Showing posts with label where to stay in Ecuador. Show all posts
Showing posts with label where to stay in Ecuador. Show all posts

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Creating Garden Border Beds - in Ecuador - at Hacienda Cusin

Hacienda Cusin allele walk- just beyond the blue door

Today was a good day to be a gardener – at Hacienda Cusin, in Ecuador. 
The day started with the scintillating walk to breakfast from the El Monasterio where me -- and the Landscape Design Alumni group (LDSA) garden designers are living.  Here, there is carved wooden doors, antiques, “a baroque altar,” hand-painted murals and a secret door…
The spicy, sweet scents of jasmine and eucalyptus “blows me kisses” as I step through the gates to cross the bridge where I’m “handed off” to the beguiling honeysuckle – who it seems also reminds me to look up to the cloud-kissed Andean mountains standing sentry in the near distance.

The walk through the cobblestone allee was already like “moving meditation” accompanied by all manner of whizzing insects and buzzing birds, (oh those streaking emerald and sapphire hummingbirds!) to serenade the walk.

I always say, every great garden tells a story – and our goal here is to better tell the story of Hacienda Cusin through its ornamental gardens.  And what a story it has to tell.

But like all beauty queens, the garden beds were ready for their makeover.

We begin the day fueling up with coffee by the fire in the Casa Cusin’s well-appointed sitting area, before enjoying a full, delicious breakfast of local yogurt and omelets made with local cheese – the area bordering Hacienda Cusin is known for its dairies and its rose nurseries.  

Then it was out to the gardens to work.  The team of women worked on the allee border garden again today.  The men worked in another area, preparing the garden beds for the agapanthus that will soon be planted there. Gus also found a tarantella there!  He killed it inadvertently while working the beds (thank goodness, too.)

The allee walk leads from the main areas of Hacienda Cusin including the restaurant, biblioteca/library, and reception to the El Monasterio.  It also bifurcates the wider expanses of lawns there where receptions can be held. There is a big wedding this weekend!
 
From a garden design standpoint the borders are rather unique in this way because they are seen from both sides, not just the front, as is the case with most garden beds.  Therefor the design needs to be determined from both sides.  This means tall in the middle  - and leveling the plant heights down accordingly on each side of the bed. 
The allee has an overarching canopy of trees filled with bromeliads and orchids.  

In turn, the tree cathedral “ceiling” affects the amount of sunlight on each border bed that affects the amount of water and soil composition.  Taking all this under consideration was necessary to determine the beauty makeover of the border beds.

We garden mujeres designed the borders to feature more swaths or groupings of plants.  We did this to create drama, to draw the eye to a more calming sensation vs. a more unconscious jarring sensation created by different plant types laid out staccato-like.

We removed the big ferns that were hiding the lovely stone, Asian-inspired lantern at the end of an allee artery; pruning the tall aloe that stand at attention on either side. 
Before the makeover














The jade plants that were there seemed to cry out for more of a presence; therefore we created a semi-circle out from the lantern with more jade plants – repurposed from other garden spots. 
After makeover - clean view of sculpture - more jade plant grouping
Linda clearing out the lantern garden
Linda also planted Forget-Me-Not behind the lantern in a pretty, clean exposure. 




I removed five St. John's Wort plants that were misplaced and really just didn’t look like they belonged amidst all the other more tropical and semi tropical plants.  Out they came, roots and all.
Me, & my St. John Wort "trophy"


Gus and his St. John Wort "trophy!"



Becca – our “bold border guru,” was superb at envisioning the mass plantings that needed to be created and at locating plants from other parts of the garden to be transplanted. Thus we pruned and cleaned one area – such as opening up the specimen windmill palm that was being crowded with aloe – all while designing and filling in another area.  Smart gardening design - -and smart horticulture, too.



I wanted to add some stones to a new fern and aloe composition and it worked so much that it looked like it had always been there.  Nice.  

We also massed aloe in another opposite part of the border allee to create an ornamental sweep as well as to place plants that didn’t need much water on the “hot” side of the bed.


