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   Garden projects

Nowadays almost all vegetables and fruit are treated with chemicals or are genetically manipulated. One can never be sure what one is eating any more. The best thing to do is grow your own fruit and vegetables. Runs 'N Roses started several garden projects and is trying to raise awareness on the subject by organizing educational youth activities.
On this page you will find information on:

• the organic farm project

• the flower garden project

• the herb garden project

• the compost place

The organic farm project
Or, as we prefer to call it, our vegetable- and fruit-garden. With the organic farm project we try to supply the restaurant of the lodge with organic food when possible.

We are trying to grow corn, pumpkin, kale, morning-glory (the vegetable), tomatoes, cucumber, watermelon, long beans, peppers, lettuce, Brussels sprouts, spinach, radish, carrots, cully-flower and onions. Next to the vegetables there are also some fruit trees with rambutan, durian, banana, jackfruit, orange and lemon. Because of the climate we can harvest and grow vegetables the whole year through. You can find our vegetable garden on the lower part of the mountain. Fruit you can find all over the place. We planted fruit trees near the bungalows too: coconut, papaya. So you can eat fresh fruit if you like to pick it by yourself!

All the staff of Runs ' N Roses work together and are responsible for all the garden projects. The vegetable garden was set up with help of the volunteers of the Thai Child Development Foundation.

In the garden we do NOT use chemicals, we make and use our own compost, and we use chicken, horse and cow-shit (obtained from the stables of local farmers) to give the soil some extra's.

To keep other insects away from our precious vegetables we do NOT use pesticide but natural insect spray (see recipe) and we planted marigold to keep bugs away. And of course in the dry season we water the garden (sometimes three times a day).

During the period we worked on the garden we learned many ways to avoid bugs, insects and how to grow our plants without using any chemicals. We collected this information for you, if you are interested please check this page.

The flower garden project

The flowers and trees are everywhere around the restaurant, the bungalows and alongside the paths. The gardens are a place of beauty and peace, with many places to sit quiet and relax and enjoy the beauty of nature.

Next to that, having a garden like this, with all local tropical plants and flowers in it, and of course many fruit trees, attracts a lot of butterflies birds. Early in the morning and at sunset you can see them: the sunbirds, barbets, bee-eaters, fly-catchers, drongos, kingfishers, kites, fish-eagles and sometimes the hornbills passing by.

The diversity of flowers and plants is big: Chinese rose, all kinds of palm trees, pink pineapples, bamboo, many different banana trees, lotus flowers and orchids. The flowers are everywhere and it is beautiful all year round.

Most flowers bloom in April, May, June and July and later in November and December.

The flower garden needs a lot of time, work and attention. Of course we do NOT use chemicals in the flower garden Our 'homemade' compost is also used here.

The herb garden project
Herbs are used in our kitchen a lot. A Thai kitchen without herbs is unimaginable.

The herbs can not only be used for food, but also for medicinal reasons or to make nice teas.

In the herb-gardens all over the place you will find herbs like: lemon-grass, ginger, yellow-root, coriander, lime-leaves, parsley, sweet basil and other kinds of basil, chilies of course and much much more.

The herb garden provides us with herbs all year long, but needs a lot of attention, some of our special compost and in dry season a lot of water.

The compost place project
On the mountain there is an area for making compost. Compost is organic fertilizer to use in the gardens. At the compost place we collect all the food, fruit and vegetable waste so it can decompose. To do this in a good way we build a small roof covering the big concrete circular object with heavy lids.

How to maintain compost

1. Collect all food, fruit and vegetable waste. No egg shells please.

2. Dump the waste in the circular compost bin and replace the lid.

3. Every week stir the compost firmly then cover it with grass, leaves or any part of a plant. This will assist the decomposing process.

4. After the first bin is full repeat the process for the second and third bin. Don't forget to stir all the bins.