0:11:30 > 0:11:35I love the relationship here between small details
0:11:35 > 0:11:39and the big block planting that Burle Marx is famous for.
0:11:39 > 0:11:43He was well known for saying if you wanted people to appreciate a plant
0:11:43 > 0:11:45it was no good just planting one of them.
0:11:45 > 0:11:49In order to see it properly, they had to have lots of them.
0:11:49 > 0:11:50I love the textures.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53The way textures on the trunk of a tree will match.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57Or the colours of the water will pick up the colours of the leaves.
0:11:57 > 0:12:04And it's those tiny details expanded out by the vigour of the planting here in Brazil,
0:12:04 > 0:12:07together with the vigour of his imagination
0:12:07 > 0:12:10that is one of the things that makes this place so extraordinary.
0:12:14 > 0:12:17Burle Marx bequeathed the Sitio to the people of Brazil
0:12:17 > 0:12:19as part of the Burle Marx Foundation,
0:12:19 > 0:12:22and although he designed over 2,000 gardens,
0:12:22 > 0:12:27this is, I think, where his genius is best displayed.
0:12:27 > 0:12:30But now I am leaving here to follow in the footsteps of the great man
0:12:30 > 0:12:33and head north into the rainforest.
0:12:42 > 0:12:48My first visit to the Amazon basin exceeds any previous experience.
0:12:48 > 0:12:51All its statistics are superlatives.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54It produces 20% of the planet's oxygen
0:12:54 > 0:12:59and also contains more than 20% of the world's fresh water.
0:12:59 > 0:13:04Its 1.5 million square miles contains a third of the world's total rainforest
0:13:04 > 0:13:08and with an estimated 50,000 species of endemic plants
0:13:08 > 0:13:12it makes Brazil the most bio-diverse country on earth.
0:13:12 > 0:13:16I arrive in the middle of the dry season and it's unbelievably hot.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19But any romantic notions I may have harboured
0:13:19 > 0:13:21about my arrival in the remote Amazon,
0:13:21 > 0:13:27quickly evaporate as I find myself in a large noisy, commercial city
0:13:27 > 0:13:29right in the heart of the jungle.
0:13:31 > 0:13:35This is Manaus, the capital of the Amazonas.
0:13:35 > 0:13:37On the banks of the Rio Negro,
0:13:37 > 0:13:42and it is one of the gateways to the whole Amazon region.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45And it started life as a rubber trading port.
0:13:45 > 0:13:49The rubber came in from the jungle and the city that grew up
0:13:49 > 0:13:53around that trade was elegant and had real colonial charm.
0:13:56 > 0:14:01The Opera House, built in 1879 by Joseph Eiffel, of Eiffel tower fame,
0:14:01 > 0:14:06attests to the wealth brought by the rubber trade, now long gone.
0:14:06 > 0:14:11Yet still, forest people are drawn here by the hope of work.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14Today the population of Manaus is more than 1.5 million;
0:14:14 > 0:14:17that's bigger than any British city outside London.
0:14:19 > 0:14:21But the lure for the modern visitor
0:14:21 > 0:14:26is the same as for the original 18th century rubber traders.
0:14:26 > 0:14:27And that is what is out there,
0:14:27 > 0:14:32which is the richest selection of plant life on this planet.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40I'm looking for the Cassiquiari.
0:14:40 > 0:14:44I don't know if that's how you pronounce it, but it's one of these boats.
0:14:44 > 0:14:46I hope it's a nice one.
0:14:46 > 0:14:50There are at a rough estimate at least 50 or 60 such boats.
0:14:50 > 0:14:52Cassiquiari.
0:14:52 > 0:14:54That's her.
0:14:54 > 0:14:57Very charming. Hello.
0:14:57 > 0:15:01Hello, I'm Monty, nice to meet you, can I come on?
0:15:03 > 0:15:04Welcome aboard.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07Thank you very much indeed. Thank you.
0:15:07 > 0:15:09We leave the city and moor out in the river
0:15:09 > 0:15:13as the light drops quickly away into the darkness of the steamy tropical night.
0:15:13 > 0:15:18It'll be morning before I see my first unfettered views of the mighty Amazon.
0:15:21 > 0:15:24As day breaks, the river reveals itself in all it's glory.
0:15:24 > 0:15:28It is unimaginably huge.
0:15:28 > 0:15:31The river system has 11,000 tributaries,
0:15:31 > 0:15:35of which 17 are more than 1,000 miles long.
0:15:39 > 0:15:40Before I could set off for the day
0:15:40 > 0:15:44there was an unexpected problem to deal with.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47Now we had a slight mishap on my way here,
0:15:47 > 0:15:50because at Sao Paolo I picked up the wrong suitcase, identical to mine.
0:15:50 > 0:15:54And when we got on the boat and opened it out,
0:15:54 > 0:15:58instead of seeing all my gear, my clothes, my washing kit and all the rest of it,
0:15:58 > 0:16:05there was a large collection of saris and sequin-encrusted jerseys.
0:16:05 > 0:16:09And there's obviously some poor woman, desperate for her clothes.
0:16:09 > 0:16:12It left me with a problem because I was about to go down the Amazon.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16All I had was the suit I travelled in and nothing else at all.
0:16:16 > 0:16:18Luckily I managed to borrow these clothes.
0:16:18 > 0:16:23SPEAKS PORTUGUESE
0:16:23 > 0:16:27I don't speak Portuguese but I guess she's probably saying that
0:16:27 > 0:16:31it looks very nice but a nice pink sari would've been more fetching!
0:16:35 > 0:16:39OK. Are we ready?
0:16:39 > 0:16:41Managing to resist the lure of a pink sari,
0:16:41 > 0:16:43I'm off to explore the Amazon.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47With over a fifth of the world's plant species thought to be growing here,
0:16:47 > 0:16:51I wondered if people who live here need to garden?
0:16:51 > 0:16:53My guide Ivano assures me they do,
0:16:53 > 0:16:55so he takes me to meet a river community.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59Ah, look... look at the dogs.
