[HN Gopher] Mexico's Floating Gardens Are an Ancient Wonder of S...
___________________________________________________________________
Mexico's Floating Gardens Are an Ancient Wonder of Sustainable
Farming
Author : PaulHoule
Score : 111 points
Date : 2024-05-03 13:50 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (reasonstobecheerful.world)
(TXT) w3m dump (reasonstobecheerful.world)
| nadermx wrote:
| Xochimilco is one of the wonders of Mexico, it's worth a visit.
| datameta wrote:
| The secondary and tertiary canals take about an hour and a half
| to reach from the main landing. The larger boats can fit ok-ish
| in the secondary but not tertiary channels.
|
| Also, there are boats selling wares to tourists that will
| attach to your boat with permission - often what they are
| selling is available in the long line of interesting shops by
| the main landing at a lower price. There are also boats selling
| just-cooked BBQ, as well as refreshments, and boats with a
| (totally authentic) mariachi band you can hire to come aboard
| for several songs.
|
| Highly recommend visiting.
| dylan604 wrote:
| I think this is the first time that I've seen someone
| actually recommend encouraging the mariachi band to approach.
| Usually people are trying to avoid eye contact so the _don
| 't_ approach.
| datameta wrote:
| I moved the last sentence to a new paragraph so it is more
| easily understood I mean to recommend a visit to the
| chinampas in general.
|
| However, my partner is mexican and was pretty moved
| particularly by their playing. I've heard a few
| performances and that one was played with particular
| investment. It is a different vibe when a full band boards
| your boat. Of course, YMMV.
| medeshago wrote:
| Mariachi music might not be popular in the USA or Europe,
| but it's really popular in latin america. I'm from Chile
| and the father of a friend who visited Xochimilco was moved
| to tears by their performance. Not saying that it's for
| everyone, but it's meaningful to a lot of people.
| stickfigure wrote:
| I'm a gringo and I love the music. I have, in fact, paid a
| mariachi boat to tie up to mine and play an few rounds in
| Xochimilco.
| xtracto wrote:
| Haha this made me chuckle. I'm a Mexican and couldn't agree
| more. It's one of those things you have to experience ONCE
| and that's all.
|
| The cool thing is that if you pay them, you sometimes may
| be able to ask for a song that you actually like, and they
| might surprise you. A friend of mine was a mariachi violin
| player. He liked heavy metal music and played mariachi for
| money , but his band could cocee stuff like Run to the
| hills, ace of spades among others.
|
| It's amusing if nothing else.
| krunck wrote:
| They don't float.
| kseistrup wrote:
| We all float down here, Georgie.
| mapt wrote:
| In case this didn't make a lot of intuitive sense to you
| engineering/physics/landscaping/agriculture types: Mexico City's
| "Floating Gardens", chinampas, do not actually float, and never
| have. They're reclaimed land, or artificial islands, masses of
| compost & soil initially retained mostly by stockades of wooden
| stakes stuck into a shallow lakebed, then gradually filled.
| chabons wrote:
| Here I was scanning the article for what they floated on. I had
| assumed it was a peat-bog type situation.
|
| I guess the key benefit of this strategy is that the water
| level is high and the water is nutrient rich? Otherwise it's
| pretty similar to a standard canal irrigation setup.
| throwup238 wrote:
| They replenished the dirt on the islands with night soil
| dredged up from the bottom of the lake every year so it was
| basically a mound of fertilizer that's always soaked through
| with water.
|
| It's as close to an ideal growing condition as pre-industrial
| societies had.
| throwup238 wrote:
| I have no idea where this idea of chinampas as floating gardens
| came from but it's an enduring myth. Floating gardens using
| soil are practically impossible - the displacement required to
| keep enough earth floating for a root system is massive.
|
| The chinampas worked very well because the Aztecs had a large
| labor force cleaning their latrines into the lake where it
| would decompose into night soil and later be dredged up to
| refill the chinampas between growing seasons.
|
| Once they were built up within the underwater stakes, they
| planted Ahuejote and Acatzin trees along the edges and corners
| whose root systems kept the islands from eroding away.
| bliteben wrote:
| > Floating gardens using soil are practically impossible
|
| but very cool when they do exist
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_island
| g8oz wrote:
| In Lake Titicaca, (Peru/Bolivia) floating islands are made
| using beds of reeds
|
| https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20220814-the-floating-
| hom...
| aetherson wrote:
| But note the difference: they aren't floating _gardens_ ,
| they don't carry enough soil for the root systems of
| plants. They're large rafts that have houses/people on
| them.
| tetris11 wrote:
| (Please down vote this comment:)
|
| That website is super aggressive with the banners and popups.
| They were easier to close than many others, and the page was
| relatively light to navigate on my ancient phone, but... wow,
| that was an unpleasant experience.
| MaintenanceMode wrote:
| If you go, and aren't interested in a big party boat, there are a
| few organizations that offer canoe rides to their farm, including
| educational tours and lunch. Plus you get to paddle the canoes.
| We found one on air b and b experiences but I'm sure they
| advertise in other places as well.
|
| Getting to the canals is a bit difficult if you don't use
| uber/did or a taxi. We did take an uber down, because the
| adventure started early, to beat the mid-day heat, but we did
| manage to take a bus/train on the way back, and only got lost
| twice.
| pier25 wrote:
| > _If you go, and aren 't interested in a big party boat_
|
| In the middle of the week it's a completely different
| experience compared to weekends.
| boilerupnc wrote:
| This topic reminded me of the man made floating island: Joyxee
| Island [0] made from recycled plastic bottles (made from over
| 100,000 plastic bottles)
|
| [0] https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/joyxee-island
| Animats wrote:
| That approach to farming needs a lot of water to make it go.
| more_corn wrote:
| Stop calling them floating gardens. They don't float.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-05-03 23:01 UTC)