At seven in the morning inside Casa Tupac in the Lima district of Barranco, animal life moves with ease. Butterflies, bees, squirrels, birds, all feed off the biodiverse garden that occupies a large part of the space. Some splash in the small puddles formed from the hose water, while others carefully search the perfect trees and shrubs to build their nests and await the arrival of their new young. At this hour, the only witness to this commotion is Pedro Tucno. He is the gardener of the house and one of the people responsible for creating this small-scale ecosystem, within the city, where the flora of the coast, the highlands, and the jungle converge.

Pedro Tucno has been the gardener of Casa Tupac since they opened in 2018.

Soul, heart, and life. That is what Pedro says he gives to this garden since he arrived at Casa Túpac in 2018. The teenager who sold fruits and vegetables with his dad at a market discovered his passion for plants at the age of 13, watching a neighbor who sold bonsais giving classes on how to care for these miniature trees. He continues to be fascinated by them, but his knowledge of the plant world is not limited to them. In Chosica, he has a greenhouse where he cares for small sprouts until they grow and are strong enough to be relocated. Plants such as pampa anise, borage, sachaculantro, pampa oregano, vanilla, all have gone through the same path until they became part of that oasis created in the heart of the cultural and gastronomic neighborhood of Barranco.

Soul, heart, and life. That is what Pedro says he gives to this garden since he arrived at Casa Túpac in 2018. The teenager who sold fruits and vegetables with his dad at a market discovered his passion for plants at the age of 13, watching a neighbor who sold bonsais giving classes on how to care for these miniature trees. He continues to be fascinated by them, but his knowledge of the plant world is not limited to them. In Chosica, he has a greenhouse where he cares for small sprouts until they grow and are strong enough to be relocated. Plants such as pampa anise, borage, sachaculantro, pampa oregano, vanilla, all have gone through the same path until they became part of that oasis created in the heart of the cultural and gastronomic neighborhood of Barranco.

The path to Central and Kjolle is lined with a diversity of ornamental, edible, and medicinal plants.

Walking through the garden of Casa Túpac is taking a journey that crosses the three Peruvian regions. Approximately 70 species, among ornamental, edible, and medicinal, coexist in this urban space that was initially designed by segmenting ecosystems but now, wild, blend into a forest, as imagined by Virgilio Martínez six years ago. Now without borders separating them, the diversity connects and proliferates thanks to the skillful hands of Pedro, who receives requests from the kitchen teams of Central and Kjolle to plant species that are also part of the gastronomic experience. And just as the plants grow freely, in the same way, Pedro takes the initiative on what to plant according to what he feels fits well in this garden. There are indeed 4 plants that, at the request of the cooks, must always be present: the leaf of the wild quinoa, the sweet potato, oxalis, and purslane. No less important are muña, paico, honeysuckle, heleotropo, lantana, and lemon verbena, which also integrate this link between gastronomy and ecosystems.

Initially, the garden was designed segmented by ecosystems, but today it is a forest without delimitations.

The garden is at sea level but contains a vertical world that reaches 4500 meters where the uses of the plants are not only as food but also medicinal. Thus, muña, which grows from 2500 meters above sea level, is infused to treat digestive and respiratory problems. Descending to 1800 meters above sea level, pampa oregano heals and cures colds. Borage and purslane navigate the three regions alleviating inflammations and fevers. Thousands of years of understanding the environment sustain these cultural knowledge that also speaks of identity.

The minimalist design inside the restaurants and the abundance of the garden evidences the "outside there is more," that mobilizing conviction for the projects of Mater. From day one, alongside architect Rafael Freyre, the vision for Casa Túpac was to reconvert the spaces and preserve what they already contained. Thus, the architect's conceptualization minimized the built area and kept the existing trees in their same location. As an act of memory, they also preserved the original plant species and, already as a rescue act, more than twenty trees from neighboring lands were relocated to Casa Túpac to give them a second chance. Pacaes, avocados, molles, pines, loquats, and casuarinas shade the coastal ichu, tarwi, succulents, aguaymanto, coffee, cotton, and cocoa that also grow in this varied oasis.

The minimalist architecture of the restaurants contrasts with the abundance of the garden but maintains consistency with the use of natural materials such as wood and stone.

Aguaymanto leaf, one of the fruits that grow in the garden, illustrated with pointillism techniques by Liliana Abad.

Such diversity had to make sense beyond being a beautiful garden that one crosses to enter the restaurants, and Melissa Loayza, chef and part of the Mater team, aimed to integrate it into the experience. It would be a journey that invites one to first get to know the outside environment and thus better understand the inside. Together with Pedro, they identified all the plants that were already in the garden, and with Nicolás Palacios, a botanist from the Agrarian University and a collaborator of Mater, they began to integrate some new species. This project was joined by Liliana Abad, general assistant of Casa Túpac and also an illustrator. Thus, this small but multidisciplinary team developed technical fiches that not only present botanical information but also include Liliana's illustrations, created from the delicate technique of pointillism. The stands designed to exhibit them now blend with the vegetation, and visitors stop to read and appreciate Liliana's illustrations, who point by point drew leaves of sweet potato, muña, paico, pacae, yellow chili, rue, cotton, ichu, sachaculantro, aguaymanto, salicornia, and airampo.

Melissa Loayza and Pedro Tucno together identified all the plants in the garden.

Postcards illustrated with plants from the garden on one side and a map on the other mark the beginning of the experience for those arriving at Casa Tupac. Following the small paths drawn on the map, different heights are explored. Thus, an initial stop may take them to the extreme height to then pass through the low Amazon, enter dry forests, and end by traversing coastal deserts. These routes reveal the geography of a journey that will continue in Central or Kjolle and to which they may arrive richer in curiosity and new knowledge. They will be bridges that connect the outside and the inside and new memories that they will now know how to link. Making the connection with what they are eating is a way to reaffirm its existence, one that envelops identity, history, diversity, culture, and community. That is this house and this garden.

The panels with pointillist illustrations by Liliana Abad are part of the journey through the garden to help visitors identify the plants.