In the winter of 2010, nature works founder & partner, Frances Subbiondo, worked in residence at a Center for Sustainable Living & Natural Building, called Rancho Mastatal in the wet/dry highland jungle of Costa Rica’s San José province. After almost a decade developing a beautiful physical infrastructure, the Ranch was ready to seriously invest in its own food system. Frances stepped up & in to that challenge -- & what follows is a pictorial narrative of that work.

1. RANCHO MASTATAL
The Birth of a Food System
Village of Mastatal, Costa Rica
Thursday, April 12, 12

2. In the winter of 2010, nature works founder & partner, Frances Subbiondo, worked in residence
at a Center for Sustainable Living & Natural Building, called Rancho Mastatal in the wet/dry
highland jungle of Costa Rica’s San Jose province. After almost a decade developing a beautiful
physical infrastructure, the Ranch was ready to seriously invest in its own food system. Frances
stepped up & in to that challenge -- & what follows is a pictorial narrative of that work.
Thursday, April 12, 12

3. Table of Contents:
1 Hankey House -- Entrance Garden 3 El Vivero -- (‘the Nursery’)
-- ‘Frances Garden’
4 Side Garden
2 Front Garden -- Main Garden
-- Raised Beds 5 ‘Afters’ & Reprise.
Thursday, April 12, 12

4. Hankey House -- Entrance Garden
Goals: To provide privacy, water & nutrient
catchment, & an edible polyculture
of vining, slope-stabilizing plants
Text
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5. (two webs in this picture)
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6. Hankey House -- Entrance Garden
(Plant) Polyculture:
Passionfruit, Chayote, Peanut Grass,
Vetiver, Lemongrass
Thursday, April 12, 12

7. Hankey House -- ‘Frances Garden’
The before.
Goals: to provide more intentional spaces to
grow food, fruit & medicine on Ranch land --
& another garden space to be enjoyed by
Hankey residents
Thursday, April 12, 12

8. Hankey House -- ‘Frances Garden’
Installation.
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9. Thursday, April 12, 12

10. Hankey House -- ‘Frances Garden’
Catching the rain.
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11. Hankey House -- ‘Frances Garden’
Polyculture: Breadnut Tree, Squash, Beans,
Okra, Peanut Grass, Vetiver, Lemongrass, &
assorted other medicines.
Thursday, April 12, 12

12. Main House & Front Garden
The before.
Goals: To plant & install a food system capable of feeding the Ranch’s
fairly steady population of between 25 & 40 people, 9 months each year.
To provide also for ease of maintenance & harvesting, while
minimizing need to hand-water during dry season.
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13. Front Garden
Existing garden grew these well
already: Basil, Culantro, &
Quail Grass
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16. Front Garden
Beginning to swale.
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20. Rachel
Jordan
Tempestt
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22. Front Garden
All swales connect, overflowing from one
to the next as each fills -- flowing eventually
out the Front Garden, through the far
fence, into the Side Garden
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23. Heeling Bed -- Front Garden
Existing garden plants -- transplanted during
installation -- to be re-planted, when safe.
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24. Front Garden
Morning after first rain. Swales filled &
charged the ground -- & pink dragonflies
visited the fledgling ecosystem en masse!
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25. Front Garden
The 1st Swale (on left) became an all-season
pond, as we discovered that the water
wherein did not drain.
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28. (playing with swale
linings, as they function
doubly as paths from
which to work)
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29. (entry path, bridged &
culverted over swales)
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30. Thursday, April 12, 12

31. Front Garden
Planting begins. Mulching too.
Pond fills with aquatic life.
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32. Lily
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33. Front Garden (Other Side)
Experimenting also with raised beds for
growing -- filling them with a homemade
‘tierra fermentada’ -- or composted earth.
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36. Front Garden (Other Side)
second raised bed -- with first, & (covered)
‘tierra fermentada’ behind.
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37. Thursday, April 12, 12

38. El Vivero -- The Nursery
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39. Papayas
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40. Avocado & Citrus
& more..
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41. Solé
Black
Pepper
Vanilla
Orchids
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42. Passion
-fruit!
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43. sprouting Coconuts
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44. Chaya!
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45. Cuban Oregano
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46. Song of India
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47. ‘Amarantha’
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48. Moringa
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49. Side Garden
Installation.
Goals: To receive & discharge water from the Front Garden.
To grow fruit & other food -- under good sun -- where before there was grass.
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50. Timo
Alex
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52. Pico
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55. Papayas, Pineapples, Pigeon Peas,
Peanut Grass, Vetiver, Lemongrass
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57. Spillway -- Front Garden into Side
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59. Erosion
Control
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60. about a month & a half later..
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61. The garden ecosystem grows..
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62. Three months on: the Ranch hosts it’s first
Permaculture Design Course
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63. Our garden pond
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64. Vikki
Bean trellis to shield leaf crops
from tropical sun
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65. Thursday, April 12, 12

66. (One more time)
The Before
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67. After
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68. (Reprising..)
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77. Alex
Eternal Gratitude
to a fierce Ranch crew --
y a la Madre Tierra
Thursday, April 12, 12