South America: Brazil, Argentina and Chile Around the World in 80 Gardens


South America: Brazil, Argentina and Chile

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I believe a really good way to understand a culture is through it's gardens.

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This is an extraordinary journey to visit 80 inspiring gardens from all over the world.

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Some are very well known like the Taj Mahal or the Alhambra.

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And I'm also challenging my idea of what a garden actually is.

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So I'm visiting gardens that float on the Amazon, a strange fantasy in the jungle.

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As well as the private homes of great designers,

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and the desert flowering in a garden...

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and wherever I go I shall be meeting people that share my own passion for gardens

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on my epic quest to see the world through 80 of it's most fascinating and beautiful gardens.

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This week, my travels have brought me to the continent

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with the most diverse climate and range of landscapes on this planet,

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and which is home to more than 50,000 species of plants only found here.

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This is a land almost twice the size of Europe.

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South America.

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One of the ways of trying to get beneath the skin

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of this vast continent

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is to work out what people's concept of a garden actually is.

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And I also want to find out what it is that drives people to make gardens at all,

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when their natural landscape is as beautiful and dramatic as this.

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I'm starting the first leg of my journey in Rio de Janeiro,

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to see the private garden of Brazil's greatest artist,

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before travelling by boat to the floating gardens of the Amazon.

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Heading back south, I'll go to Argentina

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to visit a traditional 'estancia' in the Pampas,

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before finally ending my journey on the Pacific coast of Chile

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where one man has created a garden completely in tune with the landscape.

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So, I arrive for the first time in one of the world's great cities,

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Rio de Janeiro.

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Now, the Brazilian climate varies from hot and arid in the interior

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to hot and sticky in the tropical rainforest of the Amazon jungle.

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So I had expected, for my first visit to Brazil,

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not just all the conventional features of Rio to be there,

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colour, bronzed bodies, dancing, that kind of thing,

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but above all lots of sunshine. After all, it is supposed to be summer.

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Every image of Copacabana beach is of beautiful bodies, sunshine,

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packed beaches...

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Well, this is Copacabana beach, and I've got rain.

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And not a soul...

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Not a thong in sight!

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But the reason I'm on the beach in this terrible weather

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is to visit my first garden, the famous Copacabana promenade,

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designed by Roberto Burle Marx in 1970.

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Burle Marx was Brazil's most eminent landscape architect and artist,

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and he radically combined his paintings with the landscape of Rio's pavements and parks.

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He took the lines and the swirls

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that were so familiar from his paintings and his other artwork,

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and applied them to the surface of the Copacabana.

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That went on...

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..and on....

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..and on...

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..and on.

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The scale is simply enormous

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and amounts to a two and a half mile long abstract painting.

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There can be few gardens best seen from the 27th floor of a hotel.

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What we're looking at is one of the largest public gardens in the world.

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And in my opinion, a garden it surely is,

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as clearly municipal and as public as bedding on a roundabout.

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It's not just Copacabana's promenade

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that's suffused with Burle Marx's brilliant creativity.

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From the late 1930s until his death in 1994

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he added much to the quality of Rio's life

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by designing many radical, elegant and invariably stimulating public spaces in the city.

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These fabulous abstract spaces are not the only reason why Burle Marx

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is one of the most important garden designers in South America.

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He also personally revolutionised gardening in Brazil.

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And to see how, I am heading now 40 miles out of the city

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to visit his own private garden.

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Burle Marx loved Brazil's native plants.

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In 1949 he bought this 90-acre estate

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to experiment with what was then a revolutionary idea -

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the introduction of some of Brazil's indigenous plants to its parks and gardens.

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The garden, known today as the Sitio,

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became his life-long passion.

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Have a look at this...

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non stick!

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Although Burle Marx was obsessive

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about championing plants local to Brazil

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this garden has many species from all over the world,

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and he was very clear about the role of a garden.

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It was nature designed and controlled by man for man;

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and in other words a wholly artificial space,

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and this is no exception.

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In his garden as in every part of his life,

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Burle Marx was a compulsive designer and collector,

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and everything he did at the Sitio,

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from planting to entertaining, was on an heroic scale.

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This area which was designed by Burle Marx specifically for parties

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is big but it's recognisably domestic.

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And this pergola which he created to house the jade vine he was given,

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it's very big and very eccentric to do such a grand gesture just for one plant.

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But then you just go a few more steps

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and you come through here and suddenly all the rules are changed.

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I'm in completely different territory

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and I don't see this as a gardener or horticulturist,

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but almost like a child at the edge of a forest,

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because this isn't the experience of a garden,

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it's the landscape of a dream.

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And although it seems extraordinary now,

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Burle Marx's dream to protect and celebrate Brazil's tropical plant life

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was actually considered more revolutionary in its day

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than his abstract painting or landscape design.

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At the age of 19 Burle Marx went to Europe to study art for a year

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and he left behind him a Brazil whose gardens faced Europe.

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They were heavily influenced by them,

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formal, Victorian and bearing no recognition

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of the extraordinary plant life of the South American continent.

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Whilst he was in Berlin, Marx visited Dahlem Botanic Gardens

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and was stunned to find Brazilian plant species

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growing as curiosities in the glasshouses there.

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He suddenly thought this is mad,

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"Why am I looking at these plants here

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"when we should be growing them in our gardens back home?"

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It was really from that point that he began this process of designing modern gardens

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using the plants that were on his doorstep,

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on the South American continent,

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and above all that were Brazilian in every way.

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Burle Marx became obsessed

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with collecting and protecting these native plants,

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and the Sitio contains more than 3,000 species of tropical flora

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that he collected during his plant expeditions.

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Robeiro Diaz, the director of the Sitio, used to accompany him on his expeditions.

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In one of those excursions we went to Bahia and when we came back

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he said, "Everyone goes to the Sitio with me now!"

