The Sustainable Bio-intensive Vegetable Garden.
In the Elephant Valley vegetable garden we follow a crop management system inspired by lessons we have learnt from Mother Nature.
You are most welcome to visit the garden and pick-up fresh veggies for your lunch or dinner
Elephant Valley is organic certified by I.M.O Suisse
In our 7 acres vegetable garden, we maintain biodiversity by cultivating more than 25 species and varieties of vegetables and by rotating our crops around the year and around the garden.
In our 100 acres plantation, there are more than 100 plant species grown per acre of natural forest.
Agri-mono-culture makes for an unstable ecosystem that is susceptible to pest outbreak and mass failure.
Our Fertility Management System
Soil Fertilisation
This is one of the most important tasks in agriculture. The base of our gardens is to restore and improve the soil’s fertility for healthy plant growth and upholding of good yields. In nature, both animals and plants die and decay on the forest floors and in meadows. They are then recycled in time by water, micro organisms, sun and air to produce an improved soil which has structure and nutrients.
In our farming we also combine various ancient and modern fertility management systems as described below:
Composting
The process of composting can be defined as the decomposition or breakdown and integration of organic materials with mineral matter by a large mixed population of micro-organisms in a warm, moist, aerated environment in order to create a humus end product.
Green Manure Crops
The leguminous and carboneous plants grown in site have rootsystems which are freely left in the soil and turned into humus by micro and macro fauna & flora. The aerial growth of these plants is used as mulching material, controlling weeds, water evaporation and providing a long term feed to the soil.
Worm Culture
Earthworms represent a key component in the biological strategy of the soil nutrient cycle. Earthworms feed on nutrient rich waste, transforming them down into simpler substances, which facilitates further microbial action and ejects compost high in nutrition value and enzymes.
EM: Effective Micro Organisms
A modern mixed culture of micro organisms beneficial to soil fertility.
Panchakavya
An ancient Indian plant growth promoter made out of the five products of the cow (Vrikshayurveda) : Urine, dung, milk, ghee, curd.
