Parque Chimiya at San Juan Comalapa
The Gardens and Nursery at Chimiya

The organic garden space in Parque Chimiyá covers about 500 square feet near the entrance to the park. It includes areas for herbs and medicinal plants, fruits, vegetables, succulent plants and flowers. With Guatemala’s moderate climate, Long Way Home staff and volunteers work in the gardens year round.

When Long Way Home began building the park in 2004, the garden area was already terraced but the land was not in use. The soil was very poor quality. After working organic matter into the soil through several years of plantings, the gardens are now both attractive and productive. The addition of a 100-foot long rock retaining wall along the front of the garden terraces in the fall of 2007 gave the entire park “a new face,” in the words of one local man.

The organic garden space in Parque Chimiyá covers about 500 square feet near the entrance to the park. It includes areas for herbs and medicinal plants, fruits, vegetables, succulent plants and flowers. With Guatemala’s moderate climate, Long Way Home staff and volunteers work in the gardens year round.

Purpose

The gardens serve to beautify the grounds, help restore soil quality, and provide an interactive demonstration activity for park users. Visitors to Parque Chimiyá are drawn into the gardens for aesthetic reasons but then have the opportunity to learn about plants that can be grown locally and how to cultivate and use them. The gardens bear an array of organic foods such as herbs and lettuces, berries, guisquiles and quicoyes (local squash varieties), fruit trees, and more. The gardens provide supplemental food for staff and volunteers, with any excess being gifted or sold to park visitors to offset garden maintenance and seed costs.

Environmental Contribution

There is a well established correlation between poverty and environmental degradation. In poor agricultural societies, the short term gains of chemical agriculture far outweigh the long term drawbacks of an unregulated agricultural sector. In other words, in a world where finding enough to eat can be a daily struggle for families, the visible benefits of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides eclipse any effort at planning for long term environmental sustainability. Through the practice of organic agriculture, Parque Chimiyá demonstrates the techniques and benefits of these agricultural practices.

Education

Starting in the gardens, signs around the park educate visitors on various environmental topics, such as soils and trees, and we plan to make and install small decorative signs giving the common and scientific names of each major plant type found in the garden. Environmental education also takes place informally in the gardens, with visitors coming to ask Long Way Home volunteers about the work they’re doing. In these situations, local people gain access to information about composting, organic fertilizers and pesticides, seed harvesting, etc.

While many Guatemalans are knowledgeable about the cultivation of their staple foods (corn, beans and squash), they often have little experience growing other plants. Our gardens allow people to see the broad range of plants that can be grown in the local climate and learn how to bring diversity to their own gardens and fields. Additionally, Long Way Home volunteers who are interested in gardening have the opportunity to experiment in our gardens and learn about agricultural practices in Guatemala.

Click here if you would like to help donate toward the develpment of this project or just make a general donation to the vitality of the project. Long Way Home appreciates your contributions and interest in helping make the world a better place.