The school has its own garden of 1500 square metres where beginners’ courses in organic horticulture are carried out. The course participants (15 people or familiar unit) are able to cultivate a 50m2 plot (own plot) for one year from February to February. We also have another group of 10-15 people doing the same course, who already have a garden at home, and therefore share one big plot for the practical sessions (shared plot).
Objectives
Preservation of an agricultural space in urban surroundings; connecting the people with the land and the natural surroundings; disconnecting from the daily routine and the stress of the city; igniting your children’s interest; learning to appreciate agricultural work, organic food and local products; looking after physical and mental health; valuing ourselves and other people; creating and being responsible for a space that depends on you; and interconnecting with colleagues of other social and cultural backgrounds.
The most interesting thing is that the family of the participant can also be part of the practical part in order to strengthen the family ties and community work. During the whole year, one can receive assessment as the same teacher daily cares about the garden. Collective work is done among the plotters: harvesting canes, looking for humus/mulch, manure and lawn, setting a small fire to use the ashes afterwards, preparing vegetable slurry to use it collectively.
Materials
Implementation
Evaluation
I have done interviews with each of the gardeners, and, despite being very early on in the process, the evaluation is satisfactory because people have found a space where they can find and be themselves, working the land and planting your food, and all are very motivated to carry on in this way.
Indicators: Evaluation through personal interviews, spontaneous pictures of how the work is done, and how people respond in front of the teacher and their colleagues.
A meeting in the end of the summer season helps us to improve aspects that are important for students. It is a meeting among friends, as it’s performed 5 months after the beginning of the training and people already knows each other. Normally, meetings are done during lunch, in the months of summer with the solar kitchen, and during breakfast, in the months of winter, to get the body warm! Moreover, the teacher offers friendship and cordiality is at all times.
Tipps
Aims: By making use of understandings and techniques of organic horticulture, and by transmitting values of self-sufficiency we want to increase people’s resilience, help them learn to appreciate food and the conservation and preservation of the land, and to share and cooperate with the rest of the group.
Environmental and cultural aims: preserving a unique agricultural urban area in the village by respecting the ecosystem and the biodiversity without using polluting chemicals that affect nature and human beings.
Social aims: team working between different social and cultural status, value our environment and ourselves, and respecting each other.
Educational aims: knowing how to work the land without damaging it, giving value to growing old varieties in the area, supporting other related organisations and, through the training, transform students towards responsible, fair and ethical consumption both locally and globally.
Short-term outcomes: cultivate vegetables in a sustainable way; be more self-sufficient; connect with nature; share experiences with family, friends and other gardeners; get to know people of other generations and different social groups through a common interest, namely the land; feel at ease, and disconnect from things which do not satisfy (for example your job) and which merely leave you empty and stressed; get away from the city, and be calm and peaceful.
Long-term outcomes: personal growth, personal empowerment and creativity; ethical consumption; an escape from the current socio-economic system; a return to appreciating the taste of food; the chance to reap the rewards of your efforts; rediscover yourself and spark the interest and curiosity of passers-by, and make visible the transformation of the space, and the work of the people.
