Hardin ng Lunas a success in Tarlac

MANILA, Philippines - Hardin ng Lunas – literally, garden of comfort – is no ordinary garden. It provides affordable and sustainable food and alternative medicine to people residing in areas with no access to physicians and medical facilities.

Several communities in Tarlac have benefited from these gardens. Aside from helping start their gardens, participants are also taught how to use their harvests as medicine, food and livelihood.  Recently, another Hardin ng Lunas was inaugurated at the Northern Luzon Command (NOLCOM) military camp in San Miguel, Tarlac.

The new Hardin ng Lunas is located in a three-hectare site in Camp Servillano Aquino, Tarlac City.  Active and retired military personnel and their families and civilian employees tend to the garden. They were encouraged and guided by Hardin ng Lunas organizers led by Isa Cojuangco Suntay, chair of the Tarlac Heritage Foundation, East West Seed Company and B&O Green Corporation.

Other gardens are located in Moncada, Anao, Pura, Paniqui, San Manuel, Camiling, Gerona and Tarlac City.

Seeing the positive results of Hardin ng Lunas, the organizers, together with the officers, men and women of Camp Servillano Aquino, will provide training at the camp or go to the farmers in their fields throughout the province to train them on organic vegetable farming methods, expose them to new technologies in the field, give them organic vegetable seedlings that are ready for transplant, introduce them to new crop varieties, and provide a link between beneficiaries and buyers of these organic vegetables within and outside their communities. 

Hardin ng Lunas is also a significant environment project that helps people appreciate nature and God’s natural gifts to men.