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So we came, he called the gardeners,

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and the truck that was filled with plants...

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And then "These there! Those there!

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"And there and there...

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And he composed

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the garden with those plants.

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So as soon as he found them in the wild,

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he wanted to immediately use them and create with them.

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Yes, he had to experiment with plants because when you pick up plants

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and nature, unknown, it comes not with a manual of how to plant it.

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He had to plant it to see how it would behave.

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There are more different species of bromeliad in Brazil

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than anywhere else on earth.

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And other than a pineapple we tend to come across bromeliads

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as house plants or something in a conservatory.

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Whereas here of course they grow anywhere and everywhere,

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and they are extraordinary things.

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Because their roots don't take in any nutrition at all...

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they simply attach the plant to whatever surface it's growing on.

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And all of them collect water at the base of their leaves...

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what amounts to a tiny lake...

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with its own complete ecosystem inside it.

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You'll have frogs and insects

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that never leave that individual bromeliad.

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Their whole life is spent within it.

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And that miracle... to come down into a garden

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and be used with all this exuberanceand colour and life!

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It's fantastic!

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I love the relationship here between small details

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and the big block planting that Burle Marx is famous for.

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He was well known for saying if you wanted people to appreciate a plant

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it was no good just planting one of them.

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In order to see it properly, they had to have lots of them.

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I love the textures.

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The way textures on the trunk of a tree will match.

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Or the colours of the water will pick up the colours of the leaves.

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And it's those tiny details expanded out by the vigour of the planting here in Brazil,

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together with the vigour of his imagination

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that is one of the things that makes this place so extraordinary.

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Burle Marx bequeathed the Sitio to the people of Brazil

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as part of the Burle Marx Foundation,

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and although he designed over 2,000 gardens,

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this is, I think, where his genius is best displayed.

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But now I am leaving here to follow in the footsteps of the great man

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and head north into the rainforest.

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My first visit to the Amazon basin exceeds any previous experience.

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All its statistics are superlatives.

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It produces 20% of the planet's oxygen

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and also contains more than 20% of the world's fresh water.

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Its 1.5 million square miles contains a third of the world's total rainforest

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and with an estimated 50,000 species of endemic plants

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it makes Brazil the most bio-diverse country on earth.

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I arrive in the middle of the dry season and it's unbelievably hot.

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But any romantic notions I may have harboured

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about my arrival in the remote Amazon,

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quickly evaporate as I find myself in a large noisy, commercial city

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right in the heart of the jungle.

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This is Manaus, the capital of the Amazonas.

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On the banks of the Rio Negro,

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and it is one of the gateways to the whole Amazon region.

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And it started life as a rubber trading port.

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The rubber came in from the jungle and the city that grew up

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around that trade was elegant and had real colonial charm.

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The Opera House, built in 1879 by Joseph Eiffel, of Eiffel tower fame,

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attests to the wealth brought by the rubber trade, now long gone.

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Yet still, forest people are drawn here by the hope of work.

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Today the population of Manaus is more than 1.5 million;

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that's bigger than any British city outside London.

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But the lure for the modern visitor

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is the same as for the original 18th century rubber traders.

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And that is what is out there,

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which is the richest selection of plant life on this planet.

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I'm looking for the Cassiquiari.

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I don't know if that's how you pronounce it, but it's one of these boats.

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I hope it's a nice one.

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There are at a rough estimate at least 50 or 60 such boats.

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Cassiquiari.

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That's her.

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Very charming. Hello.

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Hello, I'm Monty, nice to meet you, can I come on?

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Welcome aboard.

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Thank you very much indeed. Thank you.

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We leave the city and moor out in the river

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as the light drops quickly away into the darkness of the steamy tropical night.

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It'll be morning before I see my first unfettered views of the mighty Amazon.

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As day breaks, the river reveals itself in all it's glory.

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It is unimaginably huge.

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The river system has 11,000 tributaries,

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of which 17 are more than 1,000 miles long.

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Before I could set off for the day

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there was an unexpected problem to deal with.

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Now we had a slight mishap on my way here,

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because at Sao Paolo I picked up the wrong suitcase, identical to mine.

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And when we got on the boat and opened it out,

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instead of seeing all my gear, my clothes, my washing kit and all the rest of it,

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there was a large collection of saris and sequin-encrusted jerseys.

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And there's obviously some poor woman, desperate for her clothes.

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It left me with a problem because I was about to go down the Amazon.

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All I had was the suit I travelled in and nothing else at all.

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Luckily I managed to borrow these clothes.

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SPEAKS PORTUGUESE

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I don't speak Portuguese but I guess she's probably saying that

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it looks very nice but a nice pink sari would've been more fetching!

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OK. Are we ready?

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Managing to resist the lure of a pink sari,

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I'm off to explore the Amazon.

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With over a fifth of the world's plant species thought to be growing here,

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I wondered if people who live here need to garden?

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My guide Ivano assures me they do,

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so he takes me to meet a river community.

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Ah, look... look at the dogs.

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The water levels in the Amazon can rise and fall by as much as 30 feet according to the season,

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so all these houses float on the river to accommodate the changing levels.

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This is the last place I would expect to find a garden

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but then, astonishingly,

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one floats by.

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The floating house

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is very nice to live because when I was born my parents live in a floating house.

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You were born in a floating house.

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Yes, I was born in a floating house.

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There's budgerigars! Ah!

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You can see now that this house with a garden...

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Balanced on these vast logs, these trees,

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and then boxes and containers stretched across them.

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Most of the plants are medicinal plants.

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And some vegetables that they can eat.

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There are onions... in an old boat!

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Fantastic!

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It's much easier to get around on the river

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than trekking through the jungle,

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so the houses are floating on the river too.

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But with the massive change in level,

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these floating houses move quite large distances.

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Wherever a house goes, the garden must follow.

