Loma Linda Garden Initiative
A few years ago, Executive Director Pascual Rafael Escobar organized a non-profit community group called ASODILL, whose purpose was to promote sustainable development such as organic agriculture and ecotourism and to provide employment opportunities for its members. Three years ago, ASODILL began a communal garden, which has turned out to be extraordinarily successful.
Since its inception, a garden manager and his assistant trained in organic methods by a Belgian NGO have created an amazingly healthy and productive garden. The garden grows 25 types of organic fruits and vegetables to improve the health of the impoverished village residents. Ever larger numbers of crops are being tried and grown, from bananas to last year’s big success -- bok choy. Cheap, homemade organic pest controls and foliar feeds have proven very effective, and low-tech methods have kept costs to a minimum. It is possible to plant crops all year around for expanded harvests, and these are fertilized with vermicompost (worm castings) from a large village facility that recycles coffee wastes. Crop rotation protects soil fertility. Garden staff in 2011 built a new greenhouse to protect young seedlings from extremes of wind, sun and seasonal rains.
New methods are also being tried. Seed saving has just been initiated, reducing the need to seek scarce organic seeds, helping to reduce costs, and gradually creating varieties better suited to their local conditions.
A threat appears:
But now there’s a threat. Even though the organic garden is now successful, the village will repossess the land to build more school facilities and the garden must move. Flat space is limited in this mountainside area, so ASODILL plans to move to its own permanent land which must be purchased. As well, they need garden tools and continuing salaries funded for the garden manager and his assistant.
How you can help:
You can help the people of Loma Linda keep their garden growing. Donations will go directly to the association ASODILL to promote a healthier and more economically sound future for Loma Linda. The organic produce will benefit 23 families initially, and more in the future, when the permanent site has been purchased with your donations. The garden staff will be a source of information for villagers’ own kitchen gardens in this largely oral culture, and the gardens themselves a model of organic methods.
The first-ever organic community garden in Loma Linda needs your help to relocate to a permanent site. This highly productive garden improves community nutrition and will employ two skilled gardeners under the governance of the Asociacion ASODILL.
