BLATTEN: THE RICOLA GARDEN

The Zermatt farming village of Blatten is home to one of the six Ricola herb  gardens in Switzerland. (The others are in Nenzlingen, on Trogberg mountain, at Klewen Alp, in Kandersteg, or Pontresina). The garden has been carved from a beautiful hilltop meadow overlooking the Swiss farmland, among the traditional hay barns, with views the plants cannot help but love.

When you enter the garden, you find herb patch that provides labeled specimens. From bottom right, you can see a small patch of plantain, purple mallow, yellow lady's mantle filling in the middle ground, with tall and pale-pink marshmallow, and the lacy white heads of burnet at the rear.  We were especially amused to learn that plantain -- a "weed" that thrives on our property -- is a widely useful against cough and sore throat!

The village of Blatten is just a half-hour hike up the valley to the south of Zermatt.  From the lush herb garden, you can enjoy the smell of new-mown hay in the July sunshine and watch entire families work with a combination of mechanized mowers and hand rakes to hurry the hay into the beautiful, traditional wooden barns.

To ensure that the herbs flourish, Ricola selects cultivation areas that are far from industrial sites or the road networks to avoid contact with pollutants. In addition to the show gardens, over 100 self-managed organic farms under contract to Ricola within Switzerland grow more than 1250 metric tonnes (each 2200 US pounds) of the 16 basic medicinal herbs used by the company:

 

Horehound (Marrubium vulgare)	Plaintain (Platago lanceolata)	Marshmallow (Althaea officinalis)	Thyme (Thymus vulgaris)
Burnet (Pimpinella saxifrage)	Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)	Elder (Sambucus nigra)	Orange mint (Mentha citrata)
Cowslip (Primula vera)	Mallow (Malva sylvestris)	Peppermint (Mentha piperita)	Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis)
Speedwell (Veronica officinalis)	Lady’s mantle (Alchemilla vulgaris)	Sage (Salvia officinalis)	Hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis)

The display gardens contain labeled plantings of each herb -- although the different herbs thrive in different seasons, and herbs such as cowslip are past their prime in this summer season.  After studying each herb, you are invited to wander among a group of numbered beds and to identify the herb in each.  (It's OK to check back with the labeled specimens nearby; Ricola is interested in reviving the ancient skill of identifying herbal plants.)