Newsletter Archive
March 2010
Three Questions for Rolf Bucher
On warm, sunny days the WALA gardeners are often envied for their work outside in the fresh air. They tend the medicinal plants; they harvest roots, leaves, bark, flowers and fruits for WALA Medicines and Dr.Hauschka Skin Care. But what goes on in the WALA medicinal herb garden in winter? The gardeners’ team leader, Rolf Bucher, answers this and other questions in our interview.
1. What does your typical working day look like?
You’re asking me this in the depths of winter, with snow and frost on the ground. But we are already busy with the first root harvests for the plant laboratory. Two gardeners meet at around 6.30 every morning and harvest the roots of wood avens (Geum urbanum), celandine (Chelidonium majus) and valerian (Valeriana officinalis). Under the protective blanket of snow the ground is not frozen and the roots are fairly easy to dig out. Apart from this we are in the middle of planning our activities for the current year. We will start sowing in the greenhouse in February. Weather permitting, we shall be tending the beds in March and also sowing the first seeds out of doors.
2. What part does the WALA medicinal herb garden play in the company?
The garden is the primary cultivation site for many of the medicinal plants needed for WALA Medicines and Dr.Hauschka Skin Care. Our most important task is to guarantee delivery of the quantities and quality required on schedule. Guided tours of the garden are offered all year round for groups of visitors and conference participants, and of course for WALA employees. Guests frequently tell me how important the visit to the WALA medicinal herb garden has been to them.
3. How does working in a medicinal herb garden differ from working in other gardens? What is special about it?
There are a number of careers in horticulture that you can train for: for example landscape gardening, ornamental plant cultivation or vegetable growing. Medicinal plant gardener is not a designated career path, but you can learn how to become one by working here in the WALA garden. The range of our plants includes annuals, biennials and perennials, as well as plants usually counted as weeds, such as couch grass, and at the opposite end of the spectrum the hybrid tea rose. We grow birches and oaks, passion flowers, hybrid tea roses and calendula and around 150 other medicinal plants. The crucial thing is that we WALA gardeners strive to achieve the best possible quality for our medicinal plants. This striving for quality applies to all our work in the WALA medicinal herb garden: it starts with improving soil fertility, producing and using various biodynamic preparations, includes bee-keeping, design and upkeep of garden areas and of course takes in the harvesting of the medicinal plants.
