Gardening in a Sculpture Park

Many of our visitors praise the construction and maintenance of the sculpture garden. The maintenance, for example pruning 100 palms and 58 mulberry trees, not to mention mowing weeds in the entire garden, is an awful lot of work.

In the beginning we did it all ourselves, but now we, as well as the trees, are more than twenty years older and it is no longer possible. We now have professional help 10 hours a week and on Saturday mornings volunteers regularly come to help us.

Marja has been maintaining the statues for a long time when they have become dirty due to sand rain or the passing of time. In the winter Leoni and Arend come to help with all kinds of necessary garden work. If you also enjoy gardening and would like to contribute, we would love to hear from you.

One of the most important things for a garden in our climate is the water supply. So immediately after aquiring the land we purchased a connection to Benidorm's farm water from the Regantes. This is recycled sewage water.

When we purchased the connection, solids were removed by settling. Now, aeration also largely removes the BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand). The COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) is not treated, this can only be done by using chemicals.

The garden is fitted with a system of tubes with drippers near the plants and trees. There are six groups of those that each operate for an hour. We use approximately 10 m³ of water per day. Because we are using more and more water, but the main tubes have not become thicker, the water pressure at the sprinklers is on the low side, which is why we are now installing thicker tubes.

Many of the trees and plants in the garden have been planted as cuttings or seeds by us. Not just because of the costs but also because watching a tree grow from a seed gives great joy and satisfaction. We raised all of our 58 mulberry trees ourselves from cuttings, which took us five years.

In the photo you see Moringa's in the making. We put the seeds in wet kitchen paper in a closed plastic bag in the sun. They sprout after 10 days.

You are welcome to buy packets of seeds from us. A packet costs 1 euro and Johanna is happy to advise you on how to handle the seeds.

See you in the garden!