The garden has as you would expect seen the biggest changes of anything. We have had some good luck and some bad luck with our planting. Some of the things that people told us we shouldn’t be able to grow, like peach trees, have grown well, others, like almond trees, that should do well have failed. We now have someone that maintains and waters the garden regularly which has helped.

In the garden we have olive trees, oliander, medler, honeysuckle, aloe vera and a number of flowering succulents.

Everywhere you look around the Altiplano you see row after row and field after field of olive trees. We have some in the garden really just for evergreen decoration but to our surprise they produce olives. Not enough to turn into oil but there is some satisfaction in seeing them growing.

The peach tree seems to go from strength to strength despite being very susceptible to the extremes of heat and cold that the Altiplano experiences. In this photo the weight of the peaches has forced a branch right down to the ground. Those who have eaten them say that the peaches are very sweet and delicious.

We have a number of Aloe Vera around the garden, They were originally in tubs but are now plated out in the garden. They are very hardy to both the heat and dry and to a lesser extent the cold. There are cactii and succulents to be seen all over the Altiplano. Although not native they do grow very easily. More unusual though is to see one in bloom so here is ours.