0:17:04 > 0:17:10The water levels in the Amazon can rise and fall by as much as 30 feet according to the season,
0:17:10 > 0:17:15so all these houses float on the river to accommodate the changing levels.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20This is the last place I would expect to find a garden
0:17:20 > 0:17:21but then, astonishingly,
0:17:21 > 0:17:23one floats by.
0:17:25 > 0:17:27The floating house
0:17:27 > 0:17:32is very nice to live because when I was born my parents live in a floating house.
0:17:32 > 0:17:34You were born in a floating house.
0:17:34 > 0:17:37Yes, I was born in a floating house.
0:17:37 > 0:17:40There's budgerigars! Ah!
0:17:42 > 0:17:44You can see now that this house with a garden...
0:17:44 > 0:17:47Balanced on these vast logs, these trees,
0:17:47 > 0:17:52and then boxes and containers stretched across them.
0:17:52 > 0:17:55Most of the plants are medicinal plants.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58And some vegetables that they can eat.
0:17:58 > 0:18:00There are onions... in an old boat!
0:18:00 > 0:18:03Fantastic!
0:18:03 > 0:18:06It's much easier to get around on the river
0:18:06 > 0:18:08than trekking through the jungle,
0:18:08 > 0:18:11so the houses are floating on the river too.
0:18:11 > 0:18:13But with the massive change in level,
0:18:13 > 0:18:16these floating houses move quite large distances.
0:18:16 > 0:18:18Wherever a house goes, the garden must follow.
0:18:20 > 0:18:23Those trees there. Are they floating too?
0:18:23 > 0:18:26Yeah, they are very interesting these gardens
0:18:26 > 0:18:30because it's incredible how the gardens can support a tree like that.
0:18:30 > 0:18:33Like coconuts trees and lemon and cashew nuts.
0:18:33 > 0:18:40- So these big trees are growing in what we would call containers floating on the water.- Yeah.
0:18:42 > 0:18:44We drop by the local shop,
0:18:44 > 0:18:47where the owner grows fruit trees aboard their floating garden.
0:18:47 > 0:18:52- E Monty, Dona Sebastiana. - How do you do?
0:18:53 > 0:18:56This is beautiful, look her house.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00- It's a beautiful house. - Very typical. Look at the kitchen. Very nice kitchen.
0:19:00 > 0:19:02Out the back is Sebastiana's garden.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05Amazingly, it is an orchard of really quite large trees
0:19:05 > 0:19:08bobbing about on a pontoon chained to the house.
0:19:08 > 0:19:10This is fantastic...
0:19:10 > 0:19:12these are big plants, aren't they?
0:19:12 > 0:19:15How much soil has she put into the containers?
0:19:23 > 0:19:29She use a bag like these and she use like 30 for to get the soil.
0:19:29 > 0:19:3130. So the roots don't go down in to the water?
0:19:31 > 0:19:34No they stay on the soil.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37And you water it from the river? She'll splash it off in.
0:19:37 > 0:19:40Yes, she's going to show us how she waters from the river.
0:19:46 > 0:19:48Right.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54Does she have to water all her pots every day?
0:20:00 > 0:20:03- Yes, twice every day.- Twice a day.
0:20:03 > 0:20:08- Presumably in the rainy season she doesn't have to do that?- No, no.
0:20:08 > 0:20:11Tell me what she has here...
0:20:15 > 0:20:20Verbena, carambola, cashew, banana.
0:20:20 > 0:20:24All growing in little boxes floating on the river is an amazing thing.
0:20:24 > 0:20:27It's an amazing thing.
0:20:28 > 0:20:34She loves plants and she cannot plant in the land because of the flood jungle.
0:20:34 > 0:20:39So if she wants to have some trees by side of the house it has to be like that.
0:20:45 > 0:20:49People who garden on the river have fewer constraints than you might imagine
0:20:49 > 0:20:54and can grow nearly as much as anyone on dry land, including vegetables.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57Combined with fresh fish from the river it seemed
0:20:57 > 0:21:02to make for a superbly healthy diet and very attractive lifestyle.
0:21:05 > 0:21:10But I met one householder preparing to sell up and move to the city.
0:21:13 > 0:21:18Now she's going to move to Manaus will she still have a garden?
0:21:21 > 0:21:23She's going to take it.
0:21:23 > 0:21:27Only the house is for selling. Not the garden.
0:21:27 > 0:21:31- Which is her favourite plant? - The rose.
0:21:31 > 0:21:35Cos it's like a queen in the garden.
0:21:35 > 0:21:39It's like a queen in the garden. That's a very beautiful thought.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42Flowers are actually a rare sight in the Amazon
0:21:42 > 0:21:47because there isn't one distinct flowering season and flowering plants bloom unpredictably,
0:21:47 > 0:21:51and usually out of sight at the top of tree canopies where there's light.
0:21:51 > 0:21:55So in these floating gardens, any bright showy flower is always very popular.
0:21:58 > 0:22:00So what do we have round here?
0:22:00 > 0:22:07- She has plants, piggies.- Piggies!
0:22:07 > 0:22:12I love piggies. 6 pigs, floating.
0:22:12 > 0:22:14Fantastic.
0:22:14 > 0:22:16I too keep pigs and love growing vegetables.
0:22:16 > 0:22:21So whilst I like roses, I love her pigs and I admire her vegetables.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24Obrigada!
0:22:36 > 0:22:41The sun is about to drop and when it does go it just falls out of the sky.
0:22:41 > 0:22:43You're left in pitch blackness.
0:22:43 > 0:22:47And the main thing today, other than the vastness of this place
0:22:47 > 0:22:52and the unimaginable scale of everything, including the heat,
0:22:52 > 0:22:58is that the desire to garden seems to be a completely basic thing.
0:22:58 > 0:23:02It doesn't matter if you're on the middle of one of the biggest rivers on this planet.
