In park Istra we have a permaculture garden rich with herbs, fruits and vegetables. This garden has been created two years ago by Manja, who knows a lot about permaculture, and the other members of the association Park Istra. Every volunteer who is interested about the garden is invited to take care for it and, if they wish, to improve it. However, for someone who doesn’t know a lot about gardening and permaculture, it is not easy to know what to do.
Mélanie, Beatriz and I thought that if people knew the names of the plants, it would be easier for them to do some research and learn how to take care of the plants and how to use them. That’s why we decided to build some signs with the names of the plants and some information about their virtues. We found some wood planks and sticks, learned to cut them to the desired size with a circular saw and polished them with a polishing machine.
We wrote on them the names of the garden plants with a woodburning pen. We decided to write the names in Slovenian, English and Latin languages: in Slovenian because this garden is in Slovenia and open to visitors, schools and kindergartens who come to visit Park Istra; in English because Park Istra welcomes volunteers coming from all around the world; in Latin because this is the international scientific language.
On each sign, we added a drawing of the plant with its fruit or/and flower. The goal of the drawing is to help to recognize the plant in the lower season when it has no fruit, no flower, and sometimes no leaves. We also added symbols indicating virtues of the plant. The virtues represented by the symbols are an invitation to look for more details about the plant. For example, several plants are indicated as being good for the skin, but some of them have anti-fungical properties whereas some of them are good against acne or eczema.
The first part of the project has been finished on the 18th of August, when all volunteers helped us to plant the signs in the garden.
Thanks to all these volunteering bees who worked with us, helped by the advice of Mélanie, the dynamic queen of the garden who knows so much about plants!
Thanks to Manja who took time to explain to us a lot about the garden and about permaculture.
Thanks to Žiga who helped us to build the signs and to translate some information in Slovenian language.
We would like to continue the project by building a sign giving some information about permaculture and with creating a book giving more details about the plants of our garden.
Text: Anna Vittet