A Return Engagement

I have returned to St Lucia this week, after leaving toronto on a cold -13C morning. 5 hours later transported to 30C. The heat and humidity are so welcomed and to see familiar places and faces. I have returned to help out with rebuilding and replanting at the Diamond Botanical Garden following Hurricane Tomas Oct 30th. It was a very destructive storm moving slowly at 8mph with 110 mph winds dropping 2YEARS!!!! of rain in 24 hours. Which resulted in catastrophic landslides and flooding the majority of the damage was in the Soufriere region of the island. I was amazed in 5 weeks how much work has been accomplished to clear roads and terrace the new landslide slopes. The gardeners of the botanical garden have worked tirelessly to bring the gardens back for the important tourist season. The majority of the garden was impassable from fallen trees and mudflows. The waterfall area was hardest hit due to the massive amount of water , with an entire hillside along the stream giving way to fill in the watercourse rerouting all the water to the garden walkways. The stream is all dug out and new paths built. Now its time for planting and making things lush and green again. So much open sky now and bare earth. We will be keeping the waterfall area in its natural "green " state using ferns and climbers. but further downstream we will incorporate a riot of colours in a gradated colour scheme to mimic the patterns of colour present on the walls of the waterfall stained from the mineral deposits of the volcanic waters. This will be a fun task for the next few months before my return back to Toronto for spring. More to follow inthe coming weeks,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,