The garden at Taino’ti grew organically in every sense of the word. The evolution of hundreds of years of leaf mulch on top of volcanic rock provides a soil ecosystem as close to perfection any gardener could hope for.

This combined with a year-round temperature rarely outside 28-32 degrees C, temperate rainfall (and, okay, some periods of drought, but this challenge is doable), planting and watching the garden grow has been a joy and a privilege.

Since we are living within the forest, when we started building, we tried our utmost to remove as few trees as possible. This has many benefits, apart from conservation of the forest, the roots of the trees ensure that most of the nutrients stay within the area as opposed to being washed away downhill when the rains come.

We are protected from the worst that storms can bring and hope that the effects of any hurricane will be mitigated by the protection of the tallest trees. One of our greatest joys is the abundance of fruit which grows happily up here. We arrived at an enormous and productive mango tree, the fruit of which we compete with the ravenous manicou when in season. To counter this, we have planted many papaya trees in the hope that there will be plenty of fruit to go round.

Other indigenous species such as soursop, golden apple, hog plum and coconut rub shoulders with avocado, cashew and other exotic species. Flora and bees co-exist happily in glorious symbiosis, and we are pressed to gather and plant propagative material faster than it is produced.

The Royal Palms were planted as 24-inch saplings in 2018 and now, 5 years later have outgrown the height of the Garden House.

The proliferation of bird species is testament to the new habitats we have created within the space. Hummingbirds make their morning pilgrimage to the kitchen door to sip from the dew gathered on the leaves of our giant ginger lilies. A Madagascan fody appeared on the edge of the pool in 2019. If you are into bird watching, this is the place where the birds happily coexist with you.

The rainwater collected in our enormous cisterns is sufficient to see us through the longest drought as well as to ensure our newly planted friends are set fair for the future.