Community Empowerment through Community Gardening

Do you know how many community gardens are in your city? Do you know how many of them are in Bratislava?

Thanks to the excursion organised by the Slovak organisation 'Centre of Environmental Activities', we had the opportunity to visit five of them and learn how they were founded, how they work and much more...

And we encourage you to check out and explore community gardens in your surroundings. You might get yourself a new hobby and, more importantly, experience the power of community.

Visited community gardens: Prugerka Green roof Stará tržnica Community garden DVORY Community garden OSTREDKY Community garden Krasnansky zelenac

Seeds... seeds... seeds

Where are you getting seeds for your garden?

How do you care about them?

These two questions were discussed during the workshop that the Macedonian organisation Zelenata Arka organised in the community garden in Skopje. Suncana Pesak, the guest speaker from Croatia, shared her knowledge with the members of the community.

Do you want to grow your own vegetables in the city? Do you want to live more sustainably? Do you want to pursue a healthier lifestyle? Do you want to improve your physical and mental well-being? Do you want to be more in nature? Do you want to socialise more while being part of creating and sustaining something that feels ‘big’ and meaningful to you personally and on a community level? There are many different ways you can achieve these rather personal quests (fully or partially), yet Community Gardening can be one of the ways to do it.

Are your answers YES, check out the article written by Marta Podniece

As any trendy concept, it has a lot of academic contributions trying to grasp what it is and which domains of life it covers and benefits from. The term includes two variables: Community (a bunch of people with diverse characteristics yet with a shared location) and a Garden (a piece of arable land maintained to cultivate different plant species). Consequently, a Community Garden suggests the cultivation of plants on arable land with a shared responsibility and commitment of the involved parties to make it work. 

Interested in community gardening, check out the article.

In February, two local events will take place. One in Hungary and one in Prerov. Both events aim to raise awareness of environmental issues and to share lessons learned from the study visit in Skopje.

A local event in Prerov aims to bring together the local community and offer a range of environmental and ecological activities.

The participants of the workshop organised by the Polish organisation LEVEL UP, yes:).

Waste separation and consumption were among the topics that LEVEL UP from Poland tackled during the local workshop in Lodz. The workshop was organised within the project 'Community Empowerment through Community Gardening' supported by the International Visegrad Fund.

The workshop also included a presentation that gave participants an opportunity to learn about the “Planet Circle” concept, demonstrating how every action affects the environment. Moreover, the participants also explored Christopher Brosse’s “Red Ladder,” which illustrates five steps toward sustainability: awareness, reduction, substitution, transformation, and inspiration.

We are looking forward to other workshops that our partners will organized in Serbia, Hungary or North Macedonia.

Stay tuned.

What impact can a community garden have on the people gardening and on the community as a whole?

These were some of the questions that we were thinking about while in Skopje, spending time in the community garden Bostinie and being part of its Micro-Festival Bostanie - Gardens of Togetherness.

If you are wondering what a festival in a community garden can look like, check out this video capturing our study visit including the festival: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtsxxIkdxWE&t=71s

Thank you to Zelenata Arka for having us and all partners (Zeleno DOBA - Centar za održivi rast i razvoj, Serbia, Center of Environmental Activities, Slovakia, CYA.EU, Hungary and LEVEL UP, Poland) for coming and being part of the study visit that gave us the opportunity to be part of the community garden, take part in workshops and also visit the Kozi mleko planina goat farm.

And what will happen next? Within the project

'Community Empowerment through Community Gardening' supported by the International Visegrad Fund, we and our partners will organise local events with the aim to strenghten our communities through community gardening and other environmental and ecological related activities.

Stay tuned!

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By inviting them to celebrate! When talking with our Macedonian partner 'Greek Ark', we learnt that one of the challenges is to create a real feeling of the community.

And additionally, to create relationships with people living in the surrounding community.

There are many possible ways to take, and one of them is to CELEBRATE and at the same time to offer people coming from outside the opportunity to explore the garden, take part in the workshops and make them realise that the community garden is not just a place but the place where people feel good.

If you are wondering what such a celebration looks like. You can check out this FB event.

You can see that the event includes workshops related to composting, an exhibition of students of architecture, workshops for children, as well as cooking from the products of the garden.

The first event of the project is HERE, and you can JOIN US!

Are you on 20th September in Skopje, North Macedonia?

Join us for environmental workshops, cooking from the products from the community garden, as well as music and children's workshops.

Come to experience what a community garden looks like and also come to meet up with the international guests from Poland, Czechia, Hungary, Slovakia and Serbia.

Almost six years back, the community garden 'Bostanie' in the Macedonian capital Skopje started. So far, people grow their veggies, learn about composting, and do simple gardening work.

While we can witness the process of growing. With a community, it is a bit more challenging.

How can we witness the growth of the community? What is the seed here, and what is the harvest?

We will reflect on these questions during the project, especially when visiting and working in 'Bostanie' in autumn 2025.

Get ready and follow US for updates!

PS: More information about the community garden you can find on the following link.