The French group organized a workshops-week for Citygreeners in Marseille. The
activities were organized in the shared Garden “Jardin du Belvédère” and in the
garden of the association Cosmos Kolej.
Between 20 and 40 young people participated each day to the workshops !
Tuesday
We started the activities on Tuesday
25 Febuary by visiting the Garden “Jardin du Belvédère” which is a shared
garden in the 15th district of Marseille. The garden animators
Vincent and Ludvine explained to the group the principles of a shared garden
and how this one in particular works.
The garden was founded in 2007 and
is mananged in cooperation with the social center “Centre Social del Rio”.
Principally, it is used by the inhabitants of the quarter La Viste to grow all
different kinds of plants like fruits, vegetables and flowers. The area of the
garden is divided up into different parcels. There are two kinds of parcels
there is one big “communal parcel” and there are many smaller personal parcels.
The personal parcels are for individual private use (Many of them are used by
families.) So in these parcels the people can decide temselves what to grow,
can harvest their own fruits and vegetables for their personal consummation.
The communal parcel is for everyone
who is interested in gardening. Together all people who take part decide what
to grow and if fruits and vegetables are grown they are for the community.
It’s primarily the garden animators
who are looking out for this parcel, see that it is taken care of and motivate
others to help with it.
Often this parcel is used for
example for projects about environmental education in cooperation with schools
or youths groups from the social center.
But it can also be used for example
by people who don’t have enough time to take care of a personal parcel but
still want to be part of the garden. Also people are still waiting to get their
own parcel can help here in the meantime. (Unfortunately the garden is not big
enough to give a personal parcel to everyone interested and so there is a
waiting list for it.)
Of course everything that is grown
in the garden is organic. That means no pesticides or synthetic fertilizers are
used, but that all techniques that are used are environmentally friendly, for
example there is a compost to reuse organic waste and produce naturally fertile
soil.
After this interesting presentation
of the garden we continued with a walk through the district where we discovered
how nature can and have to have a place in a city.
Directly behind the garden there is
a meadow that is a type of “no-mans-land”. This means that this is a natural
space in the city that is let to itself and that people are not allow to use in
any kind not to build houses, streets, factories, not even to grow plants. The
goal is on the one hand to have green spaces that are integrated in the city
and on the other hand to see what happens if nature is let nearly untouched in
an urban environment. So scientist can come there to examine the soil or to make
studies about which plants naturally grow there.
We ended the walk at the La Gare
Franche.
It is a cultural association with a
theatre where groups can come to practice their plays a house where they can
stay (also the Citygreeners group will stay there during the exchange) and a
big garden with animals.
There we then made “seed bombs” that
the group was throwing on Friday.
By the way if you want to learn how to
make Seed Bomb check out our video.
By the way if you want to learn how to
make Seed Bombs, check out our video!
Wednesday
On Wednesday the group continued the
activities with a treasure hunt through the city center of Marseille to
discover the “green” streets.
The goal was for the group to sees
how you can plant infront of your house even though you live in the citycenter,
how a few plants can make a street seem more colourful and cheerful and less dirty
and gray. Another aim was to give inspiration for our activities to plant in a
creative and original way like with old bottles or bins etc. and to make funny
pictures to share on the blog J.
Some participants also got the
chance to talk to Hervé one of the most active urban gardeners in Marseiille.
Furthermore during the treasure hunt
the participants also had to find the answers to questions about ecologic
movements, sustainable and environmentally friendly development and about urban
gardening in general and especially in Marseille.
Check out
the map with the green streets we found and look at our questions and see how
many you can answer.
Thursday
On Thursday we were in the 15th
district again.
You can
find a lot of garbage there that is just thrown away into the nature which is
sad because this kind of pollution can really destroy the environment. So we
went there to collect some of the things that are still in a more or less fine
condition. Because what many people don’t know is that one can take many things
that could be considered as garbage and reuse them as flower pots which is
exactly what we did. Examples of what we used are shoes, empty bottles ,cans, bins,
an old camera … You just have to fill them with fertile soil like compost, make
some wholes to make sure that the whole thing gets enough air and that the
water can run off and then you can plant all kinds of things like different kinds
of flowers, strawberrys,.herbes etc. That
way you can recycle in a creative
way because in the end you can use the former garbage to decorate your
garden, your house, your street or even your whole neighbourhood.
Friday
The Last day of the workshop week
started with a lot of rain and initially we thought that we had to stay inside
again. But we were lucky because it was not long until the sun came out again
and so finally we were able to continue the activities from the day before
outside. We building flower pots made of timber pallets that you can cut the
way you need them. We also painted and decorated them!
When the pallets have the right size
the process is the same as from the day before you just have to fill them with
fertile soil and then you can start planting. We also learned to separate
“bigger” flowers in order to have many smaller plants because recycled
flowerpots like bottles are usually not that huge. So to have plants that
actually nurture it is easier to start with smaller ones.
Separating
flowers is also very simple. You just have to carefully take them out of the
soil and then divide the roots without cutting them through. Then afterwards
you have several smaller specimens that you can plant separately in different
flower pots.