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Those trees there. Are they floating too?

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Yeah, they are very interesting these gardens

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because it's incredible how the gardens can support a tree like that.

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Like coconuts trees and lemon and cashew nuts.

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-So these big trees are growing in what we would call containers floating on the water.

-Yeah.

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We drop by the local shop,

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where the owner grows fruit trees aboard their floating garden.

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-E Monty, Dona Sebastiana.

-How do you do?

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This is beautiful, look her house.

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-It's a beautiful house.

-Very typical. Look at the kitchen. Very nice kitchen.

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Out the back is Sebastiana's garden.

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Amazingly, it is an orchard of really quite large trees

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bobbing about on a pontoon chained to the house.

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This is fantastic...

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these are big plants, aren't they?

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How much soil has she put into the containers?

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She use a bag like these and she use like 30 for to get the soil.

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30. So the roots don't go down in to the water?

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No they stay on the soil.

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And you water it from the river? She'll splash it off in.

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Yes, she's going to show us how she waters from the river.

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Right.

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Does she have to water all her pots every day?

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-Yes, twice every day.

-Twice a day.

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-Presumably in the rainy season she doesn't have to do that?

-No, no.

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Tell me what she has here...

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Verbena, carambola, cashew, banana.

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All growing in little boxes floating on the river is an amazing thing.

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It's an amazing thing.

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She loves plants and she cannot plant in the land because of the flood jungle.

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So if she wants to have some trees by side of the house it has to be like that.

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People who garden on the river have fewer constraints than you might imagine

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and can grow nearly as much as anyone on dry land, including vegetables.

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Combined with fresh fish from the river it seemed

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to make for a superbly healthy diet and very attractive lifestyle.

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But I met one householder preparing to sell up and move to the city.

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Now she's going to move to Manaus will she still have a garden?

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She's going to take it.

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Only the house is for selling. Not the garden.

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-Which is her favourite plant?

-The rose.

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Cos it's like a queen in the garden.

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It's like a queen in the garden. That's a very beautiful thought.

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Flowers are actually a rare sight in the Amazon

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because there isn't one distinct flowering season and flowering plants bloom unpredictably,

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and usually out of sight at the top of tree canopies where there's light.

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So in these floating gardens, any bright showy flower is always very popular.

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So what do we have round here?

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-She has plants, piggies.

-Piggies!

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I love piggies. 6 pigs, floating.

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Fantastic.

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I too keep pigs and love growing vegetables.

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So whilst I like roses, I love her pigs and I admire her vegetables.

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Obrigada!

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The sun is about to drop and when it does go it just falls out of the sky.

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You're left in pitch blackness.

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And the main thing today, other than the vastness of this place

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and the unimaginable scale of everything, including the heat,

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is that the desire to garden seems to be a completely basic thing.

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It doesn't matter if you're on the middle of one of the biggest rivers on this planet.

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Still people are making gardens in old canoes and boxes of wood,

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with soil they've had to hump from different parts of the land

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and get into a canoe and row it over and empty it out.

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And still that urge to grow things,

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in the most unlikely of situations, seems to be a basic instinct.

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The next morning I set off to go into the jungle.

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We all now know that this habitat is highly threatened,

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but I'm still hoping to find some of the plants

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Burle Marx fought so hard to conserve in his Sitio garden near Rio.

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Before you come to the rainforest you're hit over the head with statistics.

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But there is one that is really striking,

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and that is that one hectare of virgin rainforest in the Amazon

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has more species of trees than the whole of North America.

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It's remarkably easy to get lost in the jungle,

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even on a modest little jaunt like this,

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so I've enlisted the help of Mo,

0:24:320:24:34

a local guide who's lived in the Amazon jungle all his life.

0:24:340:24:37

Mo explained to me the reason for the extraordinary flaring buttresses

0:24:370:24:42

of many of the jungle trees.

0:24:420:24:44

The land here is so poor that this tree doesn't have a deep root,

0:24:460:24:52

so it needs this support, the system of roots to support the tree.

0:24:520:24:58

OK, you have very, very shallow soil,

0:24:580:25:01

but how does these enormous trees and this mass of life sustain its fertility,

0:25:010:25:08

because it must be making great demands in nutrition and in water.

0:25:080:25:12

-Water we have enough.

-Right.

0:25:120:25:15

They live from what the other trees leave.

0:25:150:25:18

What they have is a big exchange of nutrients.

0:25:180:25:25

What one lose, the others get.

0:25:250:25:28

In the intense heat and humidity of the tropical rainforest,

0:25:290:25:33

specially-adapted fungi and bacteria

0:25:330:25:35

rapidly break down fallen leaves and wood.

0:25:350:25:39

This releases nutrients which are immediately taken back up by the plants.

0:25:390:25:45

This process almost completely by-passes the soil,

0:25:450:25:47

leaving it almost devoid of organic matter,

0:25:470:25:51

shallow and with hardly any nutrients.

0:25:510:25:53

You have the roots right on the surface

0:25:530:25:58

and a very very thin layer of soil.

0:25:580:26:00

So the whole of this vast forest with these enormous trees

0:26:000:26:06

is supported like in a tray.

0:26:060:26:10

What's this?

0:26:120:26:13

Oh! This is a brazil nut fruit,

0:26:130:26:15

if you open it up there are like 20 nuts inside.

0:26:150:26:18

Really? Let me have a look at that.

0:26:180:26:20

Yes. Try to cut it.

0:26:200:26:23

So you just, just...

0:26:230:26:24

Put in the ground. It's very hard.

0:26:240:26:26

-Is it?

-Yeah.

0:26:260:26:28

Now you can see the nuts in there.

0:26:360:26:38

So inside this very, very hard shell

0:26:380:26:40

are a series of nuts with very, very hard shells.

0:26:400:26:44

Is there an animal that breaks through that?

