Alpine flower garden

Blooming splendor - healing power

In spring 2020, the alpine flower and herb garden in the mountaineering village of Schmirn was revitalized and has shone in full bloom every year since then. To make sure it stays that way, there are a handful of volunteers in the village who look after and maintain parts of the garden. In this blog, we would like to show you what you can see and smell there and how you can get up close and personal while on vacation.

Back in 2004, Georg Früh, the owner of the Gasthof Olpererblick, leased a piece of land from neighboring farmers to create an alpine herb garden. In the years that followed, numerous guests and locals came to this little paradise of flowers and herbs to enjoy the beauty of nature and simply relax on the benches around the garden. However, due to major construction work at the inn, the maintenance of the Alpine garden suffered somewhat in the last few years before the revitalization.

In 2018 and 2019, a barrier-free circular trail was created between the Gasthaus Olpererblick and the Alpenblumengarten with the help of funding from the state of Tyrol, and the garden paths were also made barrier-free in the process. The asphalted hiking trail is signposted as "Alpenblumen-Rundweg" and leads in a loop along the valley floor around the Schmirn districts of Toldern and Hochmark (walking time: approx. 30 minutes). A short visit to the Gattererhof and Thumeserhof farm stores along the way is definitely worthwhile. Find out more in our tour planner - click here.

The only thing missing was the redesign of the garden itself. During the coronavirus lockdown in spring 2020, a few volunteers joined Georg and Kati Früh in clearing the garden of weeds and renewing the borders. With the help of TVB Wipptal, a concept was drawn up to divide the entire area into sub-areas assigned to specific themes. For example, a "Schnapsgartl" was created where there was already a rowan tree - masterwort and gentian root were planted in this area. Other areas were given the names Bauerngartl, Beerengartl, Stoangartl, Heilkräutergartl and Weihegartl. The latter contains all the herbs and flowers that are traditionally consecrated in the church in Schmirn on September 8th (Nativity of Mary) and are used for the "Rachen gian" during the "Rauhnächte" around Christmas. For each area, descriptions of the garden theme and some of the plants were placed on wooden sticks.

In order to relieve the Früh family of some of the gardening work in future, sponsors were sought to take on responsibility for a section of the garden. After a short time, 13 adults and even 5 children from the mountaineering village of Schmirn agreed to help out. The joint effort is impressive! The participants maintain and care for their assigned areas with great attention to detail, creative ideas and numerous plant donations from their own farm gardens. An information board at the entrance provides information about the individual areas and the respective sponsorship.

As part of the "School of the Alpine Pasture", short breaks with 3-day herbal courses have been offered in June and September since 2021, where participants can not only help out in the Alpine flower garden, but also receive practical tips on the use and processing of medicinal and culinary herbs with herbalist Elli. In keeping with the motto "slowing down", the offer includes not only comfortable accommodation and good food with regional full board, but also a vacation for the soul:

• Forgetting the time while gardening
• Do something meaningful in beautiful surroundings and good mountain air
• Learn new things about gardens, herbs and alpine plants and expand your knowledge
• Together we process the harvested treasures in a variety of professional ways and prepare various delicacies (e.g. spruce honey, dandelion honey, herbal salt, blossom sugar, tinctures, healing ointments, herbal vinegar, syrup, pesto, etc.).
• and get to know nice people at the same time
   

Are you interested? Further information, dates and a booking option can be found here.