The LowlandsCommunityGarden is the first in a network of community gardens being established on our island that will provide delicious, local, sustainably-grown produce to the communities of St. Maarten.
Work is underway to transform the derelict 400 m2 steel frame greenhouse on the site we’ve located into the LowlandsCommunityGarden, a working aquaponics community garden and education learning center. The LowlandsCommunityGarden will create employment and provide training in various disciplines whilst providing organically grown produce and sustainably farmed freshwater fish for the local community. The aquaponics growing system that we will employ is simple to construct and can be easily replicated. By using this system we can produce the maximum amount of produce from the available growing space using less than 10% of the water of conventional agriculture. The LowlandsCommunityGarden will use renewable energy for the electrical requirements and collect rainwater for the aquaponics systems.
Aquaponics produces safe, fresh, organic fish, fruit, vegetables and herbs. When aquaponics is combined with a controlled environment greenhouse, premium quality crops can be grown on a year-round basis. The greenhouse and site we’ve located will house fish tanks and the associated grow beds from which we will produce between 3,000 and 5,000 fish and up to 70 tonnes of clean, green, chemical-free produce per year for the local community. All revenue generated will be used to establish further community gardens all over the island of St. Maarten.
The fresh, organic produce will be made available in the form of ‘vegetable boxes’ as Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shares, making healthy, affordable food accessible to all members of the community. You can find out more about Lowlands Community Garden CSA shares by following THIS LINK and by reading this BLOG POST. A proportion of our produce will be donated to organizations and/or individuals and families who are in need. Neighbors should help neighbors.
You can find out more about the LowlandsCommunityGarden by visiting OUR WEBSITE and by watching THIS SHORT VIDEO that we created for our crowdfunding campaign.
Please CONTACT US if you’d like to have a community garden in your neighborhood.
The Lowlands Community Garden is a project of the registered French non-profit organization LightWorkersSXM (W9G3000732) SIRET No 793 736 802 00018
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