0:26:440:26:46

Yeah, a very interesting point. There is a little hole here.

0:26:460:26:49

What happened we have an agouti, like a little kangaroo

0:26:490:26:54

with big backside and small hands but very sharp teeth,

0:26:540:26:57

that come and eats two or three of those seeds and then buries the rest.

0:26:570:27:03

He intends to return, but the animal has a very poor memory.

0:27:030:27:07

So for this reason grows the Brazil nut.

0:27:070:27:09

Without the help of the agouti they cannot grow.

0:27:090:27:12

Countless species in the rainforest are dependent upon this sort of complex, symbiotic relationship.

0:27:140:27:20

But, over a quarter of a million square miles of this delicate ecosystem

0:27:200:27:27

have been ruthlessly cleared in the past 40 years alone,

0:27:270:27:31

which has accelerated a process that began with the first European settlers in the 15th century.

0:27:310:27:36

They were convinced the obvious lushness of the rainforest was due to rich soils.

0:27:370:27:41

As indeed it would have been in the temperate forests of Europe.

0:27:410:27:45

So, they cut and burned vast tracts of forest in an attempt to create farmland.

0:27:450:27:52

However, this cleared land only supports crops for a few years.

0:27:520:27:57

Once the trees are gone, the soil has no protection from the equatorial rains,

0:27:570:28:01

which quickly wash away the ash and the few remaining nutrients

0:28:010:28:05

and the blazing sun desiccates the essential bacteria and fungi.

0:28:050:28:09

It is an ecological disaster.

0:28:090:28:11

This is now clearly understood,

0:28:150:28:18

but nevertheless still continues to happen.

0:28:180:28:21

Exhausted land is quickly abandoned and virgin rainforest once again

0:28:210:28:25

sacrificed at the altar of ignorant greed.

0:28:250:28:29

However, a new discovery offers an ember of hope

0:28:290:28:33

that could revolutionise the way the rainforest is farmed in the future,

0:28:330:28:37

working with the forest to create sustainable fertility.

0:28:370:28:40

Recent science has shown a very, very small percentage of Amazonia,

0:28:400:28:47

about 0.2%, but which still amounts to 50,000 sq km,

0:28:470:28:52

is composed of pockets of very rich black soil.

0:28:520:28:58

How on earth did that get there?

0:28:580:29:00

This deep, black soil, known as 'terra preta', is extremely fertile

0:29:030:29:08

and, because it contains pottery shards and organic matter dating back to prehistoric times,

0:29:080:29:13

scientists believe it is man-made,

0:29:130:29:15

built up artificially over thousands of years.

0:29:150:29:18

And the key to its fertility lies in the charcoal,

0:29:180:29:22

which can retain nutrients.

0:29:220:29:24

These then remain stable in the soil and don't leach away.

0:29:240:29:28

The furious heat from conventional slash and burn

0:29:280:29:31

quickly reduces plant material into ash

0:29:310:29:34

which leaches its goodness almost immediately.

0:29:340:29:37

But charcoal, made from a much gentler smouldering fire lit in the rainy season,

0:29:370:29:41

acts as a sponge for nutrients, holding them in the soil.

0:29:410:29:44

It's thought native Amazonians used this system long before settlers arrived

0:29:440:29:49

to transform some of the world's worst soil into some of the best.

0:29:490:29:53

There are still some tribes that practise similar techniques.

0:29:560:30:00

The Satere-Mawe tribe use the rainforest for all their daily needs,

0:30:000:30:05

and Bacu and her village want to share their knowledge

0:30:050:30:07

and show visitors her ancestors' way of growing things.

0:30:070:30:11

Mo is taking me to meet her because, for generations,

0:30:130:30:16

this tribe has been using fire to create compost

0:30:160:30:20

and to cultivate their poor rainforest soils.

0:30:200:30:22

Hello.

0:30:250:30:27

So what's she doing here?

0:30:280:30:31

She's using the old spoiled wood, it's not the good wood,

0:30:350:30:39

the spoiled wood, to make fire.

0:30:390:30:42

She takes the ashes for the plants to grow all the plants she needs.

0:30:420:30:48

Is she just putting the ash straight on,

0:30:480:30:52

or she is adding any other the soil?

0:30:520:30:54

SHE SPEAKS PORTUGUESE

0:30:540:30:57

The ashes she's using there, she gets some of the dead wood,

0:31:020:31:05

and puts them together, she says, not to get too strong, too acid.

0:31:050:31:10

I see. So it's just when she plants the plant.

0:31:100:31:13

SHE SPEAKS PORTUGUESE

0:31:150:31:18

When the plant is ugly, she has to do that over!

0:31:200:31:23

So you make it a good plant by using it.

0:31:230:31:26

Bacu slowly burns the mixture of dead wood and organic matter,

0:31:260:31:31

like her ancestors did, to create a soil conditioner

0:31:310:31:34

to propagate and raise healthy plants

0:31:340:31:36

in her small garden, year in, year out.

0:31:360:31:39

Can I see how she uses it in the garden?

0:31:420:31:46

THEY SPEAK PORTUGUESE

0:31:460:31:51

There is wood from the palm.

0:31:510:31:54

But she brings a different one to mix.

0:31:540:31:56

And then she says she's going to plant.

0:31:560:31:59

This is a thing that she uses for worms.

0:31:590:32:04

If you have a parasite in your intestines.

0:32:040:32:07

So she's taking a cutting?

0:32:070:32:09

Just a branch. She breaks a branch.

0:32:100:32:12

But she puts a little earth in here before she breaks,

0:32:140:32:17

so they have little roots already.

0:32:170:32:19

It makes roots presumably because it's so warm and moist, it wants to make roots.

0:32:190:32:24

Tell me, how long ago did she break that branch off?

0:32:240:32:27

Two days ago.

