01_THE ENCOUNTER.
In October 2021 we found a piece of impenetrable mountain inside the oldest house in Panchés. A place by the sea, at the foot of Monte Pindo, at the end of the endless beach of Carnota.
I came from shooting 26 programs for “Jardines con Historia” by Timezone Producciones. I arrived eager to come face to face with the “garden idea”. What a garden would be like for me or maybe what I would be like for a garden...an absent gardener.
Here begins that story.
02_THE FIRST GARDENS.
One invents nothing...or very little. To advance by going backwards consists of relying on the art of looking, of unveiling, of knowing how to copy, to interpret or to combine different realities until reaching others. The first gardener must have looked at nature, at the nature that wanted to be a garden and to be associated with the stones. El Pindo and its surroundings are full of natural gardens where the mountain makes its way without the permission of gardeners or architects. Roofless constructions that end up being, with time, the home of the silvas...
03_THE PLANTS OF MOUNT PINDO
Galicia is marela (yellow) or so says Rocío, the owner of the best nursery in the area. If anyone knows the inhabitants of the mountain it is her. Yellow because of the small flowers of the Xestas or the Toxo that stain these slopes with the color of bad luck. With its deep roots there is no one who can pull them out of this land and if something is so eager to stay here... well, let it stay. But Galicia is also a land of “weeds” with spikes and hives. Impertinent plants, fucking uncomfortable. Maybe that's why I find them so attractive.
04_A RAPA DAS ZARZAS
During the summers in the “curros” the feral horses are collected to proceed to cut the manes, deworm them and cure the wounds during the Rapa das Bestas.
During the winter and while the plants sleep, we began to clear the path. They were appearing lareiras, fornos de pedra as bellies, swellings in the walls, pias, lacenas, banks and in the background the sea of the end of the world.
05_THE FIRST INTERVENTIONS
First we cleared, cleaned and emptied the house of debris. We removed, sorted and classified the remains of the roof that collapsed 40 years ago. Hundreds of tiles, soil and domestic archeology were appearing. Irons, flanges, watering cans, stirrups, bottles, animal skulls... We respected some of the original silvas and many of the ferns and mosses that had lived there for years.
The rest was cleaned up and new topsoil was added. The first spring it was filled with nettles, an ocean of stinging plants...The second spring with a small invasive plant whose name I have not discovered. Little by little the silvas, the ferns and even a small wild rose bush recovered space.
Then came the large punt beam to break up the space. To drop down there like a dead animal and generate tension. A ton of eucalyptus wood that had been submerged in the Noia estuary for more than 20 years. Cursed tree in these lands, but so dear to us, like the rest of the eucalyptus trees.
Later came the carajo (staircase-viewpoint to the sea of steel rounds) and the swing (yellow sling with a stone as a seat), the disc table to cut granite and chat and the access door from a nearby cemetery. There is no garden without a gate and this would have to be the gate to hell.
The rest of the elements were appearing or peeking out in search of the sun, attracting attention like the plants every spring, like the guests at a wedding, piled up during the first minutes of an open bar.
06_THE NEIGHBORS
When the gardener remains absent, the plants are liberated, they know it and take advantage of his absence like children when they are left home alone. Anything can happen. But to the right and left are the neighbors watching out in case something gets out of hand. Jorge who worked on the land, Ana who brings us herba de namorar and the money plant and, as it could not be otherwise, in this garden of spikes both were short-lived.
07_PLANTS AND EXPERTS
There is only one thing worse than an absent gardener for a garden... an inexperienced gardener.
To solve this problem, Ana Isabel Calo, owner of Casa das Camelias in Boiro, Miguel Llana, the passionate banker, Rafael Ovalle (Falo), a renowned landscape gardener from Asturias, and Rocio Priegue, the owner of the nursery in Cee. Together we designed a process of renaturalization of the future garden. We traced a route through Monte Pindo to collect from the margins
08_ AT THE STARTING POINT
Time has taken care of everything else until we reach the starting point. Everything is as it was at the beginning, but different.
“One throws a stone into the water: the sand swirls up and settles again. The disturbance was necessary, and the stone has found its place. However, the pond is no longer the same as before. Buildings are accepted in their environment when they possess multiple ways of speaking from feeling and reason” Peter Zumthor
Team:
Author of the project: Arturo Franco (architect)
Botanical Advisors:
Ana Isabel Calo (casa das Camelias).
Miguel Llana
Rafael Ovalle (Falo)
Rocio Priegue (Viveiro Cee)
Promoter/Owner: Ana Román
Construction Company: By administration. Gruas Chema