0:23:02 > 0:23:07Still people are making gardens in old canoes and boxes of wood,
0:23:07 > 0:23:11with soil they've had to hump from different parts of the land
0:23:11 > 0:23:14and get into a canoe and row it over and empty it out.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17And still that urge to grow things,
0:23:17 > 0:23:22in the most unlikely of situations, seems to be a basic instinct.
0:23:42 > 0:23:44The next morning I set off to go into the jungle.
0:23:44 > 0:23:48We all now know that this habitat is highly threatened,
0:23:48 > 0:23:50but I'm still hoping to find some of the plants
0:23:50 > 0:23:55Burle Marx fought so hard to conserve in his Sitio garden near Rio.
0:24:04 > 0:24:10Before you come to the rainforest you're hit over the head with statistics.
0:24:10 > 0:24:13But there is one that is really striking,
0:24:13 > 0:24:18and that is that one hectare of virgin rainforest in the Amazon
0:24:18 > 0:24:24has more species of trees than the whole of North America.
0:24:27 > 0:24:29It's remarkably easy to get lost in the jungle,
0:24:29 > 0:24:32even on a modest little jaunt like this,
0:24:32 > 0:24:34so I've enlisted the help of Mo,
0:24:34 > 0:24:37a local guide who's lived in the Amazon jungle all his life.
0:24:37 > 0:24:42Mo explained to me the reason for the extraordinary flaring buttresses
0:24:42 > 0:24:44of many of the jungle trees.
0:24:46 > 0:24:52The land here is so poor that this tree doesn't have a deep root,
0:24:52 > 0:24:58so it needs this support, the system of roots to support the tree.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01OK, you have very, very shallow soil,
0:25:01 > 0:25:08but how does these enormous trees and this mass of life sustain its fertility,
0:25:08 > 0:25:12because it must be making great demands in nutrition and in water.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15- Water we have enough.- Right.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18They live from what the other trees leave.
0:25:18 > 0:25:25What they have is a big exchange of nutrients.
0:25:25 > 0:25:28What one lose, the others get.
0:25:29 > 0:25:33In the intense heat and humidity of the tropical rainforest,
0:25:33 > 0:25:35specially-adapted fungi and bacteria
0:25:35 > 0:25:39rapidly break down fallen leaves and wood.
0:25:39 > 0:25:45This releases nutrients which are immediately taken back up by the plants.
0:25:45 > 0:25:47This process almost completely by-passes the soil,
0:25:47 > 0:25:51leaving it almost devoid of organic matter,
0:25:51 > 0:25:53shallow and with hardly any nutrients.
0:25:53 > 0:25:58You have the roots right on the surface
0:25:58 > 0:26:00and a very very thin layer of soil.
0:26:00 > 0:26:06So the whole of this vast forest with these enormous trees
0:26:06 > 0:26:10is supported like in a tray.
0:26:12 > 0:26:13What's this?
0:26:13 > 0:26:15Oh! This is a brazil nut fruit,
0:26:15 > 0:26:18if you open it up there are like 20 nuts inside.
0:26:18 > 0:26:20Really? Let me have a look at that.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23Yes. Try to cut it.
0:26:23 > 0:26:24So you just, just...
0:26:24 > 0:26:26Put in the ground. It's very hard.
0:26:26 > 0:26:28- Is it?- Yeah.
0:26:36 > 0:26:38Now you can see the nuts in there.
0:26:38 > 0:26:40So inside this very, very hard shell
0:26:40 > 0:26:44are a series of nuts with very, very hard shells.
0:26:44 > 0:26:46Is there an animal that breaks through that?
0:26:46 > 0:26:49Yeah, a very interesting point. There is a little hole here.
0:26:49 > 0:26:54What happened we have an agouti, like a little kangaroo
0:26:54 > 0:26:57with big backside and small hands but very sharp teeth,
0:26:57 > 0:27:03that come and eats two or three of those seeds and then buries the rest.
0:27:03 > 0:27:07He intends to return, but the animal has a very poor memory.
0:27:07 > 0:27:09So for this reason grows the Brazil nut.
0:27:09 > 0:27:12Without the help of the agouti they cannot grow.
0:27:14 > 0:27:20Countless species in the rainforest are dependent upon this sort of complex, symbiotic relationship.
0:27:20 > 0:27:27But, over a quarter of a million square miles of this delicate ecosystem
0:27:27 > 0:27:31have been ruthlessly cleared in the past 40 years alone,
0:27:31 > 0:27:36which has accelerated a process that began with the first European settlers in the 15th century.
0:27:37 > 0:27:41They were convinced the obvious lushness of the rainforest was due to rich soils.
0:27:41 > 0:27:45As indeed it would have been in the temperate forests of Europe.
0:27:45 > 0:27:52So, they cut and burned vast tracts of forest in an attempt to create farmland.
0:27:52 > 0:27:57However, this cleared land only supports crops for a few years.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01Once the trees are gone, the soil has no protection from the equatorial rains,
0:28:01 > 0:28:05which quickly wash away the ash and the few remaining nutrients
0:28:05 > 0:28:09and the blazing sun desiccates the essential bacteria and fungi.
0:28:09 > 0:28:11It is an ecological disaster.
0:28:15 > 0:28:18This is now clearly understood,
0:28:18 > 0:28:21but nevertheless still continues to happen.
0:28:21 > 0:28:25Exhausted land is quickly abandoned and virgin rainforest once again
0:28:25 > 0:28:29sacrificed at the altar of ignorant greed.
0:28:29 > 0:28:33However, a new discovery offers an ember of hope
0:28:33 > 0:28:37that could revolutionise the way the rainforest is farmed in the future,
0:28:37 > 0:28:40working with the forest to create sustainable fertility.
0:28:40 > 0:28:47Recent science has shown a very, very small percentage of Amazonia,
0:28:47 > 0:28:52about 0.2%, but which still amounts to 50,000 sq km,
0:28:52 > 0:28:58is composed of pockets of very rich black soil.