0:32:300:32:31

And it's started to put roots out already, in the air, with just a little soil round it.

0:32:310:32:36

From where I live, that is incredible.

0:32:360:32:39

There are very few plants that will do that.

0:32:390:32:42

Este esta de marejar e para xampu e tambem para criancas...

0:32:420:32:47

I understood "shampoo". And this one?

0:32:470:32:49

E remedio para gente que fala muito.

0:32:490:32:52

This is a plant she calls "shut-up".

0:32:520:32:57

This is to give to for people who talk too much.

0:32:570:33:01

Very useful plant! A very, very useful plant, that!

0:33:010:33:05

Before I go, I have the obligatory song and dance put on for visiting tourists.

0:33:050:33:11

But Bacu's intimacy with the forest is real and profound,

0:33:110:33:15

and not just a tourist display.

0:33:150:33:16

And her age-old knowledge, handed on to the children,

0:33:160:33:21

holds hope for the sustainable future of the rainforest.

0:33:210:33:25

Today has been really interesting because it's shown how quickly

0:33:450:33:52

you can lose that incredible knowledge that people have.

0:33:520:33:56

And if we undervalue that, and somehow regard it as worthless

0:33:560:34:02

once we've got mechanisation or industrialisation,

0:34:020:34:05

all the skills that you need to care and to work with a place

0:34:050:34:10

as complex as the jungle, go alarmingly quickly.

0:34:100:34:14

It's scary how we've lost what we need

0:34:160:34:20

to live in harmony with a place like this.

0:34:200:34:22

And yet it doesn't need us, of course, it doesn't need us at all.

0:34:220:34:26

It's time to end my all-too brief visit to the Amazon

0:34:310:34:35

and go to a landscape that couldn't be more different.

0:34:350:34:39

I'm heading south to Argentina now,

0:34:420:34:45

to see how gardening was crucial in enabling European settlers

0:34:450:34:48

to take root in a very inhospitable region.

0:34:480:34:51

Argentina runs down from the Andes

0:35:010:35:03

to the windswept featureless plains of the Pampas.

0:35:030:35:08

I'm starting my visit in the country's elegant capital,

0:35:080:35:12

Buenos Aires.

0:35:120:35:13

The name "Argentina" is derived from the Latin for silver, "argentum",

0:35:180:35:23

and was given by Spanish conquerors in 1524

0:35:230:35:25

who claimed that the mountains were rich in the precious metal.

0:35:250:35:29

This sparked a silver rush and, over the course of the next 300 years,

0:35:290:35:33

Argentina saw a mass migration of southern Europeans in search of a better life.

0:35:330:35:38

The city does feel to me as though it's got a European feel to it.

0:35:420:35:48

It's hard to place exactly but there is something distinctly European.

0:35:480:35:52

And I think it's as much to do with the avenues and the parks and the trees.

0:35:520:35:57

And the responsibility for those is directly down to one man.

0:35:570:36:02

The parks and broad tree-lined avenues of Buenos Aires

0:36:040:36:07

were designed by a French landscape architect called Charles Thays.

0:36:070:36:11

In 1889, when he was 40, he came here on a visit,

0:36:110:36:16

fell in love with the country and spent the rest of his life here.

0:36:160:36:20

It's directly thanks to him that the modern city has inherited

0:36:210:36:26

the green spaces and sheltering trees which it benefits from today,

0:36:260:36:31

as I learnt from his grandson and namesake, Carlos Thays.

0:36:310:36:35

TRANSLATION: He learnt the art of landscape design in Europe,

0:36:350:36:40

and saw the cities of London and Paris were tree-lined, and full of parks.

0:36:400:36:46

There were absolutely no trees and parks in Buenos Aires when he arrived,

0:36:460:36:52

so he planted 1.2 million trees in the streets of Buenos Aires.

0:36:520:36:57

Although the city has a distinctly European feel,

0:36:580:37:02

the trees that Charles Thays planted

0:37:020:37:04

were often species native to South America.

0:37:040:37:07

And none is more magnificent than this beautiful giant.

0:37:070:37:10

This is one of the most wonderful trees I've ever seen.

0:37:160:37:19

It's a gomero, rubber tree.

0:37:190:37:21

Apart from the fact that it's enormous,

0:37:210:37:24

it has great significance because it was the first tree,

0:37:240:37:27

apparently, planted here in Buenos Aires.

0:37:270:37:30

And, in the 200 years since it was planted, it has become vast.

0:37:300:37:34

In the middle of this incredibly noisy, busy city,

0:37:340:37:38

it's a symbolic stately presence.

0:37:380:37:42

The influence of Charles Thays's tree-planting

0:37:450:37:48

can be felt throughout the city,

0:37:480:37:51

but it also extended into the countryside.

0:37:510:37:54

So tomorrow, I am going to head out to wilderness of the Pampas.

0:37:540:37:57

The open, even bleak, landscape of the Pampas,

0:38:080:38:11

is the territory of the beef barons.

0:38:110:38:13

It is where European settlers turned these wind-battered but fertile flatlands

0:38:130:38:19

into a very successful rural economy,

0:38:190:38:21

based around huge cattle ranches called "estancias".

0:38:210:38:24

As they prospered, the owners of the estancias

0:38:280:38:31

built themselves impressive houses and grounds.

0:38:310:38:34

I've come to see Estancia Dos Talas, a remnant, albeit somewhat reduced,

0:38:340:38:39

of a golden age when this European elite transformed Argentina.

0:38:390:38:44

Estancia Dos Talas was built in 1858 by Pedro Luro

0:38:540:38:58

who came to the country at 17 without a penny to his name.

0:38:580:39:01

But through a combination of graft and guile,

0:39:010:39:04

became one of the most important landowners in Argentina.

0:39:040:39:07

The estancia came into the family by the most extraordinary route

0:39:130:39:17

because Don Pedro Luro was offered the job of planting trees.

