THE MEDICINAL GARDEN
In the beginning there was a medicinal garden. Right below the Hotel or “Cortijo”, the medicinal garden holds its ground. Almost as if attached to the Cortijo, the medicinal garden works as a homeopathic medicine transferring its essences to the Cortijo throughout the seasons. Its perfumes, its fruits, its roses, and its uplifting disconnection from the world: this garden is a life haven enhancing one’s senses. The medicinal garden is a space and a time to reconnect to Nature and one’s self, leaving people who entered it with one everlasting harmonious aftertaste. The medicinal garden is like the Lungs of the Hotel, holding over 300 medicinal plants coming from the 5 continents, a treasure for both Man and Nature.
The medicinal Garden holds many purposes in La Donaira. Its plants are used in the cuisine to aggregate endless savours to its home-grown vegetables and home-raised meat. Not to mention herbal infusions are at all guests disposal all year long.
Its elements are profoundly integrated in the hotel: flower bouquets, ingenious fruits and vegetable garlands, all the “living art” within the hotel is meticulously designed and crafted by Gerhard Bodner, mastermind behind the creation of the Medicinal Garden.
We offer our guests a Medicinal Garden Tour. That is a special time to discover the main attributes of the plants in the garden alongside the main principles of permaculture. To make it spicier, guests are immersed in the tour with taste or blind-tests. It is also a time to understand how regenerative agriculture works, and bring to light all the projects gravitating around la Donaira that makes it a unique microcosm of biodiversity.
Apart from what we humans can benefit from this garden, it is interesting to realize that a well-managed and diversified garden is like a metropolis for wildlife. It unites dozens of trees, hundreds of vegetables, birds and flowers, millions of insects, trillions of mushrooms, and countless mice, toads, fishes and butterflies… balancing each other throughout the four seasons. A garden is an oath to life: “I plant a tree to be shared by all”.
We would be happy to bring you there!Date of creation : Structures: 2013
First plants: 2014
Who: Gerard Bodner, Marina and Ildefonso
How many plants: 300 medicinal plants from the 5 continents
