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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)

The CGARDEN is a revolutionary solution of organic home garden. It is a unique urban garden, patented, developed and manufactured in Portugal, which allows you to grow healthy and tasty organic fruits and vegetables. The CGARDEN concept is based on the cycles and processes of nature, integrating the collection and storage of water, composting, fertilization and automatic irrigation using solar energy, allowing to transform a small space into a virtually autonomous garden. Basically, it’s a mixture of the processes that nature has taken millennia to perfect with the technology that is available today.

The advantages of having a CGARDEN are endless, but we highlight:
1. It makes a decisive contribution to improving the environment and reducing the causes of climate change;
2. Contributes to our food security;
3. It is a sustainable equipment;
4. It improves physical and emotional health;
5. It is a profitable and safe investment;
6. It is extremely comfortable;
7. It helps to educate of our children;
8. It is an equipment that contributes to the decoration and design of the space where it is integrated;
9. It is to be part of the solution and no longer be part of the problem;

CGARDEN is an innovative, self-sustaining and highly durable biological garden system that provides the following added value for environmental sustainability:
1. Reduces water consumption because it collects and stores rainwater, which also has a positive impact on the need for rainwater routing;
2. Reduces energy consumption by eliminating all consumption of food production, packaging, transport and refrigeration and making a decisive contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions;
3. It reduces waste production significantly because it eliminates packaging and allows the recovery of organic waste for the production of biological fertilisers, which would otherwise have to be sent for treatment;
4. Improves air quality, contributing to the purification of the atmosphere of the areas where it integrates.

CGARDEN is very different from the solutions already on the market because it integrates into one equipment and in the same space, planting, composting, water collection and storage, passive cooling by convection of the planting boxes, biofiltration, irrigation and automatic fertilization. In addition to integrating all these functions, it has the planting area at the ideal height, so that all the tasks related to the garden can be performed in an ergonomic and extremely comfortable position.

The CGARDEN®, depending on the version, City, Urban, Pura, Essência or Nature, are composed of 1, 2, 3, 5 or 11 boxes of plantation with 32 cm of depth and 2 boxes of plantation with 12 cm of depth.. The 32 cm deep boxes are the ideal solution for a home garden, because they have a capacity of almost 70 liters and allow the planting of "any" horticultural, from herbs to lettuce, chard, spinach, garlic, onions, cabbages, carrots, tomatoes, broad beans, peas, peppers, potatoes, blueberries, strawberries, etc. Smaller boxes, 12 cm deep, are more suitable for smaller plants such as herbs, lettuce, chard, watercress, etc.

The vermi-composting box shall be prepared with organic, uncooked residues in a ratio of 1/3 of "green" and 2/3 of "brown", and by "green" means fruit and vegetable peels, egg shells, coffee grounds - mainly nitrogen and potassium - and by "brown" means straw, sawdust, dried plants or paper and cardboard that should not have glues or many inks - mainly carbon.
A first layer of "brown", a small second layer with pre-existing humus and earthworms, a third layer of "green" and a layer of "brown" should be placed in the compost box. Over the weeks its volume will be reduced as a result of its decomposition and more organic waste can be placed regularly, always in the proportion of approximately 1/3 of "green" and 2/3 of "brown".

After 2/3 months from the beginning of the vermi-composting process, as described above, the humus that during this period has been nourishing the water that has been stored in the collection boxes and that has been used to irrigate the various crops. After this period, the humus can be used to fertilize the substrate of the growing boxes, both in its CGARDEN urban garden and in other plants or crops in your garden.

No, the automatic watering kit is not part of the basic equipment of the CGARDEN because in some situations there will always be someone who can, and will like, to do the manual watering, therefore the purchase might not be justified, but also so that the investment of the purchase of CGARDEN can be made in a staged way.

Through a control button, present in the solar panel, we can regulate the amount of water that is distributed by the plants, taking into account the number of modules, the existing plants and quantity of plants, the time of year, etc.

Next to the less nourished water collection box, at the opposite end of the composting box, there is a discharge tube, with indication of level, which releases water in case of filling.

It may be the case that the rainwater is not sufficient to feed the water system of the CGARDEN domestic garden during the hottest summer months, if this happens the water should be introduced into the CGARDEN through the inlet placed in the discharge pipe, using a hose fitted to the inlet.

Yes, the water retained in the collection boxes can be used both to water the crops of the CGARDEN urban garden itself and to water other plants in the garden. This should be done by using the hand tap next to the box with the most nutrients underneath the composting boxes.

Yes, for the City and Urban modular garden models, which, due to their smaller dimensions, are practically assembled in their entirety and their levelling, fundamental for the proper functioning of the irrigation system, is an extremely simple task.

However, this is not possible for the modular garden models Pura, Essência and Natureza, which are delivered disassembled and whose assembly and leveling is more complex and which will have to be executed by an IHT team or by one of the our partners.

This is not likely to happen, as the watering kit has a biofilter that eliminates pollutants through a mechanical barrier and biodegradation, but if there is a clogging in the drip heads, You can use a syringe with clean water to force the water through the drip head from the outlet to the inlet, and unlock it.

This is not likely to happen, as the watering kit has a biofilter that eliminates pollutants through a mechanical barrier and biodegradation, but if there is a clogging in the drip heads, You can use a syringe with clean water to force the water through the drip head from the outlet to the inlet, and unlock it.

CGARDEN uses noble, high-performance materials such as aluminium, stainless steel and WPC composite produced by IHT, having, for these reasons, an expected lifetime of more than 30 years.