We recently visited a very special place in Morocco, thanks to Helen Spalding’s great research – Dar Ahlam in Skoura, about 5 hours southeast of Marrakech by car. This kasbah (defined in this context as a structure with multiple buildings behind a protective wall) has been converted to a luxury hotel, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.
Dar Ahlam has nine gardens within its walls, including a vegetable garden, each a little different from the next. Each garden boasts the natural habitat of the region, surprisingly not very different from what grows in our own Napa Valley.
Walking through the gardens, you’ll discover olive trees, rosemary hedges, various grasses, bamboo, and nepata.
One of the gardens – an olive grove garden – had these colorful banners spanning the trees, where we had lunch one day.
There is plenty of water in this desert oasis, which surprised all of us. The gardens in the Skoura region (and other regions of Morocco) are supported by a very clever 800 year old (or even older) gravity-driven water system, consisting of ditches that divert water from one person’s garden to the next, on a controlled schedule, ensuring all farmers get the water they need. This is governed by a trustworthy person who is selected by the community to overlook the water sharing system to ensure equitable sharing of this precious resource.
But one of the most interesting things we saw in the garden was…
pomegranate hedges!!! Yes, pomegranates can be trained into hedges, which we had never seen before. It turns out that this plant can be pruned in to a single-trunk or multi-trunk tree, an espalier, a shrub (it’s natural state if left to its own) or a hedge. It was fantastic – especially with all of the fruit in season.
If you’re looking for a Moroccan adventure with gardens, outside of the typical urban destinations, add Dar Ahlam to your list. You won’t be disappointed.