0:39:170:39:22

And he was going to be paid in land.

0:39:220:39:24

So many trees, you get so much land.

0:39:240:39:25

The owner then went away to Europe for three years and, in his absence,

0:39:250:39:29

Don Pedro planted trees like a man possessed.

0:39:290:39:32

Tens of thousands of trees.

0:39:320:39:33

And when we came back, the owner found the only way he could pay him

0:39:330:39:37

was by giving him all the land.

0:39:370:39:38

The case went to court, Don Pedro won and he found himself with 17,000 hectares of the Pampas.

0:39:380:39:45

This is a pigeon house.

0:40:010:40:02

And every self-respecting big house or farm house

0:40:020:40:08

had a pigeon house in England.

0:40:080:40:09

But it's a European thing.

0:40:090:40:11

And apparently the stone,

0:40:110:40:13

these ledges for the pigeons to go on, was brought in from Europe.

0:40:130:40:17

It's old red sandstone which is what my house in England is made out of!

0:40:170:40:22

It doesn't exist in South America.

0:40:220:40:24

It was all shipped over here.

0:40:240:40:26

And the most ornate fabulous building, occupied now by bees.

0:40:260:40:33

What a lovely building.

0:40:330:40:35

At the start of the 20th century, Buenos Aires's top landscape architect,

0:40:360:40:40

who was of course Charles Thays,

0:40:400:40:42

was commissioned to draw up plans for a 75-acre park.

0:40:420:40:46

The estancia has remained in the same family,

0:40:460:40:49

and Sara de Elizalde, the current chatelaine,

0:40:490:40:51

showed me Thays's original plans for the design of the garden.

0:40:510:40:55

This is a highly fashionable design in June 1908.

0:40:550:41:01

Did he oversee the execution of it?

0:41:010:41:06

TRANSLATION: When Charles Thays started to supervise the work

0:41:060:41:10

he came here and saw that many trees had already been planted.

0:41:100:41:15

So, he designed the garden to incorporate those that were already here.

0:41:150:41:20

It must be quite a responsibility to feel you have

0:41:200:41:24

this exceptional design and garden that it is your duty to look after?

0:41:240:41:32

Well, my husband Luis feels that it is a legacy

0:41:320:41:38

to maintain the whole estancia, but especially the park.

0:41:380:41:41

It is something he has in his blood

0:41:410:41:44

and he suffers a lot whenever there is a storm and a tree falls down.

0:41:440:41:49

He fights hard to keep everything in good condition.

0:41:490:41:52

To appreciate this vast garden, Sara's husband, Luis de Elizalde,

0:41:520:41:57

suggested that I explore his estate on horseback.

0:41:570:42:00

I don't often get the chance to ride,

0:42:020:42:05

but there is no better way to get round

0:42:050:42:07

and see some of the 1,400 hectares, or 3,500 acres, of the estancia.

0:42:070:42:13

Things like this avenue, the scale of it, is extraordinary.

0:42:130:42:18

-And these trees are what?

-Casuarina.

0:42:180:42:21

The beautiful thing of these trees

0:42:210:42:24

is that, when the wind blows, it produces the sound of the sea.

0:42:240:42:29

I know, I heard it this morning!

0:42:290:42:31

But I didn't realise it was these trees causing it. How fabulous.

0:42:310:42:35

I imagine that on the Pampas

0:42:350:42:37

the original settlers must have felt so exposed.

0:42:370:42:41

Yes, they had only the tala, but the tala doesn't grow over six metres.

0:42:410:42:46

-A tree, but a small tree.

-A small tree.

0:42:460:42:48

So these were planted as windbreaks,

0:42:480:42:51

and obviously very beautiful avenues.

0:42:510:42:53

Was it practicality first and then beauty?

0:42:530:42:57

They loved planting long avenues, and wide,

0:42:570:43:01

just to make them important.

0:43:010:43:04

The whole park is carved into these great avenues, dividing the woods into blocks.

0:43:060:43:11

Some have clearly been clipped but are now grown out so they have become dramatic tunnels.

0:43:110:43:16

They also provide vital protection on this completely exposed landscape.

0:43:160:43:22

Charles Thays's park can't possibly be maintained today in the style

0:43:240:43:29

that needed 16 gardeners to tend it in its pre-war heyday.

0:43:290:43:34

But it has matured to become a rambling, overgrown but magical garden

0:43:340:43:39

dominated by more than 50 species of superb trees,

0:43:390:43:43

including an avenue of dead but still magnificent elms.

0:43:430:43:48

It's big and it's flat.

0:43:540:43:56

Immeasurably, literally immeasurably.

0:43:560:44:00

One big field.

0:44:000:44:02

Between the fences, we are talking about 60 hectares here.

0:44:030:44:07

So each field is about 60 hectares?

0:44:070:44:09

-60, 70. From 100 to 60.

-Right.

0:44:090:44:13

So the Pampas has been like this forever,

0:44:130:44:16

but presumably the grazing affects the grass and what's grown here.

0:44:160:44:20

If it's left ungrazed, how does it turn?

0:44:200:44:24

Because trees don't grow on it.

0:44:240:44:26

Yes, but grass does.

0:44:260:44:29

Because it's the soil is so good, so good that we never fertilise this.

0:44:290:44:35

And the grass just keeps growing and growing.

0:44:350:44:37

-That's why the Pampas, it's mainly for cattle.

-So it's cattle.

0:44:370:44:42

Cattle, cattle and cattle!

0:44:420:44:44

There are a few trees to be found growing naturally on the Pampas,

0:44:500:44:54

but they are small, and very tough.

0:44:540:44:56

Anything much bigger than a blade of grass

0:44:560:44:58

has difficulty surviving because of the constant wind.

0:44:580:45:01

It's not hard to see why these vast shelter belts

0:45:010:45:04

were planted around the edge of the park.

