Sustainable gardening: vegetable gardens in hotels
Sustainable gardening projects are on the rise around the globe. And the reasons to start a garden are manifold. Whether it’s the challenges the global society is facing when it comes to sufficient and sustainable usage of resources. However, people in urban areas are on the lookout for an escape from the noisy city and find peace in nature, when working in an urban garden. But also restaurants and hotels care to serve their guests dishes with the best possible quality and turn to grow their own produce and herbs in a small garden. Overall there are a lot of reasons for gardening and we will present a selection to you today.
Urban Gardening Pioneers: New York City
The story of Urban Gardening begins in 1973, as the New Yorker Liz Christy decides to make the Lower East Side prettier and more worth living and exploring. Shortly after her idea and first steps towards realizing the concept, urban gardening was well known across town. Eventually the city authorized the first piece of land, so the „Green Guerillla“ could start building and soon planting the first vegetable- and flowerbeds, as well as trees. Visitors are still able to admire the view of the first urban garden in NewYork. Alongside the vegetable garden you can discover fruit trees, a colorful meadow and even a beautiful pond.
Organic herb garden on the Maldives
Located in the Indian Ocean, some hotels are also eager to run gardens of their own. At Gili Lankanfushi vegetables and herbs are cultivated in back yard garden, that is taken care of by the hotel. A notable side fact here is the ground the produce grows on. Framed by wooden beams, the small plants flourish perfectly on sand, which is typical for the Maldives. A Rocket Composter at Gili Lankanfushi composes a minimum of 90% of the total wet kitchen waste and return it to the earth in the Organic Garden to let also those vegetable grow that need another soil enrichening the kitchen.
Demeter garden on Schloss Wartegg
In the Demeter garden (Demeter is the largest organization for biodynamic agriculture) on Schloss Wartegg close to Lake Constance it is almost natural that homegrown vegetables are used to cook several delicious meals. For this reason especially rare types of produce are being cultivated in the garden of Schloss Wartegg. Despite the products’ local factor, sustainability of the garden is equally important here. You won’t find any hybrid plants, since only „real“ types that bear juicy fruit every year grow outside the hotel. As another approach to sustainable gardening, bees take care of the pollination of crop that belong to the hotel and of course the many other plants all around.
Regional Products from the Dolomites
In addition to its vegetable and herb garden, a potato field also belongs to the Hotel Leitlhof. Thanks locally grown produce that can be harvested from the hotel garden, a great amount of products that are needed for the creation of a variety of meals is already covered. Nonetheless the plan for a certain cultivation of different types of vegetables that is oriented towards phases of the moon makes for a truly unique approach of sustainable gardening. Equally delicious and also unique are the selfmade herb and elder berry liqueurs served in the hotel bar.
A roof of herbs at the top of Mawell Resort
When the chefs need herbs for the preparation of delicious meals, they first have to go tot he roof of the Mawell Resort. As the luscious herb garden is located exactly here. Thus it is natural that fresh and local products are very important to the „Kulinarium“, the restaurant at Mawell. The herbs in the roof top garden are even watered with spring water coming from 140 meters below the ground’s surface.