0:28:58 > 0:29:00How on earth did that get there?
0:29:03 > 0:29:08This deep, black soil, known as 'terra preta', is extremely fertile
0:29:08 > 0:29:13and, because it contains pottery shards and organic matter dating back to prehistoric times,
0:29:13 > 0:29:15scientists believe it is man-made,
0:29:15 > 0:29:18built up artificially over thousands of years.
0:29:18 > 0:29:22And the key to its fertility lies in the charcoal,
0:29:22 > 0:29:24which can retain nutrients.
0:29:24 > 0:29:28These then remain stable in the soil and don't leach away.
0:29:28 > 0:29:31The furious heat from conventional slash and burn
0:29:31 > 0:29:34quickly reduces plant material into ash
0:29:34 > 0:29:37which leaches its goodness almost immediately.
0:29:37 > 0:29:41But charcoal, made from a much gentler smouldering fire lit in the rainy season,
0:29:41 > 0:29:44acts as a sponge for nutrients, holding them in the soil.
0:29:44 > 0:29:49It's thought native Amazonians used this system long before settlers arrived
0:29:49 > 0:29:53to transform some of the world's worst soil into some of the best.
0:29:56 > 0:30:00There are still some tribes that practise similar techniques.
0:30:00 > 0:30:05The Satere-Mawe tribe use the rainforest for all their daily needs,
0:30:05 > 0:30:07and Bacu and her village want to share their knowledge
0:30:07 > 0:30:11and show visitors her ancestors' way of growing things.
0:30:13 > 0:30:16Mo is taking me to meet her because, for generations,
0:30:16 > 0:30:20this tribe has been using fire to create compost
0:30:20 > 0:30:22and to cultivate their poor rainforest soils.
0:30:25 > 0:30:27Hello.
0:30:28 > 0:30:31So what's she doing here?
0:30:35 > 0:30:39She's using the old spoiled wood, it's not the good wood,
0:30:39 > 0:30:42the spoiled wood, to make fire.
0:30:42 > 0:30:48She takes the ashes for the plants to grow all the plants she needs.
0:30:48 > 0:30:52Is she just putting the ash straight on,
0:30:52 > 0:30:54or she is adding any other the soil?
0:30:54 > 0:30:57SHE SPEAKS PORTUGUESE
0:31:02 > 0:31:05The ashes she's using there, she gets some of the dead wood,
0:31:05 > 0:31:10and puts them together, she says, not to get too strong, too acid.
0:31:10 > 0:31:13I see. So it's just when she plants the plant.
0:31:15 > 0:31:18SHE SPEAKS PORTUGUESE
0:31:20 > 0:31:23When the plant is ugly, she has to do that over!
0:31:23 > 0:31:26So you make it a good plant by using it.
0:31:26 > 0:31:31Bacu slowly burns the mixture of dead wood and organic matter,
0:31:31 > 0:31:34like her ancestors did, to create a soil conditioner
0:31:34 > 0:31:36to propagate and raise healthy plants
0:31:36 > 0:31:39in her small garden, year in, year out.
0:31:42 > 0:31:46Can I see how she uses it in the garden?
0:31:46 > 0:31:51THEY SPEAK PORTUGUESE
0:31:51 > 0:31:54There is wood from the palm.
0:31:54 > 0:31:56But she brings a different one to mix.
0:31:56 > 0:31:59And then she says she's going to plant.
0:31:59 > 0:32:04This is a thing that she uses for worms.
0:32:04 > 0:32:07If you have a parasite in your intestines.
0:32:07 > 0:32:09So she's taking a cutting?
0:32:10 > 0:32:12Just a branch. She breaks a branch.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17But she puts a little earth in here before she breaks,
0:32:17 > 0:32:19so they have little roots already.
0:32:19 > 0:32:24It makes roots presumably because it's so warm and moist, it wants to make roots.
0:32:24 > 0:32:27Tell me, how long ago did she break that branch off?
0:32:30 > 0:32:31Two days ago.
0:32:31 > 0:32:36And it's started to put roots out already, in the air, with just a little soil round it.
0:32:36 > 0:32:39From where I live, that is incredible.
0:32:39 > 0:32:42There are very few plants that will do that.
0:32:42 > 0:32:47Este esta de marejar e para xampu e tambem para criancas...
0:32:47 > 0:32:49I understood "shampoo". And this one?
0:32:49 > 0:32:52E remedio para gente que fala muito.
0:32:52 > 0:32:57This is a plant she calls "shut-up".
0:32:57 > 0:33:01This is to give to for people who talk too much.
0:33:01 > 0:33:05Very useful plant! A very, very useful plant, that!
0:33:05 > 0:33:11Before I go, I have the obligatory song and dance put on for visiting tourists.
0:33:11 > 0:33:15But Bacu's intimacy with the forest is real and profound,
0:33:15 > 0:33:16and not just a tourist display.
0:33:16 > 0:33:21And her age-old knowledge, handed on to the children,
0:33:21 > 0:33:25holds hope for the sustainable future of the rainforest.
0:33:45 > 0:33:52Today has been really interesting because it's shown how quickly
0:33:52 > 0:33:56you can lose that incredible knowledge that people have.
0:33:56 > 0:34:02And if we undervalue that, and somehow regard it as worthless
0:34:02 > 0:34:05once we've got mechanisation or industrialisation,
0:34:05 > 0:34:10all the skills that you need to care and to work with a place
0:34:10 > 0:34:14as complex as the jungle, go alarmingly quickly.
0:34:16 > 0:34:20It's scary how we've lost what we need
0:34:20 > 0:34:22to live in harmony with a place like this.
0:34:22 > 0:34:26And yet it doesn't need us, of course, it doesn't need us at all.
0:34:31 > 0:34:35It's time to end my all-too brief visit to the Amazon
0:34:35 > 0:34:39and go to a landscape that couldn't be more different.
