Provision of land

As part of World Tree day celebrated on March 21, 2017 the Sintra Service for Protection of the Nature and the Environment (SEPNA) as well as the Sintra Branch Segura School carried out several education workshops for school children to inform about the importance of tress for our natural environment and carried out afforestation and reforestation actions inside the green spaces of Sintra. (1)

Excess rainwater in sewers causes flooding and the overflow spills into the rivers. Rainwater spilling across pavements can also make for an unpleasant walking experience in the city. Dublin City Council, in collaboration with residents, ran a trial use of Rain Box Planters as a way of both greening the streets and better managing rainwater coming from roofs. The Rain Box Planters were placed below houses’ gutters in order to slow the torrent of water entering the drain. The first trials were successful and the next stage is to test them on a larger scale. (ref 2, 3)

The environmental NGO Dodo started their Guerilla Gardening projects in 2009 with a garden on the wasteland by the main railroad tracks in Helsinki, Pasila. The key idea was to make use of temporary derelict spaces. Raised beds were constructed from old pallets and filled with donated soil. Crops were grown by local citizens and provided both food and aesthetic beauty on the otherwise unused area.
In 2012 the project developed into "Turn Table - The Urban Garden", as the garden was supplemented by a small pop-up restaurant and café in a movable greenhouse (Ref 1, 2, 7). The Turn Table garden space was organized to promote awareness and discussion on the ecological and social aspects of food. The urban garden project included not just the greenhouse, but also an apiary, cultivation beds, a summer café with a terrace, and a market (ref. 4).

Meadow orchards with fruit trees were an integral part of subsistence farming and form part of the cultural heritage of Wuppertal. To preserve and further develop these meadows as an important habitat for flora and fauna and promote their potential for sustainable consumption, 4 such meadows were sponsored, maintained and promoted by the city of Wuppertal in close collaboration with the working group for fruit meadows via events, communal harvesting activities and hands-on courses since 1999. Since 2015, these meadows have increasingly drawn the attention of "foodsharing" movements and during the nationwide research year "future town". (Ref. 1, 2, 6, 8). Enclosed between areas of intensive conventional agriculture and the federal motorway, the orchards as islands of biological diversity are important places of retreat and relaxation. (Ref. 5) Communal activities are also offered, such as the co-creation of “edible experience spaces”, joint harvesting and providing a base for additional social projects (Ref. 6).

There is a quickly growing number of residents, who want to grow their own food within a short distance of their locality, but new areas for allotments are not sufficient. The environmental NGO Dodo started a "guerilla gardening" movement, part of which is the temporary use of otherwise abandoned spaces. Specifically, at Kalastama area, an empty space waiting to be built upon, 36 farmers created an urban farm with recycled industrial bags to grow crops that can be removed afterwards (ref. 1). The garden in Kalasatama is a collaboration with the city of Helsinki, part of the temporary uses of the area, which in the next 20 years will be built into a new urban district of Helsinki (ref. 4)

Weaver Square Community Garden started in May 2011 on a derelict site owned by Dublin City Council. The site contains the Community Garden and 28 individual allotments let out by the council. The main focus of the Community Garden is to create a safe and relaxing green space for all to use and enjoy. The organizers hope in the future to have more emphasis on the garden as a learning experience, with open days & workshops and other related talks. Dublin City Council has given notice that Weaver Square Community Garden and 27 family allotments are to close at the end of 2018. (Ref. 1; Ref. 2; Ref. 3)

Intercultural Garden Nuremberg Langwasser e.V. is a community garden project aimed at sustainable urban development and tolerance between different social and cultural groups. People of different origins work together on their own plots (about 25 m² each), without a fences between neighbouring plots and consciously in interaction through horticulture and other activities. All the grounds are used as vegetable and flower gardens. Environmentally friendly production is desired and promoted (1). Other opportunities offered in the garden are intercultural activities and self-designed educational work. (10) The association actively promotes integration through social activities, which, as stated by the association “can include things like providing German lessons, organizing small festivals and even settling of a dispute happened once”. (7)

The city garden was a 2000 square meter large communal garden in Nuremberg Eberhardshof district that invites all citizens to take part in gardening and co-operating activities without any costs attached. The project was aimed at promoting sustainability for Nuremberg and the Bavarian region (1). The gardeners try to rely on a variety of different plants, even in their last season, they planted 35 tomatoes, 14 chili, ten potato, and twelve bean varieties alone. In 2013, a bee colony was also established. (7) The project had its last season in 2018, after which it had to be closed because of plans to create a district park in its area. (5) The city garden has established itself as an important leisure facility in Eberhardshof by offering, for example, cooking courses and training courses on tree pruning as well as numerous other topics. (6)

There have been different activities throughout the time to recover and improve the Malecon Botanical Garden. In 2012, the main activity was to recover the Malecon Botanical Garden by introducing a collection of Mediterranean species and of other ethnobotanicals plants and delivering some other environmental services to the location (Ref 1). In 2019, there were different works to rehabilitate the Garden for the September Fair, and also some other plans to create a cultural and artistic space within the Garden (Ref 10 and 11).
The project has completed its first stage, but there is an ongoing number of initiatives to rehabilitate and improve the garden (Ref 9 and 10).
Regarding the status of the project, the first stage has been completed, but an ongoing initiative to rehabilitate and improve the garden is taking place (Ref 9 and 10).

A part of the Translink Biodiversity Project, the garden will support a wide range of native wildlife and plant species as well as enhance pupils’ learning experience. (ref 2). The children of An Droichead will gain a new understanding of the environment around and a biodiversity community garden that could be used by the children and local community as an integral learning resource. (ref 1)