Chile Forum

It's nearly spring here and I wondered if anyone else out there shares an interest in gardening, flowers or otherwise? I'm still a bit confused by what seasons are for planting but am really enjoying the wonder of flowers that bloom all winter and sticks that turn into rosebushes. We will soon try our hand at growing giant vegetables.

Has anyone done any gardening?

Sometime last year we discussed horses and plants. Lisa is into gardening and will be onsite shortly + building more greenhouses, etc. I'll encourage her to check the boards and this thread

Putenio, I remember. Horses and plants, both favorites of mine!

I'm the one w/ quick & easy access to the computer/network so it may be that I field questions for Lisa - she indicated the #1 interest is where to buy seeds.

We have several greenhouses, and plan on more, but what to grow in Region X w/ around 10 freezing level days a year and where to get seeds.

Stateside it's a catalog and a credit card but in Puerto Montt there are few stores that stock seed and the variety is quite limited.

So where does everyone who is into gardening/growing your own vegetables get your seed or seedling plants and trees?

Good question. I've seen limited seeds in Homecenter and some small stores here and there but there must be a place for larger quantities. I have so far only planted flowers( I'm in the central region) and they propagate with cuttings. I'll try to ask around-there must be someplace for large quantities of seeds-there is a sunflower field nearby as well as alfalfa and corn fields. Does anybody else know?

Perhaps ask at a local Vivero? There are tons of them near where I live which is on the coast (Maitencillo). I too am amazed that so much is green and flowering in 'winter' here. I have lived in Minnesota for the past 27 yrs. so this really blows my mind indeed. I hope to get cuttings and plant like crazy as spring is indeed upon us. I cannot believe all the huge geraniums that I see. Most seem to grow wild. Again...incredible. Happy planting.

The new house we just moved in to has nothing but mud in the backyard (I am trying to figure out how to get a drain in). A complete blank slate. I am going to do some basic landscaping, but mostly fill it with roses. I have a small corner where the sun hits most of the day that I might do some limited vegetables. Nothing too ambitious. I like plants that I can let go for a while and they will fine, but when I am in the mood to tinker with them they appreciate it. I am also planting roses to help discourage anyone from jumping my back wall. Much more attractive than spikes and barbed wire.

There are greenhouses around. They mostly do larger shrubs, fruit trees, berries, and so on. They do seem to have limited flowers. They are not really like home gardening stores.

I believe Jumbo sells some seeds.

I am considering moving to the Futa area or somewhere there about and am wondering what can be grown there? I heard mentioned that plum trees and rhubarb do well there but haven't heard to much else anyone know about that area?

John

I'm in the central region, about 45 minutes from Santiago so only have limited gardening experience here. The roses are truly a miracle. On my Chilean neighbors advice, I planted guttings from her rosebushes-no roots, no rooting hormones. I planted them so about a foot of the cutting is underground and added plenty of natural fertilizer provided by their horses! Within about a month(watering my sticks dutifully), they began to bud. There are plenty of nurseries but if you're patient, you can have free rosebushes.

Yes, the geraniums(called cardenal here) are miraculous too. My neighbor generously gives me cuttings(again, no roots) and they grow. I have purchased a few inexpensive plants from nurseries and that is a bit quicker. I bought some lavender, blooming when i bought it and still blooming a month later-in the winter! Many types of daisies are popular here but they all have different names. At least two types bloom all winter. My favorite is the ones(can't remember the U.S. name either) are the ones that open in the sun. I used to grow them as an annual in the states but here they just keep blooming. definitely a gardeners delight.

One tip Lisa asked me to post was the use of pon pon and/or sawdust to conserve moisture. It is placed around the base of the plant and covers the soil, in our case throughout the greenhouse.

Pon Pon is a locally harvested plant that apparently has absorption properties that make it attractive in industrial applications - many people in Ilque and Putenio harvest this by hand, bag it and sell it. There are large open air green houses for drying and cleaning, and the left overs end up on the ground.

A family in our valley harvests pon pon, and they use a drying rack/green house on the property. We get to use the left overs in the vegetable greenhouses and share the vegetables.

It does conserve water and we had quite a bit of success with several plants - cucumber for example - even when it was very dry. Lisa added sawdust to the mix as it was handy.

Here's a link I found that discusses the plant:

SPHAGNUM MAGELLANICUM
http://ponponchiloe.blogspot.com/

Here's a pic of Lisa and the vegetables

Wow-I have to find some of these and take some cuttings! Thanks-I appreciate the tips.

We only have a small garden so we've been focusing on starting a collection of cacti and succulent plants that we keep indoors. We have maybe 120 of them now. Be aware that big retail stores (Easy, Jumbo,...) are usually not competitive for plants, and are really over-priced in Santiago (same as produce really). You do want to find local viveros, they're usually located on the roadside after you exit a city or village, though you also have small ones within towns here in Central Chile (usually people doing it for supplemental income and because they like it). The bigger the plant, the more overpriced it's going to be in large retail stores.

I've found a couple good sources for cacti in Olmué, the largest cactus vendor we've found so far is in Quillota: http://www.cactuschilenos.cl

Basically we're always looking for additions to our collection and stopping by any vivero we drive by. There's also a guy selling a few cacti at the feria in Viña.

You gotta be careful about bugs though, we lost a couple of really nice plants to nasty crawling white insects that we're pretty sure came from the place we bought the plants from.