Chinampas

Hello. My name is Chinampa, and I am a very special kind of garden. I look like a green rectangle floating on the water, but I am so much more. My body is made of rich, dark mud, and all sorts of colorful plants and yummy vegetables grow on my back. At my corners, tall willow trees stand like guards, their long roots dipping into the water below. I was born a very long time ago, around the 12th century. The clever Aztec people needed more land to grow food for their big city, Tenochtitlan. The city was built right in the middle of a huge, swampy lake called Lake Texcoco, so they had to get creative. And that’s where I came in.

Building me was a big job, but the Aztec people were smart and worked together. First, they wove big, sturdy mats from reeds that grew by the water. They floated these mats on the lake, like giant rafts. Then, they used canoes to scoop up the squishy, dark mud from the bottom of the lake and piled it high on top of the mats. This mud was full of wonderful nutrients that plants love to eat. To make sure I wouldn't just float away with the wind, they planted strong willow trees at each of my corners. The trees’ roots grew down, down, down through the water until they grabbed onto the lakebed below. These roots held me steady, like an anchor holds a boat. Because I was floating, my soil was always perfectly watered from the lake, making me a happy home for any seed.

My job was the most important one in the whole city. I was a food-making machine. Because my soil was so rich and I always had plenty of water, farmers could grow crops on me all year long. They didn't have to wait for rain. Delicious corn, bright red tomatoes, healthy beans, and spicy chili peppers grew tall and strong on my back. I could grow so much food that my brothers and sisters and I fed everyone in the giant city of Tenochtitlan. Thanks to us, the city grew to be one of the biggest and most amazing in the world during the 14th and 15th centuries. You could say I was a floating supermarket, always full of fresh food for everyone.

Even though the great city of Tenochtitlan and the big lake are mostly gone now, my story isn't over. Some of my relatives are still around today in a beautiful place near Mexico City called Xochimilco. People can ride in colorful boats called trajineras through the canals between us. They can see the bright flowers and fresh vegetables we still grow. I am a very old idea, but I show how people can work with nature to create something wonderful and useful that lasts for a very, very long time.