0:34:42 > 0:34:45I'm heading south to Argentina now,
0:34:45 > 0:34:48to see how gardening was crucial in enabling European settlers
0:34:48 > 0:34:51to take root in a very inhospitable region.
0:35:01 > 0:35:03Argentina runs down from the Andes
0:35:03 > 0:35:08to the windswept featureless plains of the Pampas.
0:35:08 > 0:35:12I'm starting my visit in the country's elegant capital,
0:35:12 > 0:35:13Buenos Aires.
0:35:18 > 0:35:23The name "Argentina" is derived from the Latin for silver, "argentum",
0:35:23 > 0:35:25and was given by Spanish conquerors in 1524
0:35:25 > 0:35:29who claimed that the mountains were rich in the precious metal.
0:35:29 > 0:35:33This sparked a silver rush and, over the course of the next 300 years,
0:35:33 > 0:35:38Argentina saw a mass migration of southern Europeans in search of a better life.
0:35:42 > 0:35:48The city does feel to me as though it's got a European feel to it.
0:35:48 > 0:35:52It's hard to place exactly but there is something distinctly European.
0:35:52 > 0:35:57And I think it's as much to do with the avenues and the parks and the trees.
0:35:57 > 0:36:02And the responsibility for those is directly down to one man.
0:36:04 > 0:36:07The parks and broad tree-lined avenues of Buenos Aires
0:36:07 > 0:36:11were designed by a French landscape architect called Charles Thays.
0:36:11 > 0:36:16In 1889, when he was 40, he came here on a visit,
0:36:16 > 0:36:20fell in love with the country and spent the rest of his life here.
0:36:21 > 0:36:26It's directly thanks to him that the modern city has inherited
0:36:26 > 0:36:31the green spaces and sheltering trees which it benefits from today,
0:36:31 > 0:36:35as I learnt from his grandson and namesake, Carlos Thays.
0:36:35 > 0:36:40TRANSLATION: He learnt the art of landscape design in Europe,
0:36:40 > 0:36:46and saw the cities of London and Paris were tree-lined, and full of parks.
0:36:46 > 0:36:52There were absolutely no trees and parks in Buenos Aires when he arrived,
0:36:52 > 0:36:57so he planted 1.2 million trees in the streets of Buenos Aires.
0:36:58 > 0:37:02Although the city has a distinctly European feel,
0:37:02 > 0:37:04the trees that Charles Thays planted
0:37:04 > 0:37:07were often species native to South America.
0:37:07 > 0:37:10And none is more magnificent than this beautiful giant.
0:37:16 > 0:37:19This is one of the most wonderful trees I've ever seen.
0:37:19 > 0:37:21It's a gomero, rubber tree.
0:37:21 > 0:37:24Apart from the fact that it's enormous,
0:37:24 > 0:37:27it has great significance because it was the first tree,
0:37:27 > 0:37:30apparently, planted here in Buenos Aires.
0:37:30 > 0:37:34And, in the 200 years since it was planted, it has become vast.
0:37:34 > 0:37:38In the middle of this incredibly noisy, busy city,
0:37:38 > 0:37:42it's a symbolic stately presence.
0:37:45 > 0:37:48The influence of Charles Thays's tree-planting
0:37:48 > 0:37:51can be felt throughout the city,
0:37:51 > 0:37:54but it also extended into the countryside.
0:37:54 > 0:37:57So tomorrow, I am going to head out to wilderness of the Pampas.
0:38:08 > 0:38:11The open, even bleak, landscape of the Pampas,
0:38:11 > 0:38:13is the territory of the beef barons.
0:38:13 > 0:38:19It is where European settlers turned these wind-battered but fertile flatlands
0:38:19 > 0:38:21into a very successful rural economy,
0:38:21 > 0:38:24based around huge cattle ranches called "estancias".
0:38:28 > 0:38:31As they prospered, the owners of the estancias
0:38:31 > 0:38:34built themselves impressive houses and grounds.
0:38:34 > 0:38:39I've come to see Estancia Dos Talas, a remnant, albeit somewhat reduced,
0:38:39 > 0:38:44of a golden age when this European elite transformed Argentina.
0:38:54 > 0:38:58Estancia Dos Talas was built in 1858 by Pedro Luro
0:38:58 > 0:39:01who came to the country at 17 without a penny to his name.
0:39:01 > 0:39:04But through a combination of graft and guile,
0:39:04 > 0:39:07became one of the most important landowners in Argentina.
0:39:13 > 0:39:17The estancia came into the family by the most extraordinary route
0:39:17 > 0:39:22because Don Pedro Luro was offered the job of planting trees.
0:39:22 > 0:39:24And he was going to be paid in land.
0:39:24 > 0:39:25So many trees, you get so much land.
0:39:25 > 0:39:29The owner then went away to Europe for three years and, in his absence,
0:39:29 > 0:39:32Don Pedro planted trees like a man possessed.
0:39:32 > 0:39:33Tens of thousands of trees.
0:39:33 > 0:39:37And when we came back, the owner found the only way he could pay him
0:39:37 > 0:39:38was by giving him all the land.
0:39:38 > 0:39:45The case went to court, Don Pedro won and he found himself with 17,000 hectares of the Pampas.
0:40:01 > 0:40:02This is a pigeon house.
0:40:02 > 0:40:08And every self-respecting big house or farm house
0:40:08 > 0:40:09had a pigeon house in England.
0:40:09 > 0:40:11But it's a European thing.
0:40:11 > 0:40:13And apparently the stone,
0:40:13 > 0:40:17these ledges for the pigeons to go on, was brought in from Europe.
0:40:17 > 0:40:22It's old red sandstone which is what my house in England is made out of!
0:40:22 > 0:40:24It doesn't exist in South America.
0:40:24 > 0:40:26It was all shipped over here.
0:40:26 > 0:40:33And the most ornate fabulous building, occupied now by bees.
0:40:33 > 0:40:35What a lovely building.
