The Gödenroth Gardens are a project of PerNaturam GmbH, which in Gödenroth with 80 employees sells supplementary feed and herbal mixtures for animals and also self-developed plant strengtheners and herb-based soil conditioners.
- Planning and development by Stadt Land plus in Boppard
- Cost of the garden, currently around €700,000
- Funding from the EU via Leader funds amounting to €200,000
The Gödenroth Gardens are a place of care and the transmission of traditional garden and plant knowledge. The focus is on Hortus, the teaching and show garden for medicinal plants. In 16 themed beds, around 200 mostly native plant species will be presented with their effect on people and animals. The garden should enable plants to be perceived with the senses and to be experienced through seeing, smelling, tasting and feeling. Shown are u. a. in the Hildegard discounts plants of Hildegard medicine and in the Paracelsus garden medicinal plants from his natural pharmacy. In the vegetable garden we show how to create hill beds and cultivate them in permaculture. The aim is to show alternative options for plant strengthening, pest control and soil improvement. The Gödenroth Gardens want to raise awareness of native plants, show their diversity, convey their possible uses and show their beauty.
Manfred Hessel
Graduate ecologist and phytotherapist
Gardens of Godenroth
The history of the Gödenroth Gardens is also the history of PerNaturam GmbH and began long before we were established here in Hunsrück in 2014. In 2014 we started with 15 employees in Gödenroth, today PerNaturam employs over 80 people.
PerNaturam is an owner-managed factory that produces supplementary feed mainly from herbs and plant extracts. An essential part of our success is the special knowledge about medicinal plants, their ingredients and their special effect on the nutrition and health of the animals. If plants can help people or animals to become more healthy and vital, how much more can they strengthen and support each other. Under the motto "Plants help plants", PerNaturam sells plant strengtheners and soil additives under the Hortulust brand.
It has always been important to us to keep this knowledge alive and to pass it on, and as long as we have been working for and with animals and their owners, we have passed on our knowledge in countless information, consultations and seminars.
What better place for this mediation than a garden? One of the gardener's main virtues is patience. A lot of patience was also required of us. It took a long time from the garden vision to the planning, implementation and realization. Our company has existed for over thirty years, and for that long I have happily told about the plants and flowers of my inner gardens. Today we present the garden in the opening state. A garden is never finished, anyone who tends a garden knows that. A garden is a task, it is subject to constant change and further development. A freshly landscaped garden is like a little child whose potential is yet to unfold.
Yes, the Gödenroth Gardens are not a horticultural show that entices visitors with its bursting blooms. Here we show what is often overlooked. In seminars and guided tours, we want to train the eye to look closely and pay attention to the subtleties. Accompany the Gödenroth Gardens in their development, in their becoming and changing and take a look at their themes and content. Visit the gardens again and again!
The signet of the Gödenroth Gardens is the lily blossom, you will see them again and again in the garden. The idea behind it is the flower of life, which develops from the six-petalled lily flower. In heraldry, the iris is usually referred to as a lily, a prominent example being the French lily, or the coats of arms of Darmstadt, Wiesbaden or the city of Lille. This heraldic depiction has nothing in common with the Madonna lily Lilium candium. Like the rose, the lily is one of the oldest cultivated ornamental plants and was already cultivated in Asia Minor in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC.
Hortus, the teaching and show garden
The center of the Gödenroth Gardens is the teaching and show garden. We call him Hortus and also remember Walahfrid von der Reichenau, called - Strabo. He lived from 809 to 849. He was abbot of the Reichenau monastery. Around 840 he wrote the book On the Cultivation of Gardens, better known under the name Hortulus, the little garden. It is one of the most important botanical works of the Middle Ages.
Our Hortus consists of 16 beds around a central space, which is accentuated with a six-petalled flower embedded in the ground, the lily signet. A ring pergola rises above this square, which is still covered by climbing plants from the raised beds will be covered. Each bed has its own theme, and in the beds the medicinal plants are grouped according to therapeutic aspects. Anyone who collects medicinal plants should also be familiar with poisonous plants, which is why we have dedicated a separate bed to them.
Fertile hill beds in the kitchen garden
The created useful and permaculture garden serves us as inspiration and as a test site. The exchange of old and new knowledge and the passing on of gardening experiences are important to us. That's why the garden should be a meeting place and everyone is welcome.
In order to cultivate the heavy loamy soil of the Hunsrück and to do justice to the climatic conditions, we decided to plant hill beds in the kitchen garden and want to try and test different types. A compensation area is attached to the gardens on the PerNaturam site. It was founded by the LebensMittelPunkt-Garten e. V. and is to be developed together into a large garden.
While in the first area the landscaped and designed garden with its various themes is in the foreground, hedges, wild fruit and various types of meadows are established in the compensation area. The beauty and diversity of species in natural meadows is to be shown here in order to convey the wealth of herbs that the original meadow flora can have.