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Soil4All The change starts right in front of our door

Soil4All: Creating a Public Gardening Space 


Background thoughts and purpose

Creating a public vegetable garden in a rural area? “What for?”, you might think, “don’t people on the countryside usually have access to an amount of land to create their own gardens if they wanted?” That’s true of course, but while ‘urban gardening’ in cities enjoys increasing popularity, fewer and fewer people and families are gardening in rural areas- despite the prevailing conditions. Reasons might be less time, less or no need, decreasing knowledge and maybe also a lack of motivation.

But as every gardener knows, a vegetable garden is much more than watering and pulling weeds: for your work, it delivers fresh, seasonal and ecological food - right on your doorstep. Old knowledge and new technologies, traditional methods and scientific findings can be combined and generated here. It’s basically a knowledge hub, serving among many other things also as tool to deal with crisis – as so many things, Covid-19 has also made us questioning our ways of life, outlining the value of being able to grow our own food.
Also, a public garden offers a place to meet people and to exchange. Especially at the moment, this is something that many of us are missing. But also post-Covid, social exchange remains important - perhaps more than ever, with regard to digitalization and the lack of time we increasingly face. And maybe most importantly, gardening also means a connection to the earth on which we all live, the basis of all life. If we have a connection to it, maybe understanding it a little, we are usually even more willing to protect it - that is, treating it more sustainably and thereby protecting ourselves.

The process

Having all those thoughts in mind, I went to obtain the local municipalities opinion and approval to create a public gardening space, in which everyone can contribute and/or harvest. Meeting great consent and positive feedback as well as some financial support for building material etc., the construction on the main square of the village could start a month later in mid may. As the existing soil is full of roots and stones, I mulched over it with cutted gras and cardboard. I than added soil and compost from external sources. It might not be the most sustainable solution, but it seemed the only or at least easiest one to gain a result in terms of growing diverse vegetables already this year. As I am yet mostly alone (Corona restrictions have not yet allowed any gatherings), I also kept the size of the garden pretty small (ca. 9 sqm) to be able to take care of it alone next to my many other tasks. Also, I wanted it to be easily dismantled in the future, if necessary. A family in the village helped by designing wonderful labels for all the plants, though, and I hope, meetings and events of diverse nature will soon be possible again to meet in and around the tiny garden.

 Getting The Garden Started

The project is generally inspired by permacultural planning and methods. Thus, observing the garden and natural processes at the chosen spot in this first year is a major part of the process. But as already described, to gain a visible and diverse outcome already this year, I also decided to just give it a go and see what happens. After adding the soil+compost, I created several small patches and finally, in the end of may, the first planting and seeding started. One of the patches is solely reserved for herbs. In the others are growing mixed cultures of beans, chard, carrots and parsnip (will see how that goes with the rather shallow ground. For the parsnips, we created some mounds), beetroot, onions, kale and pumpkin in an old tub full of compost, using the fence as ranking. Also, an amount of eatable flowers is spread across the bed. So far, everything gardens ( ) wonderfully.

The soil      

I have been really worried about the soil quality in the first year. However, a soil analysis showed a PH-value of 6,5 which is great for growing most vegetables! But of course the share of humus is extremely small. Thus, working to create a proper soil structure with lots of humus is another major part of the work in the first year. Therefore, the plants will soon, when being large enough, receive a nice layer of mulch! We’ll see, what other tasks and challenges are waiting, as it is yet too early to draw any concrete conclusions.

Concluding thoughts

But all in all, it’s a fantastic way of getting active in a local area, no matter whether urban or rural! The world knows many challenges - the current crisis, the alienation of people from food production due to modern life models, increasing environmental and climate problems and the complex global, sometimes fragile, trade and economic systems are just some of them. They are extremely elementary challenges, each of which is linked to one another. And at the same time, there are also challenges in which each of us can make a contribution in order to initiate and support an ecologically, socially and economically more sustainable development.

Thus, the community garden is not just a place to raise awareness and knowledge, or for empowerment by showing a way of more resilience to crisis. But it hopefully will bring people of diverse background and ages together to both each other and to the soil we live on; creating a place being representative for the future we want and need.

The change starts right in front of our door –
Creating a public gardening space, a soil for all, is a small contribution to this change!

 --- I am writing from a European, white, non-indigenous, well educated and situated perspective about a northern European context. I am aware of and acknowledge that life realities, needs and perspectives in other parts of this world, continent or even within my country of origin, Germany, differ very much from my descriptions. --- 

Written by Freya Rixen, Soil Ambassador and participant

 


 

 

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