0:40:36 > 0:40:40At the start of the 20th century, Buenos Aires's top landscape architect,
0:40:40 > 0:40:42who was of course Charles Thays,
0:40:42 > 0:40:46was commissioned to draw up plans for a 75-acre park.
0:40:46 > 0:40:49The estancia has remained in the same family,
0:40:49 > 0:40:51and Sara de Elizalde, the current chatelaine,
0:40:51 > 0:40:55showed me Thays's original plans for the design of the garden.
0:40:55 > 0:41:01This is a highly fashionable design in June 1908.
0:41:01 > 0:41:06Did he oversee the execution of it?
0:41:06 > 0:41:10TRANSLATION: When Charles Thays started to supervise the work
0:41:10 > 0:41:15he came here and saw that many trees had already been planted.
0:41:15 > 0:41:20So, he designed the garden to incorporate those that were already here.
0:41:20 > 0:41:24It must be quite a responsibility to feel you have
0:41:24 > 0:41:32this exceptional design and garden that it is your duty to look after?
0:41:32 > 0:41:38Well, my husband Luis feels that it is a legacy
0:41:38 > 0:41:41to maintain the whole estancia, but especially the park.
0:41:41 > 0:41:44It is something he has in his blood
0:41:44 > 0:41:49and he suffers a lot whenever there is a storm and a tree falls down.
0:41:49 > 0:41:52He fights hard to keep everything in good condition.
0:41:52 > 0:41:57To appreciate this vast garden, Sara's husband, Luis de Elizalde,
0:41:57 > 0:42:00suggested that I explore his estate on horseback.
0:42:02 > 0:42:05I don't often get the chance to ride,
0:42:05 > 0:42:07but there is no better way to get round
0:42:07 > 0:42:13and see some of the 1,400 hectares, or 3,500 acres, of the estancia.
0:42:13 > 0:42:18Things like this avenue, the scale of it, is extraordinary.
0:42:18 > 0:42:21- And these trees are what?- Casuarina.
0:42:21 > 0:42:24The beautiful thing of these trees
0:42:24 > 0:42:29is that, when the wind blows, it produces the sound of the sea.
0:42:29 > 0:42:31I know, I heard it this morning!
0:42:31 > 0:42:35But I didn't realise it was these trees causing it. How fabulous.
0:42:35 > 0:42:37I imagine that on the Pampas
0:42:37 > 0:42:41the original settlers must have felt so exposed.
0:42:41 > 0:42:46Yes, they had only the tala, but the tala doesn't grow over six metres.
0:42:46 > 0:42:48- A tree, but a small tree. - A small tree.
0:42:48 > 0:42:51So these were planted as windbreaks,
0:42:51 > 0:42:53and obviously very beautiful avenues.
0:42:53 > 0:42:57Was it practicality first and then beauty?
0:42:57 > 0:43:01They loved planting long avenues, and wide,
0:43:01 > 0:43:04just to make them important.
0:43:06 > 0:43:11The whole park is carved into these great avenues, dividing the woods into blocks.
0:43:11 > 0:43:16Some have clearly been clipped but are now grown out so they have become dramatic tunnels.
0:43:16 > 0:43:22They also provide vital protection on this completely exposed landscape.
0:43:24 > 0:43:29Charles Thays's park can't possibly be maintained today in the style
0:43:29 > 0:43:34that needed 16 gardeners to tend it in its pre-war heyday.
0:43:34 > 0:43:39But it has matured to become a rambling, overgrown but magical garden
0:43:39 > 0:43:43dominated by more than 50 species of superb trees,
0:43:43 > 0:43:48including an avenue of dead but still magnificent elms.
0:43:54 > 0:43:56It's big and it's flat.
0:43:56 > 0:44:00Immeasurably, literally immeasurably.
0:44:00 > 0:44:02One big field.
0:44:03 > 0:44:07Between the fences, we are talking about 60 hectares here.
0:44:07 > 0:44:09So each field is about 60 hectares?
0:44:09 > 0:44:13- 60, 70. From 100 to 60.- Right.
0:44:13 > 0:44:16So the Pampas has been like this forever,
0:44:16 > 0:44:20but presumably the grazing affects the grass and what's grown here.
0:44:20 > 0:44:24If it's left ungrazed, how does it turn?
0:44:24 > 0:44:26Because trees don't grow on it.
0:44:26 > 0:44:29Yes, but grass does.
0:44:29 > 0:44:35Because it's the soil is so good, so good that we never fertilise this.
0:44:35 > 0:44:37And the grass just keeps growing and growing.
0:44:37 > 0:44:42- That's why the Pampas, it's mainly for cattle.- So it's cattle.
0:44:42 > 0:44:44Cattle, cattle and cattle!
0:44:50 > 0:44:54There are a few trees to be found growing naturally on the Pampas,
0:44:54 > 0:44:56but they are small, and very tough.
0:44:56 > 0:44:58Anything much bigger than a blade of grass
0:44:58 > 0:45:01has difficulty surviving because of the constant wind.
0:45:01 > 0:45:04It's not hard to see why these vast shelter belts
0:45:04 > 0:45:06were planted around the edge of the park.
0:45:09 > 0:45:15The last storm, Katrina, went through New Orleans.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18And the tail of that wind, if you look on the map,
0:45:18 > 0:45:21came through and put them all down, at once.
0:45:21 > 0:45:24Pomp, pomp, pomp...
0:45:24 > 0:45:27You must have come down the next morning and...
0:45:27 > 0:45:30140 km the wind.
0:45:30 > 0:45:31Really?
0:45:33 > 0:45:37Do you feel you need to replant it, to recreate...?
0:45:37 > 0:45:39Of course!
0:45:39 > 0:45:41If God gives me the time, I'll do it!
0:46:05 > 0:46:09The reason that I came to Argentina was to see the Pampas.
0:46:09 > 0:46:13And of course, I accept there much more to the place than that.
0:46:13 > 0:46:17But I really wanted to see how you could garden
0:46:17 > 0:46:21in a place of such vast, flat almost emptiness.