0:45:040:45:06

The last storm, Katrina, went through New Orleans.

0:45:090:45:15

And the tail of that wind, if you look on the map,

0:45:150:45:18

came through and put them all down, at once.

0:45:180:45:21

Pomp, pomp, pomp...

0:45:210:45:24

You must have come down the next morning and...

0:45:240:45:27

140 km the wind.

0:45:270:45:30

Really?

0:45:300:45:31

Do you feel you need to replant it, to recreate...?

0:45:330:45:37

Of course!

0:45:370:45:39

If God gives me the time, I'll do it!

0:45:390:45:41

The reason that I came to Argentina was to see the Pampas.

0:46:050:46:09

And of course, I accept there much more to the place than that.

0:46:090:46:13

But I really wanted to see how you could garden

0:46:130:46:17

in a place of such vast, flat almost emptiness.

0:46:170:46:21

Charles Thays did not shut out the Pampas completely.

0:46:210:46:26

He carefully plotted sunset and sunrise and left openings

0:46:260:46:29

in his planting to view them and make them part of the garden.

0:46:290:46:33

And the existence of this huge garden is, I think,

0:46:330:46:37

a defiant expression of mastery over this fertile yet intimidating space,

0:46:370:46:44

imposing, for a while at least, a European culture upon it.

0:46:440:46:47

But it's time to leave the Argentinean Pampas

0:46:500:46:54

and continue on to the final stage of my journey,

0:46:540:46:57

to a country of startling contrasts - Chile.

0:46:570:47:00

Chile is 18 times longer than it is wide.

0:47:040:47:09

It has 4,300 miles of coastline and is 180 miles across.

0:47:090:47:15

The Andes flank the entire length of the country,

0:47:200:47:24

and the arid plains of the Atacama desert seal the north.

0:47:240:47:28

To the south are the ice flows of Patagonia.

0:47:280:47:32

I want to find out how Chilean gardeners are inspired by such dramatic backdrops.

0:47:320:47:38

I suppose if you got enough time the best way to see this country

0:47:380:47:41

would be to go from the far north right down to the frozen south,

0:47:410:47:45

but I've decided to take a slice across the country,

0:47:450:47:48

from the Andes to the Pacific.

0:47:480:47:50

Botanically speaking, Chile is like an island

0:47:530:47:55

with new plant material unable to enter from any direction,

0:47:550:47:59

and it has such extreme environments

0:47:590:48:01

that an incredible range of endemic plants thrive here.

0:48:010:48:04

The Chilean palm is one of these.

0:48:060:48:09

Their trunks shrink and bulge with age as they put all their energy into producing fruit.

0:48:090:48:14

They're also extremely slow growing and live to a great age.

0:48:140:48:18

This veteran is thought to be the oldest palm tree in the world

0:48:180:48:21

and is more than 1,000 years old.

0:48:210:48:24

But the palm was almost exploited to extinction because of its sap,

0:48:260:48:32

which was extracted and then boiled up to make syrup.

0:48:320:48:35

This is illegal now, and today the palm is the national emblem of Chile.

0:48:350:48:40

Wet!

0:48:540:48:55

THUNDER RUMBLES

0:48:550:48:57

Near the Campana National Park, a local hacienda has been trying

0:48:570:49:02

to protect the Chilean palm and increase their numbers.

0:49:020:49:05

They collect syrup, but only if a tree falls naturally,

0:49:050:49:08

and the owner has invited me over to try this for myself.

0:49:080:49:11

Salud.

0:49:170:49:19

I hope it's not medicine.

0:49:190:49:20

Es muy dulce, pero muy rica.

0:49:220:49:25

As they say where I live, "something different".

0:49:290:49:32

It is like drinking treacle.

0:49:320:49:35

It's a very big glass, but I will endeavour.

0:49:370:49:41

Charles Darwin visited Chile on the voyage of the Beagle,

0:49:490:49:53

and he noted the Chilean palm

0:49:530:49:55

and he said he thought it was a remarkably ugly tree.

0:49:550:49:58

Well, each to their own, but I think he was wrong.

0:49:580:50:01

I think there's something really splendid about them,

0:50:010:50:04

and I love these great elephant's feet of the trucks.

0:50:040:50:08

It may be not worth travelling in the Beagle round the world

0:50:080:50:12

just to see these but certainly worth a stop-off.

0:50:120:50:14

At last the rain stops, and I get back on the road.

0:50:200:50:24

One of the real treats of travelling

0:50:400:50:42

is when you come across plants you've nurtured in your garden growing wild,

0:50:420:50:46

and these eschscholtzias are just spilling down the hillside.

0:50:460:50:50

They're everywhere!

0:50:500:50:51

And they're just as exotic as something you'd find in the jungle.

0:50:510:50:55

These eschscholtzias are not native to Chile,

0:50:570:51:00

but they do love it here and have naturalised from their home in California.

0:51:000:51:05

For my final garden of this trip,

0:51:110:51:13

I'm bound for Los Vilos on the Pacific coast

0:51:130:51:16

to meet a Chilean designer whose gardens celebrate the native flora of his homeland.

0:51:160:51:22

It's by a man called Juan Grimm, Chile's leading garden designer,

0:51:220:51:26

very well known in South America.

0:51:260:51:28

He's modern, he's contemporary.

0:51:280:51:30

The site is supposed to be really dramatic.

0:51:300:51:32

And I know that he's passionate about using Chilean plants,

0:51:320:51:36

of combining the landscape and house with indigenous species.

0:51:360:51:40

The first thing that is striking about Juan Grimm's garden

0:51:560:51:59

is it's hard to see where the garden begins or, indeed, where it ends.

