granja quilarayen garden
The landscape here in Southern Chile is breathtaking even on a grey day, but when the sun shines the whole world just comes to life. I’ve visited some beautiful gardens throughout my travels and thought I would share a bit of this wonder – I don’t know how people do it here.
a sliver of a big backyard garden
I guess the frequent rain does a lot of the work…I thought people had a green thumb in Vancouver, but it seems gardening is an even greater pasttime in Chile! Houses are full of plants, many of the homes are 100+ year old German colonial style, wood shingled and surrounded by large yards, apple trees, chicken coops and bustling plant life everywhere.
backyard chickies
One of the most unreal places was a garden & nursery called Granja Quilarayen in Puerto Varas. Everywhere you looked was full of thriving plants, both potted and in the ground, tagged for identification.
feet firmly planted
Trees, flowers, shrubbery – you name it, they probably had it. A little path wound through the property, which was quite large. Tiny bridges covered little bubbling creeks, and the place had the abundant air of a rainforest, a lifeblood of energy running through it.
They even had a clearing up in the forest for barbeques in the summer, next to a little gnome cottage, home of the protectors of this magical place.
backyard garden at Melí restaurant in Frutillar
Melí, the garden and kitchen that is connected to the Patagonia Virgin development in Frutillar, is another gem of a spot with a new greenhouse adjoined to the cafe, complete with dining tables in the centre. A new variety of plantlife is featured on rotation (sunflowers are the current stars), and you can buy plants to take home and bury in your own garden at home. The plan is to expand in the future so that the cafe can use more of their own house-grown products within the menu.
I love looking at a plate of food and knowing exactly where everything came from.
