The workshop on bonsai with Mediterranean species, which took place on the 10th of May at the Nature Interpretation Center at Sítio das Fontes, in Estômbar (Lagoa), was a success.
As part of the Year of Wine and Vine 2015, the Municipality of Lagoa, in partnership with Clube Bonsai do Algarve, joined this millenary art as a way to spread the taste for the use of Mediterranean species for ornamental and landscape purposes.
Vineyards, olive groves, cork oak forests, almond groves and other dryland orchards, among various ancestral and sustainable forms of land use, «are, unavoidably, part of a landscape that we should be proud of, cherish and develop, and which should be part of what defines us as Algarve, Portuguese and Mediterranean», stress those responsible for Sítio das Fontes.
"The use of native species, adapted to our climate, soil and landscape conditions, as well as those that identify with our culture, can help to explain who we are, albeit through an art that comes to us from the East," they add .
A set of Bonsai by the members of the Club, exhibited at the Nature Interpretation Center at Sítio das Fontes, served to explain the origins and the main techniques involved in obtaining true living works of art.
The olive tree was the species chosen so that the masters of Clube Bonsai do Algarve could transmit just a little of the complex universe of this form of cultivation to a group of 15 enthusiasts taking their first steps. During the workshop, the participants “worked” the future Bonsai, under the strict guidance of the masters.
Finally, everyone took home a small olive tree and a “bonsai kit” that, with technique, skill, patience and time, will certainly become a true Bonsai.
As it could not be otherwise, and as Lagoa is marking the Year of Wine and Vineyard, each one also took a vase in which a small vine of the Negra Mole variety, essential for the production of Lagoa DOC wine, already grows.
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