In Harmony with Nature: Gruntek, the First Virtual Garden

If you wish to have healthy, certified ecologically grown vegetables you planted yourselves but you have not had a garden until now, Gruntek is a unique project that will fulfil your expectations and even exceed them!

For all those who wish to prepare and eat healthy vegetables, now there is a unique concept of digital garden. It is named gruntek, after a local endearment term for a privately owned small estate. The project allows you to choose what you would like to grow and then enjoy the fruits of your own virtual garden. The rest of the work will be done by the founder Tino Prosenik and young experts in various fields who envisaged this original solution and now implement it. 

It is located near Zagreb, in the place called Prokljuvani near Čazma. Users choose vegetables they wish to have in their plot via web application and their ideas are brought to life in the actual garden by a team of farmers, supervised by a technologist. They will plant the vegetables of your choice, invest effort for it to grow, pick it and deliver healthy and fresh produce to the address you stated. For now, this refers to destinations in Zagreb and surroundings as well as Rijeka and Opatija. 

Cultivation of vegetables on the estate is completely in line with sustainability requirements as well as biodiversity and natural processes and does not involve any harmful substances. The project is certified by agency Bio Garantie. 

However, Gruntek is much more than a remote garden with tasty and healthy produce. Users can have other benefits such as a special barbecue offer or book a table in the picnic zone and take part in educational lectures and workshops on ecological cultivation and preparation of healthy food. There is also a children’s playground in the picnic zone. 

Users can pick the vegetables in their garden themselves or the produce can be delivered in wooden crates, which means another important ecological target has been met; the quantity of waste due to packaging has been reduced by 85 per cent, and the amount of plastic by a 100 per cent. Vegetables are delivered weekly, and in periods when users cannot take the delivery due to being on holiday or other reasons, they are asked to donate it and ensure a high-quality, healthy meal for children in children’s homes and community housing. 

The project was awarded a Grand Prix in the category of green innovation as the first innovation of its sort in Croatia. This is a special recognition of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development awarded at the Greencajt Festival.