Sustainable production

The garden is an opportunity for training, leisure and coexistence where the teaching of ecological gardening is combined with the love of plants and the social use of land. Consolidated in just one year as a training point for the unemployed without losing that playful-neighborhood component with which it opened its doors. In it the volunteers develop a methodology of teaching that facilitates the socialization and the reintegration work when acquiring knowledge in gardening and carpentry. (ref 1)

The Development of the Garden of the Schloessel project is part of the Natural Urban Park project undertaken by the City Council in consultation with the Strasbourg Urban Community (Ref. 3). The project aims to reduce the carbon footprint of the area by installing and redeveloping green spaces in the garden as well as providing the site with stormwater management infiltration (Ref. 1).

The project called “The Apiary of Kraków” includes several interrelated initiatives to establish beehives on the rooftops of various institutions in Cracow. The aim is to provide habitat for bees, and protect biodiversity, support urban pollination, increase social awareness on the topic. Urban honey is of better quality than honey produced in rural areas where pesticides are more common. The local administration-led initiative aims to promote Cracow as a pro-ecological city which soon will be selling its honey [1,2,3,4].

INCREDIBLE EDIBLE (or "Incroyables Comestibles" in French) is an experiment of social innovation: the volunteers of the movement cultivate small vegetable gardens scattered in the cities and the countryside and make their products available free of charge (Ref. 1). This, the first intervention, took place in front of the "Epicerie du Coing" where volunteers planted several vegetables, flowers and plants (Ref. 2).

An urban garden on a private citizen's terrace in the city of Aix en Provence, has been created with the help of the organization "Pays d'Aix en Transition" working towards permaculture and urban gardening. The main objective of this urban garden is to produce vegetables and fruit for personal consumption, to install plants in a very urban environment, and use permaculture techniques. Another objective is to grow climbing plants to decorate the walls. (Ref.1 )

Cardiff City Council and Urban Buzz brought together local organizations, community groups supporting wildlife, to create environments to encourage more bees, butterflies, hoverflies and other insects. (ref 1). One project inspired by Urban Buzz is Pharma Bee, a project housed and run by Cardiff University’s School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, that worked to create a bee-friendly campus through their PharmaBees team (ref 7). In association with Urban Buzz, a project run by BugLife, it renovated the Cardiff University’s Redwood Building by planting bee-friendly plants (ref 2), installed beehives and trained bee-keepers (ref 7). The efforts were then expanded to the Hayden Ellis building on Cardiff University's campus (ref 7).

The "Sunderland North Community Allotments" project aimed to clear and renovate derelict allotment plots, remove fly-tipping and rubbish and transform the site into brand new resources for local people. The project is expected to increase people’s knowledge of growing healthy produce and aims to enhance their diet whilst improving the amount of exercise and time spent in a green space. The project has been implemented in multiple areas including but not limited to Fulwell, Primrose, Thompson Road, Shields Road, High Southwick, Fulwell and Waterworks Field, Shields Road. Very recently, one of the allotments in Fulwell Mill got destroyed by a devastating fire. (Ref 1, 9 and 10)

Grace House is a charity that provides care to children with disabilities. The staff has created a Sensory Garden and a fruit and vegetable patch to improve the neglected surrounding area. The project is seen as an opportunity for local people to engage in gardening activities as well as a source of health, social and learning benefits. Volunteers have been involved in the execution of the project (Ref 1).

'Blok 54' is a new building on the city island IJburg in Amsterdam, on which a green roof and rain garden were be created in which stormwater can flow from the green roof through a groove with diverse vegetation, reflecting a natural creek. The vegetation with fruit bushes serves as a sensory garden for poly handicapped children and the creek flows into bioswales through which can slowly infiltrate. Blok 54 can thereby be considered an ECOcity-garden. (1,3)

In 2014, a high school in the center of Craiova decided to transform a part of its space into a vegetable garden, National Pedagogical College "Stefan Velovan". The initiative is the only one implemented in the region and aims not only at teaching children about the benefits of bio food but also aims to save consumption costs (1, 3).