Peg pruned up a giant Euryops chrysanthemoides species – a yellow daisy-like tall shrub. 
Further down, Linda cleaned up the low-growing sedum, taking out the vinca that threated to clutter the look (and worse to take over) and then cleaned up the plants hanging over the cobble border edge.  She was sitting on the path doing this.  
Before sedum bed


Linda cleaning sedum border


After - Sedum border
Not so long after, we saw a scorpion there!  We have learned from Gus, that the scorpions like the walls and stone borders because it’s cool; the minerals there bring the insects and food they eat.  But Yikes! 
So we also learned – no sitting on the ground to weed and prune.  One must have agility to move quickly in case danger rears it’s lobster-like claws!

Becca moved some Kniphofia – Red Hot Pokers - to add color and height. Don’t you just love their impressive color and sassy look?   Those fluted bottlebrush tops remind me of a Beefeater hat – but maybe a Beefeater from Jamaica!  


We are almost finished with this allee border. The day before the team worked the first part – exposing the beautifully crafted stone wall by pruning plants and removing some plants altogether and creating low-growing plant compositions.  I cleaned and pruned the Crocosmia bed – but I pushed my health too far.  I had yet recovered enough from the altitude illness aka “Soroche.”  

But not before seeing the gigantic beetle Amy discovered in her garden bed area!  Wowsy.  We’re not in Kansas any more!  
Mel and the Beetle!

I love, love, love the panko – blue agave bed composition Amy created there. 
Amy and the Blue Agave composition

 Mel cleaned up the geraniums and impatiens beds.  The impatiens here grows taller than me!
I also received a tour of the incredible vegetable garden at Hacienda Cusin that helps to contribute to the menu’s delicious homegrown dishes.  (More on this garden coming up. It deserves its own feature – trust me.)  
Teaser image from the Edible Garden at Casa Cusin


We enjoyed a fabulous comida and later – a fiesta at the gorgeous home of one of the Hacienda Cusin’s management family.   












Today, more garden bed work in preparation for the wedding this weekend. 

Monday, March 9, 2015

Artful Garden Design in Ecuador





Just after stepping out of the airport terminal at Quito, Ecuador, the majestic mountains greeted me, thus rendering the horror of travel due to the ineptitude of two, supposedly top-tier US airlines – a passing memory that will be dealt with another time.

Now, it was the time to be awestruck.

After our driver from Hacienda Cusin, Angel, had us swept up - baggage in the car in no time – he pointed out our first Q-Tip-topped volcano in the distance: Cotopaxi. 
Angel was the unofficial tour guide for the approximately one-hour drive through the Pichincha Province to the breathtaking sierra of Imbabura Province where the hotel cum Garden of Eden is located. Angel really earned his wings, though, driving like something out of “The French Connection” – passing groups of cars, taking on the hairpin turns that course the highway – all while playing a sophisticated guide. 
We – our driving companion was a delightful woman, Lorna Traube from San Francisco, who came to enjoy the gardens and horse-back riding here for the first time while visiting her son who is teaching English in nearby Quito. 

The drive up to Hacienda Cusin was precarious given all the switchbacks and steep mountain roads (and passing).  Think Alps – but green.
Angel pointed out another volcano in the distance – and the surrounding area’s landscapes that drive their unique enterprises: growing roses, dairy, and so on while I hopped from window to window.
The highway is a feat of engineering – with this strip just eight month’s old – the road is cut onto/into the mountain as part of the Pan American Highway – the one traversed by Che Guevara’s transforming adventure. So too, it is for me and other visitors to Ecuador. 

This is my first to Ecuador’s sierra but already I can say that it will not be my last.  Here it’s an explosion of things to do. Or not do.
Poised at the crossroads of the Equator and 8,500 feet nearer to the sky, the hacienda resort and hotel is an artful retreat.

It’s a sensory immersion at Hacienda Cusin and its 30 acres of bliss. 
What do I mean?
For starters, there is the boundary-less flow of indoors and out that is indulgent and calming at the same time.  You are part of the silky-smooth air and cinema-worthy landscapes – inside and out.

