You could say that Manuel DeMelo has the Palm Grove property in his palm. Mr DeMelo came from the Azores almost 30 years ago and has worked for Palm Grove for much of that time. One of his loves is maintaining the property’s collection of palms, some of which are quite rare.Mr DeMelo will be giving two horticultural lectures for the Garden Club of Bermuda on May 14, during a Garden Club open house called ‘Palm Grove a Garden Celebration’. He will be talking about growing palms, and also about growing seaside plants. The celebration is designed to raise money for the Garden Club’s annual horticultural and environmental scholarship.The property is owned by the Gibbons family, but maintained with the help of Mr DeMelo and other horticulturalists and gardeners.“I am originally from Povoacao, Sao Miguel, Azores,” said Mr DeMelo. “Before I came to the Island I spent a year in the Portuguese army, and from there I came to Bermuda. I first went to work at Mermaid Beach Club as a potwasher. I was there for about a year and then I went to work at the Palm Grove Estate and I have been here ever since.”He didn’t really know much about gardening before coming to Bermuda, but he took some courses in the 1980s, and in 1995 he took a course sponsored by Aberfeldy Nurseries. Teachers were brought in from Florida.“It was a very nice course, and very rich,” said Mr DeMelo. “Since then, I have been updating myself through the computer and through books. There is something about palms that really fascinates me. Palms belong to the monocot family, but monocots are a family that includes bananas and orchids, and the Bird of Paradise plant. Mono means one body. The palms belong to this group. It is a very old group. It is very down on the ladder of plant life. The ferns also fascinate me, and they are right on the bottom as some of the oldest types of plant life.”He started growing palms in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but he said, at first, working with palms wasn’t that easy.“As they grow, the palms fight you,” said Mr DeMelo. “But you learn from your mistakes and correct them. That is how I developed a passion for it. If you do it right, they are actually very easy to grow. That is probably why I have been doing it, because they are extremely easy to grow.”He said his favourite palm is the native Bermuda palmetto. There are around 28 different types of palms at Palm Grove. They did have 29 types, but recently lost one. There are between 50 to 55 different types.“It is impossible to be precise, because maybe someone lost one,” Mr DeMelo said. “There are at least more than 50. We have two or three extremely rare palms at Palm Grove, such as the Fiji palm. It comes from the Pacific island of Tonga. We have one of them and there are one or two on the Island.”Mr DeMelo said right now the palms are really suffering from the dry spell Bermuda is going through, especially considering they are mostly comprised of fibre and water.Palm Grove is open to the public, and is a frequent spot for wedding photographs. Mr DeMelo said he enjoys working with visitors. The garden has recently been undergoing some renovations,but will be ready for the open house. After that the gardens will reopen as usual.“This property is quite a large property and from day one, from late 1600s up to date, it has only been owned by four different families,” said Mr DeMelo. “The Gibbons family have had it for 60 plus years. The old Mr Gibbons was the one who did all the gardens and channels, and opened it into a nice garden. Lately, Sir David Gibbons’ son, James Gibbons, has been introducing many local and endemic plants, such as cedars and olive woods.”Mr DeMelo said this has been a slow process, as it is important not to just rip all the invasive plants out at once. This could cause problems such as soil erosion, amongst other things.“We have been doing it very gradually,” he said. “We have slowly been removing invasive plants. If you rip all the invasive plants, you have a problem. But if you leave all the invasives there, then you have another problem. So doing it this way, slowly reintroducing the natives and endemics is the right way to do it. We still have the birds and the greenery. Native birds, such as bluebirds love to eat the berries of the cedar tree. The kiskadee from the Caribbean region loves the Mexican pepper, and they spread it all around. It is really a pain. So it is a give and take.”Workers at Palm Grove recently found a lime kiln on the property that might date from the late 1870s. Lime kilns, were sometimes a recess in a cliffside. They were historically used to burn limestone to make quicklime, used in construction to hold things together.“One of the workers, two years ago, was searching for antique bottles and found the kiln,” said Mr DeMelo. “On our lunch breaks and Sunday mornings we went and had a look. We dug everything up and rescued a few nice bottles, and left everything else alone. Now that it is opened for the Garden Club on Saturday, we decided to restore, take the weeds out and the broken glass and make it in better condition.”At Palm Grove, the Gibbons family have also started to grow vegetables without using any chemicals or pesticides. Mr DeMelo said this has meant a major shift in thinking for him.“We have a nice little farm growing,” he said. “We grow vegetables for the family members. We grow them with very little fertiliser and free of insecticides and pesticides. I didn’t have to rethink what I was doing, but I had to get used to the fact that the plants grow a little bit more slowly without chemicals or fertilisers. But they are tastier. They have more sugar, especially carrots and beans. When you add too much chemicals into the plants it makes them grow too fast and too quickly. The taste is totally different. This way is more peaceful. If you don’t spray any insecticide on it, it is 100 percent better. We are what we do.”The Palm Grove Garden Celebration will be held on May 14 from 10am to 4pm at the estate on 38 South Road in Devonshire. There will be a plant sale including Bermuda roses, live music, flower arranging demonstrations, garden tours, lectures and much more. Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for children ages ten to 18. Children under ten-years-old are free.For more information see the Garden Club of Bermuda website at www.gardenclubbermuda.org .