We just got back from a short family holiday in Mexico and every time I go somewhere hot like that I am astounded at how different the flora is from what I'm familiar with. It really is amazing how the entire ecosystem is so different from anything we see here is Calgary. Of course, there are the obvious palm trees and other exotics, but I don't even recognize most of the trees growing there. I guess I take for granted how familiar and accustomed I am to the plants growing in Canada - which are poisonous, which make excellent tree forts. My favorites were the the giant hibiscus and bougainvillea bushes that here only grow to be modest sized house plants.
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| air plant (epiphytic bromeliad) growing in a tree near the Coba Mayan ruins |
We were lucky enough to go on a quick tour of a Mayan village and it was very interesting to see the type of gardening that they did. Even though they were poor and had even poorer soil quality, they still had ornamental flowers and it was neat to see them growing things like petunias and impatiens (of course these are local plants here). And even though they didn't have fancy pots or watering cans they managed to bring a bit of colour into their lives. They also had these fantastic raised garden beds for growing herbs and small vegetables like cilantro, mint, lettuce and of course tomatoes. I'm going to try to use some of these ideas in my garden this summer. Mexico has inspired me!
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| their garden nestled among mounds of limestone (which counts for soil around here) in simple pots and buckets |
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| petunias |
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| one of their raised gardens protected from chickens and other animals |
1 comment:
Gorgeous! I love seeing the flora in other, warmer climates. Right now we are in Palm Desert and it just couldn't be more different than Calgary. Well, there are a lot of frost tolerant annuals that are in planters...their winter flora!
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