The Ark Herb Farm - medicinal herb garden in the tropics

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My country, Costa Rica, is known for its impressive biodiversity, which includes many plants with traditional medicinal uses. However, even though many herbs are widely used, and a bit of the related knowledge has passed to the current generations, much remains to be done regarding a more formal research and wider acceptability of herbal remedies. 

There are a few really nice botanical gardens in Costa Rica, but —at least to my knowledge— not that many focus specifically on medicinal plants. This is why I wanted to dedicate a post to the ethno botanical garden "Ark Herb Farm", located in Santa Bárbara de Heredia (even if Google Maps shows  it in the province of Alajuela). My husband and I had already visited this place a few years ago, and had taken an extensive tour guided by a young German guy who was staying for a while in a tree house in the garden. Even though back then I had already discovered my interest in medicinal herbs, I was just starting, and hadn't done my more formal training yet. I remember that it was during that visit that I heard for the first time about the classic book "A Modern Herbal".

The garden on a glorious December morning.

I wanted to visit the garden again not only because I remembered it as a beautiful place, but also because I wanted to improve a bit my knowledge of tropical medicinal plants. What I have learned so far in courses, and in my own gardening experiments, focuses more on plants that grow on temperate climates (is this how you call non-tropical regions?), and some of the plants that I know and use the most in Germany (such as horse chestnuts and St. John's wort) neither grow nor are widely used in my home country. During my visit, on one of the last days of 2017, I was guided by Agustin Contreras, consultant specialized on botany, who took quite a lot of time to share his knowledge and answer my (numerous) questions about medicinal herbs commonly used in Costa Rica.

Even though this time I didn't have enough time to walk through the garden again, the place still hast the same peaceful atmosphere that I remember from my last visit. I also saw the greenhouses, where they plant and sell many species, including some of my favorite plant friends, such as stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) and ribwort plantain (Plantago lanceolata). 

Nettle - one of my favorite plants for the "spring detox" that's popular in Germany. 

I recommend this garden not only because it's a great place to spend a few hours walking and enjoying the connection to nature, but also for its value as a source of information for those of us interested in medicinal plants. 

Another picture of the greenhouses.