0:46:21 > 0:46:26Charles Thays did not shut out the Pampas completely.
0:46:26 > 0:46:29He carefully plotted sunset and sunrise and left openings
0:46:29 > 0:46:33in his planting to view them and make them part of the garden.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37And the existence of this huge garden is, I think,
0:46:37 > 0:46:44a defiant expression of mastery over this fertile yet intimidating space,
0:46:44 > 0:46:47imposing, for a while at least, a European culture upon it.
0:46:50 > 0:46:54But it's time to leave the Argentinean Pampas
0:46:54 > 0:46:57and continue on to the final stage of my journey,
0:46:57 > 0:47:00to a country of startling contrasts - Chile.
0:47:04 > 0:47:09Chile is 18 times longer than it is wide.
0:47:09 > 0:47:15It has 4,300 miles of coastline and is 180 miles across.
0:47:20 > 0:47:24The Andes flank the entire length of the country,
0:47:24 > 0:47:28and the arid plains of the Atacama desert seal the north.
0:47:28 > 0:47:32To the south are the ice flows of Patagonia.
0:47:32 > 0:47:38I want to find out how Chilean gardeners are inspired by such dramatic backdrops.
0:47:38 > 0:47:41I suppose if you got enough time the best way to see this country
0:47:41 > 0:47:45would be to go from the far north right down to the frozen south,
0:47:45 > 0:47:48but I've decided to take a slice across the country,
0:47:48 > 0:47:50from the Andes to the Pacific.
0:47:53 > 0:47:55Botanically speaking, Chile is like an island
0:47:55 > 0:47:59with new plant material unable to enter from any direction,
0:47:59 > 0:48:01and it has such extreme environments
0:48:01 > 0:48:04that an incredible range of endemic plants thrive here.
0:48:06 > 0:48:09The Chilean palm is one of these.
0:48:09 > 0:48:14Their trunks shrink and bulge with age as they put all their energy into producing fruit.
0:48:14 > 0:48:18They're also extremely slow growing and live to a great age.
0:48:18 > 0:48:21This veteran is thought to be the oldest palm tree in the world
0:48:21 > 0:48:24and is more than 1,000 years old.
0:48:26 > 0:48:32But the palm was almost exploited to extinction because of its sap,
0:48:32 > 0:48:35which was extracted and then boiled up to make syrup.
0:48:35 > 0:48:40This is illegal now, and today the palm is the national emblem of Chile.
0:48:54 > 0:48:55Wet!
0:48:55 > 0:48:57THUNDER RUMBLES
0:48:57 > 0:49:02Near the Campana National Park, a local hacienda has been trying
0:49:02 > 0:49:05to protect the Chilean palm and increase their numbers.
0:49:05 > 0:49:08They collect syrup, but only if a tree falls naturally,
0:49:08 > 0:49:11and the owner has invited me over to try this for myself.
0:49:17 > 0:49:19Salud.
0:49:19 > 0:49:20I hope it's not medicine.
0:49:22 > 0:49:25Es muy dulce, pero muy rica.
0:49:29 > 0:49:32As they say where I live, "something different".
0:49:32 > 0:49:35It is like drinking treacle.
0:49:37 > 0:49:41It's a very big glass, but I will endeavour.
0:49:49 > 0:49:53Charles Darwin visited Chile on the voyage of the Beagle,
0:49:53 > 0:49:55and he noted the Chilean palm
0:49:55 > 0:49:58and he said he thought it was a remarkably ugly tree.
0:49:58 > 0:50:01Well, each to their own, but I think he was wrong.
0:50:01 > 0:50:04I think there's something really splendid about them,
0:50:04 > 0:50:08and I love these great elephant's feet of the trucks.
0:50:08 > 0:50:12It may be not worth travelling in the Beagle round the world
0:50:12 > 0:50:14just to see these but certainly worth a stop-off.
0:50:20 > 0:50:24At last the rain stops, and I get back on the road.
0:50:40 > 0:50:42One of the real treats of travelling
0:50:42 > 0:50:46is when you come across plants you've nurtured in your garden growing wild,
0:50:46 > 0:50:50and these eschscholtzias are just spilling down the hillside.
0:50:50 > 0:50:51They're everywhere!
0:50:51 > 0:50:55And they're just as exotic as something you'd find in the jungle.
0:50:57 > 0:51:00These eschscholtzias are not native to Chile,
0:51:00 > 0:51:05but they do love it here and have naturalised from their home in California.
0:51:11 > 0:51:13For my final garden of this trip,
0:51:13 > 0:51:16I'm bound for Los Vilos on the Pacific coast
0:51:16 > 0:51:22to meet a Chilean designer whose gardens celebrate the native flora of his homeland.
0:51:22 > 0:51:26It's by a man called Juan Grimm, Chile's leading garden designer,
0:51:26 > 0:51:28very well known in South America.
0:51:28 > 0:51:30He's modern, he's contemporary.
0:51:30 > 0:51:32The site is supposed to be really dramatic.
0:51:32 > 0:51:36And I know that he's passionate about using Chilean plants,
0:51:36 > 0:51:40of combining the landscape and house with indigenous species.
0:51:56 > 0:51:59The first thing that is striking about Juan Grimm's garden
0:51:59 > 0:52:04is it's hard to see where the garden begins or, indeed, where it ends.
0:52:13 > 0:52:16There are certainly no showy displays of flowers
0:52:16 > 0:52:18and no neatly defined borders,
0:52:18 > 0:52:21just an infinitely sophisticated use of local plants,
0:52:21 > 0:52:25gently coerced into colonising this rocky site,
0:52:25 > 0:52:27which tumbles into the Pacific.
0:52:30 > 0:52:34When I was a child, I really remember the sensuality,
0:52:34 > 0:52:36how the landscape
0:52:36 > 0:52:40touched the leaves, touched the rocks.
0:52:40 > 0:52:41I loved that when I was a child.