0:51:590:52:04

There are certainly no showy displays of flowers

0:52:130:52:16

and no neatly defined borders,

0:52:160:52:18

just an infinitely sophisticated use of local plants,

0:52:180:52:21

gently coerced into colonising this rocky site,

0:52:210:52:25

which tumbles into the Pacific.

0:52:250:52:27

When I was a child, I really remember the sensuality,

0:52:300:52:34

how the landscape

0:52:340:52:36

touched the leaves, touched the rocks.

0:52:360:52:40

I loved that when I was a child.

0:52:400:52:41

The garden swells up from the very edge of the sea

0:52:430:52:46

in an unbroken, flowing progression lapping around the house.

0:52:460:52:50

Every part of the landscape, including the sky and sea,

0:52:500:52:54

seemed to be part of the garden.

0:52:540:52:56

I'm interested in following this idea

0:52:570:52:59

of where a garden begins and ends.

0:52:590:53:02

How do you phase the garden out into a big landscape like this sea

0:53:020:53:08

-or into woods or whatever?

-Mm-hm.

0:53:080:53:10

Your sight doesn't have limits.

0:53:100:53:13

Even though it's a small space,

0:53:130:53:16

you can borrow the tree from your neighbour.

0:53:160:53:20

Or in this case, you don't feel where the sight ends.

0:53:200:53:25

-So, you're looking to use the landscape?

-Absolutely.

0:53:250:53:28

The landscape says to you what you have to do,

0:53:280:53:31

and that's the important thing.

0:53:310:53:33

That covered wall looks, actually, remarkably like a clipped hedge.

0:53:480:53:51

Uh-huh, yes. That's the idea.

0:53:510:53:55

I left this window here in the hedge because this plant was here

0:53:550:54:01

but was very small, but in ten years it has grown.

0:54:010:54:05

And I like to see the landscape very far from here.

0:54:050:54:10

I think it's very important to have references for the landscape.

0:54:100:54:14

-And fundamentally, you use native plants here.

-Native plants.

0:54:140:54:17

All of these are native plants.

0:54:170:54:19

They resist the wind and the salt of the ocean.

0:54:190:54:23

It must have been quite a challenge making the steps,

0:54:260:54:30

-getting a route through the garden.

-Uh-huh.

0:54:300:54:33

Yes, and I think it was very important

0:54:330:54:38

not to see the stairs from the house,

0:54:380:54:41

and that's why I plant all the shrubs.

0:54:410:54:43

How long did it take until the shrubs

0:54:430:54:46

formed the bulk and the volume that you needed?

0:54:460:54:50

Five years, more or less.

0:54:500:54:52

And the swimming pool. Was this part of your original plan?

0:54:520:54:55

I always wanted to have a part of the ocean, like an eye of the ocean.

0:54:550:55:00

It makes you conscious with the house.

0:55:000:55:02

So looking back up at the house...

0:55:020:55:04

..you've got the hard lines and then softness,

0:55:060:55:09

just everything organic in shape and form.

0:55:090:55:11

The house is inside the plants.

0:55:110:55:14

It emerges from the rock and from the plants.

0:55:140:55:17

So the house is growing with the plants.

0:55:170:55:20

To what extent have you planted up the rocks?

0:55:200:55:22

All these plants near the swimming pool, I plant them,

0:55:220:55:25

and some of those I planted around there because it was very dry there.

0:55:250:55:30

But all the plants that grow in the rocks, they grow spontaneously.

0:55:300:55:34

I tried to be more natural.

0:55:340:55:36

All these flowers you see here, the alstromerias,

0:55:360:55:40

when I watered this part of the garden,

0:55:400:55:43

the seeds came here and they grew here.

0:55:430:55:47

I love the way the garden gently and without any self-consciousness

0:55:470:55:52

goes completely to nature, completely wild,

0:55:520:55:56

in the space of, what, ten metres?

0:55:560:55:59

I like how the plants are very green,

0:55:590:56:04

and the green starts to disappear here, and the rocks the other way.

0:56:040:56:08

Too much rocks and the rocks disappear.

0:56:080:56:11

Presumably that relationship between the green and the rocks

0:56:110:56:14

and the ground changes all the time.

0:56:140:56:16

Do you manage that or do you let it happen?

0:56:160:56:19

Well, just a little. I put some plants.

0:56:190:56:22

You see those yellow one there?

0:56:220:56:25

That's a native plant. I put it there.

0:56:250:56:27

And some of the shrubs also.

0:56:270:56:29

So minimal intervention, minimal gardening, for maximum effect.

0:56:290:56:34

That's the idea.

0:56:340:56:35

You know, I think Juan Grimm's garden is one of

0:56:380:56:40

the most beautiful and brilliantly conceived that I have ever seen.

0:56:400:56:45

It is a glorious masterpiece.

0:56:450:56:48

And more than that, I'm sure that his use of native plants,

0:56:480:56:52

working with the landscape rather than trying to dominate it,

0:56:520:56:55

is the key for any sustainable future.

0:56:550:56:58

This journey has shown me fascinating gardens,

0:57:010:57:04

created in such incredibly diverse natural conditions,

0:57:040:57:07

that you can hardly believe that the same landmass can harbour such varied places.

0:57:070:57:12

But in all those places,

0:57:150:57:18

you have this common desire to create something from nature

0:57:180:57:23

that is domesticated and yet in tune with it.

0:57:230:57:26

And I think this is the really extraordinary, exciting thing about South America,

0:57:260:57:30

that it has very recently realised that it must work with its surroundings respectfully,

0:57:300:57:38

and yet what it does have is that intense enthusiasm and creativity which is very, very exciting.

0:57:380:57:44

This has been my first trip here, but it won't be my last.

0:57:440:57:48

My next journey will take me across the Atlantic

0:57:520:57:55

to see what the United States of America is doing

0:57:550:57:58

with all its wealth and power in the garden.

0:57:580:58:02

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

0:58:120:58:15

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0:58:150:58:18

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