It’s the details here that whisper to you… Taken together it’s an experience that needs to be savored...
A faint fragrance that conjures licorice wafts the rooms and salons, punctuated by the spicy incense of the wood-burning fireplaces that are in every room, including the bedroom casitas.  Forget or never knew how comforting it is to fall asleep with nothing but a crackling fire and a hot water bottle as a lullaby?  (And no TV in the rooms :). This is the place to rejuvenate your sleeping circadian rhythms.  Take notice, Arianna Huffington  ("Thrive" better ways to sleeping to success)    

Here at Hacienda Cusin, the sounds of the wind rustling, sweeping --almost assertively roaring -- through the trees is a symphony of sounds. Speaking of music -- joyful,
classical music plays throughout the hacienda and grounds, lending an element of heightened sensory happiness.  




The décor and furnishings could be a movie set design.  They could also serve as a living museum of the decorative arts’ furnishing and design – where Spanish colonialism, religious artifact, and Ralph Lauren got tumbled together and created this intriguing elixir. 
More on the incredibly sculpted wood doors,

(and keys!)
wood banisters and railings that hug the steps, stairs, and balconies.



I’ll also be sharing the glorious fountains, vistas, and did I mention there are llamas on the grounds!  Calling Dr. Doolittle to this patch of sylvan folly!

And of course, the most beautiful sensory experience is the garden art that embraces the visitor with dazzling color, fragrance, and texture while playing the good host to all sorts of buzzing, creeping, whizzing, and flying creatures.  Oh, the birds!  

Nothing, nothing – can replace the sensation of having sparrow-sized, emerald-green, glamorous hummingbirds greet you while sitting; chirp-chirping as they zig and zag.  So flirty and fast. 
Why are they so shy?
Then I looked up and saw the green beauty had landed in her equally chic abode/hacienda, perched on the side of a wrought iron lantern, looking for all the world like a Victorian hat ornament of the most fanciful style.
Guess I know where I’ll be writing from over the course of this garden adventure – right under the hummingbird nest filled with two thimble sized heads and their tiny as a sewing needle beaks, awaiting their next feeding.  All while being serenaded by songbirds.  What a show.  

Look closely - you can see the baby birds in the nest - beaks aloft


Welcome to Paradise.

Nik, the owner and our host, reminds me we are right on the equator – despite the mild 77-degree temperatures. The sun is hot. 
He has offered some sound advice helping me to overcome my first-day altitude issues, which he assures me, is a very rare occurrence.   
Having gone to school in Switzerland and being in good garden or “fighting” shape, I am dismayed my body is betraying me. 
He kindly explained that at 8,500 feet, the air is thinner.  And learning I’d just come from sea level Aruba  (and the Garden State’s shore for a mere few hours before hopping back on an airplane)  – compounded by the foul, artificial air of all that plane travel, too little sleep – the body is stressed.  The blood needs to thin.  He recommended lots of water, no alcohol, staying warm, and rest.  Eat modestly.  The brain should not be in competition with the body so avoid the need for heavy digestion.  Interesting…
So my running will have to wait, as does my garden work with the team today. They are so understanding.

See, I’m here to work on garden design and plant care with my fellow gardeners from The New York Botanical Gardens’ (NYBG) Landscape Design Alumni (LDSA) group. 
LDSA is a terrific group of landscape design professionals.  During the winter months, we have monthly meetings, followed by lectures – all geared to improve our work and to support one another, in the same way. 

Mel Bellar, owner Zone 4 Landscapes and fellow LDSA garden designer, has been working and visiting Hacienda Cusin, along with his talented and beautiful wife (and blogger), Peggy. 

This is the first year that he is leading a team of us working together in Paradise, er, Hacienda Cusin. 
It’s a terrific group.  I’ll provide more background on these talented artists but for now, let me introduce these irrepressible gardeners: Amy, Linda, Becca, and Agustin aka Gus – who is Mel's business partner  at Zone 4 Landscapes, and Peggy.  
Becca works her pruning mojo on the wild honeysuckle!

Peggy - deadheading a canna composition she & Mel created last year

Left to Right - Linda, Amy & Becca

Left to Right: Amy, Becca, Nik - owner of Hacienda Cusin - me, Mel, Peggy & Gus


I am so looking forward to sharing our glamorous garden adventure with you. It’s so breathtakingly beautiful here. I think I’ve already taken a bazillion images…