0:52:43 > 0:52:46The garden swells up from the very edge of the sea
0:52:46 > 0:52:50in an unbroken, flowing progression lapping around the house.
0:52:50 > 0:52:54Every part of the landscape, including the sky and sea,
0:52:54 > 0:52:56seemed to be part of the garden.
0:52:57 > 0:52:59I'm interested in following this idea
0:52:59 > 0:53:02of where a garden begins and ends.
0:53:02 > 0:53:08How do you phase the garden out into a big landscape like this sea
0:53:08 > 0:53:10- or into woods or whatever?- Mm-hm.
0:53:10 > 0:53:13Your sight doesn't have limits.
0:53:13 > 0:53:16Even though it's a small space,
0:53:16 > 0:53:20you can borrow the tree from your neighbour.
0:53:20 > 0:53:25Or in this case, you don't feel where the sight ends.
0:53:25 > 0:53:28- So, you're looking to use the landscape?- Absolutely.
0:53:28 > 0:53:31The landscape says to you what you have to do,
0:53:31 > 0:53:33and that's the important thing.
0:53:48 > 0:53:51That covered wall looks, actually, remarkably like a clipped hedge.
0:53:51 > 0:53:55Uh-huh, yes. That's the idea.
0:53:55 > 0:54:01I left this window here in the hedge because this plant was here
0:54:01 > 0:54:05but was very small, but in ten years it has grown.
0:54:05 > 0:54:10And I like to see the landscape very far from here.
0:54:10 > 0:54:14I think it's very important to have references for the landscape.
0:54:14 > 0:54:17- And fundamentally, you use native plants here.- Native plants.
0:54:17 > 0:54:19All of these are native plants.
0:54:19 > 0:54:23They resist the wind and the salt of the ocean.
0:54:26 > 0:54:30It must have been quite a challenge making the steps,
0:54:30 > 0:54:33- getting a route through the garden. - Uh-huh.
0:54:33 > 0:54:38Yes, and I think it was very important
0:54:38 > 0:54:41not to see the stairs from the house,
0:54:41 > 0:54:43and that's why I plant all the shrubs.
0:54:43 > 0:54:46How long did it take until the shrubs
0:54:46 > 0:54:50formed the bulk and the volume that you needed?
0:54:50 > 0:54:52Five years, more or less.
0:54:52 > 0:54:55And the swimming pool. Was this part of your original plan?
0:54:55 > 0:55:00I always wanted to have a part of the ocean, like an eye of the ocean.
0:55:00 > 0:55:02It makes you conscious with the house.
0:55:02 > 0:55:04So looking back up at the house...
0:55:06 > 0:55:09..you've got the hard lines and then softness,
0:55:09 > 0:55:11just everything organic in shape and form.
0:55:11 > 0:55:14The house is inside the plants.
0:55:14 > 0:55:17It emerges from the rock and from the plants.
0:55:17 > 0:55:20So the house is growing with the plants.
0:55:20 > 0:55:22To what extent have you planted up the rocks?
0:55:22 > 0:55:25All these plants near the swimming pool, I plant them,
0:55:25 > 0:55:30and some of those I planted around there because it was very dry there.
0:55:30 > 0:55:34But all the plants that grow in the rocks, they grow spontaneously.
0:55:34 > 0:55:36I tried to be more natural.
0:55:36 > 0:55:40All these flowers you see here, the alstromerias,
0:55:40 > 0:55:43when I watered this part of the garden,
0:55:43 > 0:55:47the seeds came here and they grew here.
0:55:47 > 0:55:52I love the way the garden gently and without any self-consciousness
0:55:52 > 0:55:56goes completely to nature, completely wild,
0:55:56 > 0:55:59in the space of, what, ten metres?
0:55:59 > 0:56:04I like how the plants are very green,
0:56:04 > 0:56:08and the green starts to disappear here, and the rocks the other way.
0:56:08 > 0:56:11Too much rocks and the rocks disappear.
0:56:11 > 0:56:14Presumably that relationship between the green and the rocks
0:56:14 > 0:56:16and the ground changes all the time.
0:56:16 > 0:56:19Do you manage that or do you let it happen?
0:56:19 > 0:56:22Well, just a little. I put some plants.
0:56:22 > 0:56:25You see those yellow one there?
0:56:25 > 0:56:27That's a native plant. I put it there.
0:56:27 > 0:56:29And some of the shrubs also.
0:56:29 > 0:56:34So minimal intervention, minimal gardening, for maximum effect.
0:56:34 > 0:56:35That's the idea.
0:56:38 > 0:56:40You know, I think Juan Grimm's garden is one of
0:56:40 > 0:56:45the most beautiful and brilliantly conceived that I have ever seen.
0:56:45 > 0:56:48It is a glorious masterpiece.
0:56:48 > 0:56:52And more than that, I'm sure that his use of native plants,
0:56:52 > 0:56:55working with the landscape rather than trying to dominate it,
0:56:55 > 0:56:58is the key for any sustainable future.
0:57:01 > 0:57:04This journey has shown me fascinating gardens,
0:57:04 > 0:57:07created in such incredibly diverse natural conditions,
0:57:07 > 0:57:12that you can hardly believe that the same landmass can harbour such varied places.
0:57:15 > 0:57:18But in all those places,
0:57:18 > 0:57:23you have this common desire to create something from nature
0:57:23 > 0:57:26that is domesticated and yet in tune with it.
0:57:26 > 0:57:30And I think this is the really extraordinary, exciting thing about South America,
0:57:30 > 0:57:38that it has very recently realised that it must work with its surroundings respectfully,
0:57:38 > 0:57:44and yet what it does have is that intense enthusiasm and creativity which is very, very exciting.
0:57:44 > 0:57:48This has been my first trip here, but it won't be my last.
0:57:52 > 0:57:55My next journey will take me across the Atlantic
0:57:55 > 0:57:58to see what the United States of America is doing
0:57:58 > 0:58:02with all its wealth and power in the garden.
0:58:12 > 0:58:15Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
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