Manejo de huertos familiares periurbanos de San Miguel Tlaixpan, Texcoco, Estado de México

The paper describes the management and species richness of partially commercial home gardens of a temperate highland community on a hillside near Mexico City. The study is based on interviews in the village of San Miguel Tlaixpan, interviews and plant collection in 20 families with gardens, and an in-depth study of 6 gardens considered among the best by the community. The gardens are situated on terraces and can be divided in to three functional areas: the house, the patio or yard, and a mixed orchard. We registered 303 species growing in the gardens, which is a richness comparable to home gardens studied in Yucatan. The average garden contains 74 species. The gardens generally share about 50% of their species; the other species vary from one to the other. The mixed orchard, which produces flowers, fruits and medicinal plants for sale, contains 60 species on the average and 204 altogether. The orchard is worked by men, while women participate in the commercialization. The terraces lead to a regular spatial arrangement of the plants, and differing management practices under different dimensions. The main problems of the orchards are pests and diseases. Other problems are the strong tendency towards urbanization, and the disinterest of young people. However, the proximity of the city has not yet decreased species richness in the studied gardens.